I screwed up as a director...how do I stop my actor's from killing me?

DavidBeier

DavidBeier

Veteran
Last summer, after not directing anything but corporate videos and small commercials for almost two years, I decided to try to give narrative filmmaking another try.

I also wanted to try to do something I'd always had trouble with; a character driven piece instead of a more visual one. I'd always tended to make films that were more like music videos and my few attempts at something more dramatic had always felt rather weak.

So, I began the project and we had our share of hurdles along the way. We had our sound guy bale at the last minute and our AD end up having a personal crisis (father died) and also pulled out. On top of that, especially early on in the shoot, I simply wasn't on my game as director.

I focused a lot on working with the actors and honing the performance (something I'd never been very good at) and was pretty happy with what I was able to get out of them. Unfortunatly, as far as my camera set ups went, I dropped the ball in a number of areas.

The biggest issue was the climax. It was one of the first things we shot. I didn't want to do something so ambitious early in the production but a lead actress's husband suffered a heart attack and we had to shift everything.

On the day, one of the actors who had been great in all our rehersals suddenly had a brain fart (due to personal issues) and just couldn't remember his lines to save his life (lines which he's known perfectly before).

As a result, ended up trying to shoot AROUND him during the climax and get some of those artsy angles which I'd liked in my previous films. It was a mistake. The stylized angles either looked silly or, even when they worked, simply pull one out of the story and the characters which is supposed to be the focus.

Now it's about ten months later and I'm finishing the edit only to discover how bad this scene, the crux of the entire films, really came out. Most of the rest of the film is working pretty well (thanks to some reshoots and stuff) but I never realized how poorly the most important scene was coming out. If I hadn't been so into being "artistic" and had just gotten the standard coverage then I think I'd have a great scene. And I'm really not being a perfectionist here. It's not that it just doesn't look as good as I'd like. It's that it looks downright incompetent. I've been doing this since I was 18 (just turned 25) and I really shouldn't be making stuff that looks incompetant anymore.

So....how do I convince my actors that, after all I put them through, I'd like them to come back for a reshoot (if that's even possible)? These guys put so much faith in me and busted their butts for so long. How do I get them pumped again when they're reshooting something because I wasn't as good as they thought I was?
 
Make up a white lie about how there was a logo in the shot and the corporation wont give you rights to use the shot and you have been put in a legal situation. Thats the only way I can see you getting out of this without getting whacked.
 
DavidBeier said:
So....how do I convince my actors that, after all I put them through, I'd like them to come back for a reshoot (if that's even possible)? These guys put so much faith in me and busted their butts for so long. How do I get them pumped again when they're reshooting something because I wasn't as good as they thought I was?
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Well. You might just admit that you blew it. Apologize for the inconvenience and just ask them to make sure they're given the best opportunity to shine. Explain what will be different in terms of what you're correcting on your end and how important the scene is to the project as a whole.

Hopefully they'll be understanding and be able to do it. Also, you might want to incent them with something that you didn't offer them previously. Perhaps some form of compensation (if there wasn't any previously) or something if you think that will be necessary.

You may just want to discuss how the project is going and float the idea to them to see how they respond to the notion. "I really wish I could re-shoot the scene." And see how they react individually.

-M
 
I vote for the 'white lie'. I think you have to save face to get through the last scene. You might even offer to pay them a little bit for the day ($50 each?) - especially since you are already happy with the rest of the film. It's not like everyone is just hoping at this point. To get a great ending should be worth it to YOU.
 
Step up, be the leader a director is suposed to be and tell them you blew it. Just exactly like you told us in your post. That is what people will respect. That is admirable. Not to do that is just lame. If you tried to bullshit me I'd know it and that wouldn't please me.
 
dude, if it means this much to you...pay them!!! how many actors are involved in the scene? 10, at the very most? ok, at $50 a person, that's a $500 lesson you just bought for yourself.

pretty inexpensive if you ask me...

alot $500 for your "lesson"...however you have to spread it out....2 actors? $250 each. 5 actors? $100 each.

in this ecomony, they'll thank you for the opportunity to work
 
It's pretty big I think just to admit you screwed up and that it didn't work out. I think there are way too many directors who can't do that, so they make crap and submit it to festivals thinking it's great, even though it's really not-so-good at all, but you have the rationality to look at your own project objectively.
 
I think anyone here who thinks they can lie to their actors after they've put in so much work should really reconsider being a director. I can't believe that. That's just weak.

There's only one way to do it. That's you be up front and honest, explain the situation about the scene that didn't work the way it was shot, it's such an important scene, etc. Work around them to get the reshoot. Pay them if you can.
 
Totally agree with Chris.

You will be better off telling them the truth. You don't necessarily have to make yourself look incompetent to do so. Tell them that you are almost finished editing and the climax really needs to be reshot to have the impact that it needs. If they believe in the project and want to see it succeed, they will be willing to put in the extra effort to make sure the film is all that it can be. Of course, this will only work if you maintained a good relationship with them during and since the original shoot.
 
