can an inexperienced director embarrass himself?

C

Cheesesailor77

Veteran
I ask because I'm an inexperienced director. I've shot about 4 student films now, each one bigger then the last. And in the next few weeks I'll start production on my biggest thing yet, 15 min. long and with lots of dialog and... well, acting.

all of my other projects have really focused on the tech side, and I'm now really good at making pretty pictures, working the camera, and editing, but as for directing actors, I dont know where to start. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.

Besides maybe offering some tips, what I'm curious about is how big of a deal this is. I mean, obviously this is a skill I need to aquire and hone, but on these do-it-yourself deals with other people without a lot of experience (and maybe a few with a little experience) what is the potential of me not offering anything helpful and getting my cast and crew rolling their eyes and losing all faith in me.

I just finished the Make Your Own Damn Movie! dvd set (not too educational, but worth the netflix rental) and one thing i noticed was there are a lot of people who decide to make a movie and often with no experience go out and get a cast and crew together. From the footage I saw, these directors didn't really look like future oscar winners, but everyone on set seemed to respect him and his vision.

Anyone have any comments on this?
 
to direct actors well, you need to understand the mind of an actor. you have to learn how to speak to their language. for a beginner: enroll in an acting class, read judith weston's books. it will come with experience.
 
The potential of not offering anything helpful and getting the cast and crew rolling their eyes and losing all faith exists at every level of filmmaking. Don't worry about it.

cygnet74 offers sound advice but what you can do right now is trust your instincts, cast well and be encouraging.

With an experienced actor often the eary takes are the freshest and the best. The problem less experienced actors often have is overacting. You can sometimes combat this by tiring them out. You don't need to offer any advice, just make them do it over and over again until thier too tired to "act". Intrestingly this technique was also employed by Kubrick with veterans who resisted his direction to overact (specifically George C. Scott in Dr. Stangelove).

Another tip. Often the best way to get an actor to do what you want is to make them believe you saw it in their performance. Like, "You know, that last take there was this moment where you did... (insert what you want them to do)... that was really effective. Why don't we try to go in that direction?"

A word of caution, don't get too bogged down in theory. For every "rule" exists countless occasions when it needs to be broken.
 
im half way through Weston's book now, and I've taken some entry level acting classes (and learned I'm not an actor)

thanks for the comments guys. I think it partly comes down to everyone having a different directing style and different strengths. I think if I stay confident and keep it moving, the shoot should go well.

any other comments?
 
I'm a DP, not a director, but I think one of the big things is to be constructive. I've worked with stage actor's and had to work with the director to help them adapt to screen acting. Actor's are putting themselves out there (obviously, they're performance types) and sometimes need their ego's stroked a little. I think you'll find that they'll be much more responsive. "That was good, what if we try it a little more like this." Also, I think sometimes explaining certain things to them beforehand helps (preproduction or on-set before shooting). An example might be talking about taking things down a notch for the cameras, speeding things up a little, etc. Hope that helps.
-Ryan
 
Just Direct it... Everyone starts somewhere, and dont think your gonna be a pro the first time. If the people on set expect you to be a pro, tell them there working on the wrong set.

I'm sure Steven Spielberg made a fool out of his self a time or two in his early years (although he does that a lot more now then back then! ha ha ha)
 
My advice is be prepared. Make sure all your homework is done, you have taken the time to know what gets your actors hard and then **** will probably stuff up but in a minimised sense. I have found regardless of industry the guy/woman who prepared the most (as long as he/she isnt preparing cookies when he/she should be preparing cake) always looks the most professional even if problems occur.
 
Don't let your actors get out of hand. When i first started out making short films with my friends and brother...there was always alot of screwing around and joking. This was all good and fine then, but now i want to pursue more serious stuff than the short little projects we used to do. The thing is... they are all still used to being able to act just like they always act on set.....and it makes for a massive waste of time and alot of frustration. So i guess my main advice would be, make sure........(especially if your going to be working with the same actors on more than one project)..........that you direct the film and control the set exactly how you want to from the get go. Let your actors know you are in charge from the start.
 
Cheesesailor77 said:
im half way through Weston's book now, and I've taken some entry level acting classes (and learned I'm not an actor)

thanks for the comments guys. I think it partly comes down to everyone having a different directing style and different strengths. I think if I stay confident and keep it moving, the shoot should go well.

any other comments?
Click to expand...

You need to have a very clear image in your head of what you are shooting, and be able to communicate that vision to everyone, clearly.

If you don't have it already shot in your mind, you're in trouble.
 
Pookie has laid down the wisdom. I'd take it one step further -- you should have it already shot on paper, on storyboards. That's by far the most effective way to communicate your vision to others.

