The budget behemoth. Personally oversaw more than two thousand motion pictures from 1960-65 alone, on an average budget of fifty dollars apiece. All but six are unwatchable garbage, but the achievement stands. ‘Ah, but though eighty percent of his oeuvre is undeniably formulaic pap, is he not Hollywood’s only true auteur?’ A master of the art of scene setting via fogged-out library footage. Every great American director of the subsequent generation learned their craft filming ten nude beach stock car horror films back-to- back in five days under his aegis. The closest British equivalent to Roger Corman would be the satirical Radio 4 sketch show Weekending. In a wry article for the Guardian Guide, search the IMDb for ten amusingly titled Corman productions, list them with a two-line plot precis, and take the rest of the afternoon off.