Comments on: Film Fund-amentals: A Few Tips on Directing Actors

By: Matt Shelton

Matt Shelton — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:00:16 +0000

The truth of the matter is that acting is an art form that requires tremendous skill and technique. The whole gestation of film is so that human beings can understand each other better. Without a gifted actor/artists the film medium continues to de-evolve to an intellectual and/or entertainment medium which is useless to any of us really. Filmmakers that do not understand the actor’s process and/or have the ability to recognize good from mediocre acting will only continue to bastardize the potential for film as a communicative vision of the human condition. Do yourself a favor and hang around the best acting studio in your area for awhile. Most real filmmakers do this.

By: Jai Jai Noire

Jai Jai Noire — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:52:25 +0000

While I get where Dennis is coming from and agree with some of his points, Kevin Cloud Brechner nailed it. When I direct actors, I spend time pre-shoot discussing the character that they’re playing, the character’s situation, their body language and how s/he relates to the other characters. I love actors and love what they can bring to a role. Casting a good actor is worth its weight in gold. Having (so far) been limited to ultra-low or no-budget shoots, I’m enormously grateful to the actors with whom I’ve worked. Creating a film is a team effort, and yes, the job of the director is to direct, to helm the project, direct and hone the performances to tell a story and set the mood for the audience. Lines do sometimes need to be re-written. I recently shot a piece as a book promo and even the book’s author noted that her dialog sounded so much different when spoken. The brief scene (based on described events in the novel) that I wrote dialog for ended up sounding smoother because I was writing with actors in mind. With dialog, “less is more” in most cases.
One thing that he didn’t mention in the article is directing non-actors or first time actors (common in low budget shoots.) In that case I find it helpful to watch that person closely and try to steer them toward body language/actions that will feel more natural to them, without squirreling up the script.

By: Dennis Toth

Dennis Toth — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:15:30 +0000

Actually its pretty fun (and even enlightening) reading through the many comments received, but I did want to clarify a couple of points. In these tips, I am dealing with the conditions of low budget independent filmmaking. That means you are roughly dealing with productions that are being made for somewhere between no dollars to $500,000 top. So obviously no body working in this vein will be doing 200 or more takes a la Chaplin (and by the way, this approach to filmmaking was one of the reasons why Chaplin couldn’t continue as a filmmaker after a certain point). Likewise, the cast in such a production will usually be, at best, semi-professional. I am not attempting to demean their profession. But I am suggesting a realistic approach. Otherwise, you are making demands on your cast that is neither fair nor rational.

When I suggest making changes to lines, I am not suggesting extensive re-writes. But I am suggesting ways of working with a semi-professional cast in order to make certain lines more manageable within the context of their own speech pattern. Personally, I have found this useful.

A good time to work out some of these problems is during rehearsal. However, it rare that many low budget productions will have either the money or time for much (if any) rehearsal of the script. This is simply another hardball reality of low budget production.

In terms of picking actors by type as opposed to casting against type, there is the obvious problem that most (if not all) of the cast in this type of production will be unknowns. So basically, this issue is not a concern.

As for the idea that doing a performer on radio is made easy because they have the script in front of them, I can only say thanks for the jolly laugh. I had the same idea until the first time I had to direct such a production. Sounds good and even makes sense. Too bad it just doesn’t always work out that way. Why, I really don’t know. But it simply doesn’t.

Finally, thanks for the Ford/Wayne story. I hadn’t heard this one before. I have heard quite a few others, but not this one. Supposedly, Ford would call Wayne out to the set by loudly yelling “Tell the big dummy to get his butt out here.”

By: Marc Aeon Bradley

Marc Aeon Bradley — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:23:51 +0000

” I’ve always found it best to do quick re-writes during production. Yeah, it’s a screenwriter’s nightmare”

That might be ok for radio when the actor has the page in front of him but it can be quite hard to forget lines that you have spent a fair few weeks working on.

Anthony Hopkins would walk off set on the spot if a director kept changing lines, not in a strop but because he too cant simply “forget” dialogue. For short scenes ok not a worry but half a page of text and its asking for it. I was the lead in a feature last year that was low budget indie. The director took the time to have a good read through BEFORE production so that the issues with the written and spoken word are ironed out. YOU MUST go into production with a fully tested and locked script and not just for the actors benefit.

Making films is a walk in the park. So long as, and like anything in life, it’s planned like a military operation with every single step worked out or at least thought about. Going into production to find the dialogue is not correct is asking for trouble that could have and should have been solved long before a camera and crew came into the mix. There is no excuse whatsoever for not reading out loud a script at home. Of all the directors I have met, the best ones all had one thing in common, they too had learned the dialogue and were off the page.

On the note of Directors. Wow, I have never ever had the same experience once. Every single one has been so very different to work with. Make no mistake, an actor will know if the director is organised and knows what he is doing. In my book it is the responsibility of every single person on that location to know what he is doing, why he is doing what he is doing and to know when he should be doing what he is doing. A well oiled machine with all cogs turning at the correct speed.

By: Regina Dreyer Thomas

Regina Dreyer Thomas — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:52:22 +0000

As a mature actress (SAG), I totally agree with Kevin’s comments. As one of my acting teachers said, “Film is the director’s medium; theatre, the actor’s.” And then there’s improv. Non-scripted material can be hilarious on film when it’s left to the actor. And didn’t John Ford hold John Wayne’s chin in the beginning so that he would communicate only through his eyes and not his mouth during close-ups?