But absolutely yes -- if you don't have it already shot in your head, you are in big trouble.
 
already done. I'm a huge believer in storyboards and my beliefe is if you dont have everything storyboarded, or at least a detailed shot list, the first day on set, your wasting everyones time (I've argued this point on these boards before, aparantly not everyone agrees)
 
At the very least have your coverage planned out. If you don't have it shot (and usually how it will be edited) in your head, at least know the coverage you HAVE to get to make it work in editing (usually LS, MS, CU's), and once that is done, feel free to experiment if you have time left over (dollys, jibs, handheld etc).
 
With regard to story boards, I use a product called Lightwave 3D. This application is a full blown CG application and has been used for special effects in film and TV and has been used to make many award wining animated films.

The most active support community for this application can be found at:

http://www.spinquad.com

The application costs $895 - Not cheap, I know but trust me. You will not find an application this powerful for this cheap anywhere else:

http://www.newtek.com/buynow/index.php?target=lightwave#full

When I bought it the list price was about $2K. I bought my copy off of e-bay for about $400 back then and paid the $200 to upgrade it to the current version. The license is fully transferrable.

Here is an example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Newtek-Ligh...189121491QQcategoryZ80342QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Check out the sample art on SpinQuad. This is a phenomenal package for film makers to use for pre-visualization. It's also very very effective at adding special effects to your films.

No, I do not work for Lightwave. I just think it's a great tool and pretty damn cheap for what it does. A word of warning - The learning curve is steep!
 
I finished shooting my latest short film a couple months ago.. I wrote and directed the film.

This was the first time I auditioned actors for the roles, so it was intimidating a bit at first, but what I found really helpful was, know your characters... really know them, what makes them do the things they do, their motivations, what they want.

if you know your characters inside and out, you can communicate this to your actors better. I had a lot of instances where I had to stand my ground on issues with the characters, why they were saying a piece of dialogue etc... but I found I always got respect for that, it not only helped me, but I think it definately helped the performances, I didn't have to do as "directing" ie: telling em what to do, I could just let them be the character, which is even better if your doing a hundred jobs as it is. You can rely on the actor to communicate your vision onscreen with less effort and more results...

I'd say one of the most important aspects of my production was the cold read of the script and the rehearsals I had.

my 2 cents.

as an aside, having a good shot list prepare is a big asset. As well, keeping things moving on set is a big bonus, I messed that up good one day of shooting but thats another story :cheesy:
 
thanks loki, if you don't mind, could you tell me a little about your auditioning process? how did you go about that? just walked up to ppl? where did you find your actors, how did you ask them to audition, etc?

how did you go about the first table read? was that the first time the actors had met? any more info on your rehearsals?
 
I dont agree on the storyboard ideas... Maybe if your shooting a film with a lot of special effects and chroma work, where its helpful to know somewhat of whats gonna be there, and how to react to it. But for basic live action work, a nice, detailed shooting script and a shot list will do wonders.

I always felt that actors that had to rely on the acting of storyboard characters, rather animated or still, gives the performance a bland, stiff feeling. If the director is truly talented, he should be able to direct the performace, not rely on animted figures to direct it for him.

I'v directed several (10+) stage plays, everyone is always telling me to "Storyboard my scenes or its gonna go bad".... Well, they end up with a stiff performance because of the storyboards and I end up with a pretty good, natural acting from the actor. If you casted the right actor in the first place, you should let them act it the way they feel in real life, let your actor becomes the charactor, etc...

Auditions should be held as professional as possible... When I held auditioned for my last play, which hit the stage a month or so ago, I casted the child actors first, by going around and setting up auditions at schools. Then all the adult cast where either pre-selected from the acting database at MCCT, and the remainder of the small / background parts where cast in an open audition. We simply put an ad in the paper and posted flyers.... it worked.
 
Not sure how acting and storyboards relate.
Storyboards are for the director and DP (and other key crew) to communicate in a clear, visual language. Even with animatics the actors don't 'act' based on the animatics. They're provided as a moving storyboard. Timings can be off a lot for animatics and certainly for normal scenes it's seldom worth doing them (action or vfx scenes become useful)
In any case storyboards are only a guide, just liek a shot list. If yo udecide on a different blocking or angle on set the ndo it.
 
Scottdvx100 said:
Not sure how acting and storyboards relate.
Click to expand...

thats what i was wondering, as far as I can tell, actors never need to see storyboards. And staging isn't that important either, if an actor doe something unexpected, either its good or its bad, you can use it, or not. Storyboards basically just tell you where the camera goes, and how you'll edit it later. I think its because your prodominitley(sp?) a stage director. That of coarse would mold what you need when preparing for a project. Storyboards, I imagine, would not be one of them.

Storyboards=good ;)
 
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