Directing and Writing!!

2

2doors

Active member
I've been doing these two demanding jobs for some time now and I have to say, it's very hard work. In truth, the difficulty varies based on the crew that you have and actors.
How do you guys approach the tough task and directing and writing?

PS If any directors are in need of short-film scripts...I'm your man
 
Well I tend to write my scripts before I actually film them, so it's one less job to do while shooting. Seriously though, I actually find the writing process to be very easy. I love just sitting down, making stuff up and writing it down. It's fun to me. So I guess maybe that's why it doesn't feel like I'm doing a lot of "work".
 
it's supposed to be hard. that's why everybody isn't or just can't do it. seems like most writer/director's are usually better at one of the crafts more than the other. there's a handful of good writer/director's IMO and even less that can do both at a successful BO level consistantly...but nothing wrong with that. as long as the flm is at the best level it can be and everybody has done their job to the best of their ability is all that matters.

me personally, i spend more time on writing the story. been writing for at least 10 years now. have developed thick skin to criticism. the directing is new to me (about 4 months into now), but damn i am loving it just as much as the writing process. i wish i had got into directing when i started writing, but it's cool. i don't need a budget to write.
 
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I don't find the two tasks difficult to do, particularly since they should occur during different stages of production.

In my opinion, we have one main profession...we're storytellers...and for many reasons we've taken that one profession and broken it down into individual skill sets.

On my last project I did the following:
writer
director
co-producer
cinematographer
production designer
costumer
casting
editor
special effects supervisor
promotional materials

And while that may sound like either the list of a workaholic or egotist, I did these jobs because:

1.) I had little money for my last project.
2.) Each of these elements are critical to telling a story well.
3.) I couldn't hire professionals to do these roles.
4.) I knew if I took my time and did as much of this during pre-production as possible I'd only juggle a few responsibilities at once.
5.) Therefore, with sufficient time this was a manageable amount of work and responsibility.

What I don't do is sit on a set, tweak dialogue, move lights, direct actors, choose costumes the night before a scene or pick locations the day of production. That would be insane. :Drogar-BlackEye(DBG

Slow and steady wins the race. :laugh:
 
FilmBoy77 said:
i don't need a budget to write.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that's why I tend to write a huge number of completely unproducible scripts. :)

More unfortunately, knowing this doesn't stop me from trying to produce a lot of them anyway. But it's all been working out so far.
 
when i write something that i plan on directing, i'm very conscious of budget and resources. i'll try to limit locations, combine characters, and cut as much as possible. actually those are probably good things to do regardless. what kind of elements lead to your scripts being unproducible?
 
I write and direct. Mostly because of my location limitations (college in Indiana 2 hours from any major city), but I think I do pretty well at not making the limitations stand out. I spend a lot of time writing, however most of the final script isn't really set until we're shooting. I know I'm an inexperienced writer, so I generally listen to the actors and see what they're doing with the dialouge, and then I write up different lines or have them improve until we get something good.
Since I'm working on the dialog while on set, it helps me blend directing with writing well, as I'm thinking about the script and the angles while looking the set and seeing exactly what things will look like in the end.
The other thing I like about it is that it lets me put very subtle things into the script that I would probably miss if I was reading someone elses.
 
kiyong said:
when i write something that i plan on directing, i'm very conscious of budget and resources. i'll try to limit locations, combine characters, and cut as much as possible. actually those are probably good things to do regardless. what kind of elements lead to your scripts being unproducible?
Click to expand...

Oh, I fully understand HOW to do it. I just don't. I'm much happier pressing the boundaries of what can be done with the resources at my disposal. Sometimes I exceed them. But, that's fine too. I have a library of scripts that I mostly still like that are just waiting for the right time to be made.

Without ambition, I think I'd feel pretty empty.

Of course, without ambition, why would you ever choose to do any of these things with your life? If you're doing it right, it's an enormous amount of hard work.
 
If I can be so rude as to offer advice without you asking for it, I would recommend you don't write short scripts. Shorts are not an attractive way to get into directing or writing. I've found that if you want to direct (tv shows) it's best to become a good editor. That workflow will usually get you a shot at some point. As for writing, generally you have to move up the ranks in the same way camera guys go one step at a time up and up until they are full fledged DoP.

In the amateur filmmaking work (what most of us consider the film festival circuit and minor distribution deals) you can do whatever you want but your main problems are competition and budget limitations.

I think most writer directors bite off more than they can chew that said, I usually work as one but something always suffers. I think most amateur/indie writer/directors are driven into the dual job by necessity and a few by ego thinking back to the 70s American auteur.

I think we live in a great decade where everyone has camera and everyone puts the camera on themselves in one way or another. Kind of fascinating. Narrative has pretty much become telling 'your own' story and even most docs are the same thing. Really fascinating stuff. Good topic.
 
The thing with doing everything alone is that when it's time to show your work and say yeah i did everything alone. it can look bad or can look good. depend. it shows that you can do a lot of stuff and you can be agile with everything or it can look bad cause you don't know how to work with a cast , with a crew so they will say no to you because you are unsecure. so sometimes people on the credit is good. i'm like you i'm doing everything alone. but now i'm trying to get more people to help me do my job. make up, costume designer , sound designerbla bla. because of this. i look more professional and i can get more jobs. keep doing what you are doing. everybody is doing all their stuff alone now. big company or even little production company want to make money first so they want the best guy who knows how to interact with a crew and know how to lead. experience is everything. so work with a lot of people who knows their jobs. believe in people.
 
I just finished my 8th short film that I wrote/directed (won awards for the last 2 in small festivals), and the way I do it is that I work with a solid crew beforehand, even if it's just one or two people, and figure out my story. Write it out. I spent years studying the technical issues of storytelling, knowing my act structure in and out, so that when I'm ready to sit down and write, I can focus on it 100% and knock it out. Fill up holes, make it make sense, bounce ideas and make sure it's a complete script.

When we get to the set and I'm directing, I'm much looser. I hand off the camera to a DP if I can (and I prefer to do this), so that the only thing I'm focusing on is the acting and the story. Even though I wrote it, we treat the script as a blueprint. It's alive, it's malleable, and we all work together to find the truest expression of the short. Everything counts, and I typically let the actors figure out the small details while I worry about the big picture. Let the scene play out. Go for the feel of it. It's like listening to music, if one of the instruments is out of tune, you have to let it go on until you can pinpoint the problem.

After the last shoot, two of the actors (one is a theatrical actor and the other an opera singer) told me I was a fantastic director and that the crew I assembled gelled like nothing they'd seen before. I feel like I honestly did very little, but just encouraged everyone's creative expression of the overall vision, gave them room to express that, and then added a little bit of guidance to make sure things stayed on track.

All of my best work as a director normally ends up with me feeling like I did very little overall, but I feel that's really one of the most important aspects of a director's job: Surround yourself with a solid crew and actors, and communicate your vision so clearly that it makes sense as a goal for everybody to work with. Once the setup is done and you've got the right people in the right places, you can take a step back and just make sure everything is moving in the right direction.

That's just my style, however, and others differ. Some people are very detail-oriented, some people want to do every job (or all the glorious ones like DPing, gaffing, acting, etc) and their styles will differ. But my style works well for me and my crew and actors are all quite happy at the end of the shoot, we all enjoy what we've made, and we immediately start talking about the next.
 
I agree with all of that. From time to time I'm a bit more formal on the technical side of things, but I am most definitely of the opinion that the more hands-off you can be, the more inviting of a casual, creative atmosphere, the better work you will produce.
 
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