Well, I ended up doing perhaps the silliest thing I could have. I told one of them, the one's who had the brain-fart, didn't get the shots of him we needed, and who has since become a very close friend of mine; that I screwed up and we MAY need to reshoot. He was all gung-ho and understanding but then, upon revisiting the location right after and trying to plan how we'd do this, I found that the, as this was several months ago, the trees had lost all leaves and thus it wouldn't match no matter what. Granted I should have thought of that in the first place.

Now I've gotta try to find a way to edit this without re-shooting (since it's just not possible with the lack of greenery which was so prevelant before) even though I indicated to him I didn't think it would work without re-shoots.

I guess I'll just have to do the best I can and make sure I don't screw up like this on the next one. That or I'll just try to reshoot his stuff from such an EXTREME low angle that all you can see is the sky without the tree line....
 
Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps the extreme low angle thing may work. The shots I need are toward the start of the scene (I've got close ups for the later part). Over the scene, his character essentially gets defeated and loses power so it make make sense that we start with looking up at him and then move to eye level shots as he's brought down to size....
 
ummm..not for nothing but the white lie is a moot point once you went public on a forum about the problem. you don't know who is who here in half the cases because so many people use fake names!
 
Well, thankfully the actors I'm working with don't have any interest in being behind the camera much less going on to a digital filmmaking forum. For that matter, if I was planning to lie I wouldn't have posted here. The few times I've asked for advice about other industry matters dealing with other filmmakers I've made sure I didn't post on this forum.
 
i think you did the right thing by being upfront. i can't imagine lying to the actors in order to get them to reshoot, all it takes is one person to call you out on it in front of everybody and you'll look like an ass. if you have a great group of up and coming actors then they should understand, i'm sure they messed up more than once while filming...why should you be so flawless when you're on the same level?

sounds like you did what i did on my first short (trying to get all artistic, lol). it's all good, you learn from your mistakes, better to make them now then on a huge budget that somebody else is paying for.
 
ChrisHurn said:
I think anyone here who thinks they can lie to their actors after they've put in so much work should really reconsider being a director. I can't believe that. That's just weak.
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I second that


David: You could just wait a few weeks, and the leaves will be back. Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to explain why reshoots are necessary. Everybody screw up sometimes, and not all factors were within your control. Tell them as you told us. Reshoot and make it work.
 
No-one learns anything by shoots always going smoohtly. You have to fail to learn. No point in lying either, youll always get caught. Cant you rewrite the end location?
 
Thanks for the advice and support. I know I'm always going to be learning and I know this film was a big departure from my other stuff. I just didn't expect to screw up so bad after doing this for quite some time. It's my own fault for getting so into the corporate crap for two years.

jpbankesmercer said:
No-one learns anything by shoots always going smoohtly. You have to fail to learn. No point in lying either, youll always get caught. Cant you rewrite the end location?
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Can't rewrite the location. Kind of central to the whole thing and I really just need some coverage of the ONE actor who was having trouble (I got the other principle fine).

I'm going to go ahead and try doing an extreme low angle so I just get the sky (though I'll have to wait for a day when there are big puffy clouds). Like I said above, I think this might work since I showed him from low angles throughout the film and this is the scene where he finally loses his power so perhaps moving from a low angle to eye level may really work.

I'm going to grab my actors and show them some of the best scenes I've edited so far and try to get them pumped about making sure the quality of the final scene lives up to the rest of the film.

My embarassment comes mostly from the fact that I think I worked with some really talented people here and I've also become fairly good friends with some them. I know they'll do the reshoots (the main one already told me he would); I just don't like to appear like I don't have my act together in front of these guys.
 
Asking to do reshoots won't make you look like you don't have your act together. That's up to how you ask, how you explain the problem. If you seem like you know exactly what went wrong and exactly what you need, and are confident about fixing the problem, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Personally I'd try reshoot the whole scene so you don't have to compromise on the films quality too much. But if you're happy with the low angle shots, then I guess that's fine.
 
David,

This is something really important. You care about the story and the characters enough to get this done RIGHT. Even if you made some mistakes, that's okay. You're the director, and they are ACTORS.


By re-shooting, you have to let them know that you are doing THEM a favor. If the scene came out bad, they will only embarrass themselves. Don't let them walk over you. Yeah I understand they have feelings and they worked hard, but they can work a little harder because its for THEIR character and the story.

It's good to be a kind and gentle director, but you also have to be firm. My actors used to push me a lot when we were doing long night shoots cuz they had to go home, but I recently learned from a professional set where I interned that it is better to get the shot right. Let them complain - that attitude won't get them too far in their acting careers.

And on the gentle side, let them know what ever you are doing is to make THEM better actors and "characters" in the story. I have a bad habit of sometimes casting my friends, and sometimes I'll be really harsh and mean to them, and only a couple survived but it made them better actors. That's the bottom line.

You can lie if you want. You don't really have to. It may be much better to say "Look.. I need to do it again." That's it. Leave out emotions and personal feelings and get the project done.
 
even Ingmar Bergman had to re-shoot an entire film because the lighting got screwed up.. Imagine that! Ingmar Bergman. So you're in good company

I am the king of re-shoots. But my actors are pumped about the story I wrote so they tolerate it.

I blame myself, my own incompetence, tell them it will a million times better, which it always is, and then re-shoot at my expense
 
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