FrameThrower · Actors · Sam Riley
Sam Riley
8 films · 683 frames · top-billed in 4 · 2012–2021
Born 8 January 1980 · Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, UK
He is best known for playing the lead role of Ian Curtis in the movie Control, a biopic about the lead singer of the 1970s post-punk band Joy Division. His performance in the role won him the British Independent Film Award for "Most Promising Newcomer". He also won a Kermode for Best Actor 2007 for the film. Prior to his portrayal of Ian Curtis, Riley played The Fall frontman Mark E. Smith in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People, which details the Factory Records era. His scenes, however, were omitted from the final cut. In September 2007, Riley was cast in Gerald McMorrow's British science fiction film Franklyn.…
How their films are shot
Measured across 683 frames from the 8 films we hold. This is the look of the work Sam takes, not a claim about any single frame — we index the cast of a film, never the people in a shot.
Across the 8 films we hold, 50% of their frames are night, 53% low key — the look of the work Sam takes.
Time of day
Lighting
Shot size
Camera angle
Mood
Films in the library
Every poster opens that film — stills, cinematography notes and colour palette.
Often with
Shared films in this library, not a full filmography.
A reference database for filmmakers
FrameThrower is a fully machine-searchable film database and visual reference library — all 683 frames from Sam Riley's 8 films, and 5,000+ films besides, indexed frame by frame and readable by AI. Search it in plain language, from a reference image, or by colour; call it from an API, an MCP server or an SDK. It's the reference layer for making the next movie.