yagfxg33k
11-10-2005, 07:23 AM
Directing my first film, a few things are clear to me:
1. I really have no clue what I am doing.
2. You cannot be over-prepared.
3. Storyboards are a wonderful tool.
In my film, I have 3 actors and 2 scenes. One of them is an experienced actor and the other two are first time amateurs. My directing for the 1st two actors was basically 2 things:
What the character's goal is.
What my perception of the characterization is.
Scene 1:
For the experienced actor the directions were:
Goal: To read your book undisturbed.
Characterization: You have been at home trying to read and your wife keeps talking to you. She just won't shut up. You end up reading the same paragraph over and over. Out of frustration you leave the house and walk over to the park here to read your book unmolested.
For the other actor:
Goal: To gain the approval of the other character (the one trying to read).
Characterization: I whispered in his ear "Jeff Spicoli". He knew exactly what I meant.
Outside of a small pacing adjustment, the results of this direction were effective. The performances were good. I had 8 takes for the master, 5 takes for one of the OTS shots and one take for the other.
Scene 2:
The "Spicoli" actor is in this scene and the only direction I needed to give here was his goal which was for him to convey his enthuseasm for his new book.
The other actor - A "tough guy". His goal was to make the "Spicoli" character feel at ease since he senses some intimidation.
The "Spicoli" actor pulled the scene off just fine. The tough guy was another story. His performance felt stiff and contrived. For this, I blame myself because I do not think that my direction was effective enough to get a good performance out of him. I am re-shooting scene 2 this Sunday in an effort to improve on this.
Any suggestions from you more experienced directors here would be greatly appreciated.
OK, let's move on to storyboards. First some background:
After I wrote the script for this, I scouted for locations and I found a perfect location pretty early on in the process. For me, the film was already shot (in my mind). I knew exactly what I wanted every shot to do and how it should look.
I went to the location with the DP (my wife - 1st time DP - Day job =pro photographer). I discussed all of the shots with her and what kind of coverage I wanted etc. After these discussions I felt confident that she understood exactly what I wanted.
A few days later I am discussing the shots with her as we are building the shot list together and it is clear to me that she does not understand what I am doing.
OK, time to take a step back. Once it was clear to me that I had not communicated my ideas effectively to her, I decided to storyboard the film. However I have no traditional art skills. But what I do have is a lot of experience and skill (relatively speaking) with a 3D animation tool called Lightwave 3D (http://www.lightwave3d.com).
Using this tool I was able to take the still photos that I had taken at the location and storyboard the film. Moreover I was able to animate the entire film, all of the cuts and camera moves.
Once I had that done I was able to take it into Premiere and then just do a voice over of all of the dialog. Ostensibly, I had a complete animated version of the film. I went through this animated version, peice by peice, with my DP. There were many times where she said "OH! OK, that is what you meant.".
The result of this was that when we got onto the set with the shotlist and the stills from the storyboards in my production notebook, things went VERY fast. I never had to look at how she had anything framed or setup since all she had to do was match the storyboard.
I cannot say enough good things about using the animation tool to block out the scenes and build the film out as a communication tool.
OK, enough rambling here. Your thoughts and advice as always are appreciated.
1. I really have no clue what I am doing.
2. You cannot be over-prepared.
3. Storyboards are a wonderful tool.
In my film, I have 3 actors and 2 scenes. One of them is an experienced actor and the other two are first time amateurs. My directing for the 1st two actors was basically 2 things:
What the character's goal is.
What my perception of the characterization is.
Scene 1:
For the experienced actor the directions were:
Goal: To read your book undisturbed.
Characterization: You have been at home trying to read and your wife keeps talking to you. She just won't shut up. You end up reading the same paragraph over and over. Out of frustration you leave the house and walk over to the park here to read your book unmolested.
For the other actor:
Goal: To gain the approval of the other character (the one trying to read).
Characterization: I whispered in his ear "Jeff Spicoli". He knew exactly what I meant.
Outside of a small pacing adjustment, the results of this direction were effective. The performances were good. I had 8 takes for the master, 5 takes for one of the OTS shots and one take for the other.
Scene 2:
The "Spicoli" actor is in this scene and the only direction I needed to give here was his goal which was for him to convey his enthuseasm for his new book.
The other actor - A "tough guy". His goal was to make the "Spicoli" character feel at ease since he senses some intimidation.
The "Spicoli" actor pulled the scene off just fine. The tough guy was another story. His performance felt stiff and contrived. For this, I blame myself because I do not think that my direction was effective enough to get a good performance out of him. I am re-shooting scene 2 this Sunday in an effort to improve on this.
Any suggestions from you more experienced directors here would be greatly appreciated.
OK, let's move on to storyboards. First some background:
After I wrote the script for this, I scouted for locations and I found a perfect location pretty early on in the process. For me, the film was already shot (in my mind). I knew exactly what I wanted every shot to do and how it should look.
I went to the location with the DP (my wife - 1st time DP - Day job =pro photographer). I discussed all of the shots with her and what kind of coverage I wanted etc. After these discussions I felt confident that she understood exactly what I wanted.
A few days later I am discussing the shots with her as we are building the shot list together and it is clear to me that she does not understand what I am doing.
OK, time to take a step back. Once it was clear to me that I had not communicated my ideas effectively to her, I decided to storyboard the film. However I have no traditional art skills. But what I do have is a lot of experience and skill (relatively speaking) with a 3D animation tool called Lightwave 3D (http://www.lightwave3d.com).
Using this tool I was able to take the still photos that I had taken at the location and storyboard the film. Moreover I was able to animate the entire film, all of the cuts and camera moves.
Once I had that done I was able to take it into Premiere and then just do a voice over of all of the dialog. Ostensibly, I had a complete animated version of the film. I went through this animated version, peice by peice, with my DP. There were many times where she said "OH! OK, that is what you meant.".
The result of this was that when we got onto the set with the shotlist and the stills from the storyboards in my production notebook, things went VERY fast. I never had to look at how she had anything framed or setup since all she had to do was match the storyboard.
I cannot say enough good things about using the animation tool to block out the scenes and build the film out as a communication tool.
OK, enough rambling here. Your thoughts and advice as always are appreciated.