Directing partnerships

[Egg Born Son]

I've been thinking a lot about collaborations and creative partnerships lately. Initially from a writing perspective - I've made a real push to de-ego myself over the last year in terms of ownership of ideas and collaboration. It has lead me to discover how much I enjoy being released from my own funk. From my own point of view.

I recently had the opportunity to go beyond sharing and criticism and test drive an actual writing partnership and liked it. Which got me to thinking about directing partnerships such as the brothers (siblings?) Wachowski, the Coens, Jeunet and Caro. Whereas the division of labour in a writing partnership broke down quite naturally being that you are not so much on the spot, I've been wondering how a directing partnership might work. Particularly in relation to how the labor might be divided in a manner that doesn't put the actors and crew in the confusing situation where they have two masters.

Has anyone here worked in such a manner? Has anyone come across any resources where directing partners discuss their working arrangements? Have any other notable partnerships to add to the list? Or any other thoughts on the subject?

 

[keithlango]

I've worked as a co-director on a number or projects (from short films to feature length projects) in my career in animation. The division of production labor in the animation world is a bit easier to manage, but I imagine it would work the same in live action. What we'd do is the co-directors worked out their ideas in concert- a lot of conversations and planning and talking before, during and after production- all to make sure they're on the same page. Pre-production and production design was almost always done in tandem. When it came time to handle actual production the labor was divided out typically by the sequence. So for my sequences I'd handle all approvals of work from the camera layout stage all the way through lighting, FX and final render/comps. But I'd almost always have my co-director check out the work in progress to catch any mistakes or missed opportunities, and they would do the same with me. Then when we got into post it was typically back to a tandem thing again. However I think where it got more interesting (and useful) was when one of us was stronger in an area than the other. So we'd take turns deferring to the other's leading in an area. For instance, music is not a particular strong suit for me- so I'd often defer to my partner to take the lead in that area, while I would be there to raise ideas or concerns. As for confusing inputs, most production artists in animation are perfectly fine taking direction from directing teams. If there is any inconsistency in the direction the producer will typically pull the directors aside and make them hash out an agreement so that the artists can have the benefit of a single, clear directive.

The way I'd see this play out in live action film you might have one director who is very good with visuals, camera, staging, keeping the edit in their brains, pacing, etc. So they'd deal more with the crew. While perhaps the other director would be better with actors, character motivations, story and communicating with other artists or whatever. It's not that the other person never talks to the actors, or the DP or whatever-- it's just that they trust each other to communicate and handle each area in a way that serves their collective vision. Co-directing is definitely a trust relationship and it works best when you mix directors with different areas of strength.

I myself have thought that it would be a lot of fun to do this in the live action realm.

 

[Patryk_Rebisz]

I'm co-directing a doc with my wife so obviously there is more than just work partnership involved. In general it's important to understand each other's strengths and act upon those. However i'm a big believer in "the artist" behind the work. The more communal approach to anything - especially art - the less meaningful and powerful the work is. In co-directing partnership one becomes too reliant on the other and when important decisions are to be made no powerful thinking gets exercises. I constantly have to remind myself that no greatness comes from collaboration (spear me the examples of good co-directing teams) - it's the singularity of though that brings about great work.

 

[Egg Born Son]

Thanks keith, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. And thanks Patryk for your contrasting point of view. All good things to consider.

I met a couple of other like-minded filmmakers on a short course recently (my first networking success in this isolated small town city) and we plan on making a few shorts together. Not co-directoring at this stage, each project will be driven by one of us and we will be trying out different roles to see what we each are best at. We worked well together on the course and our strengths and weaknesses seem to compliment each other and I might be a creative partnership in this. If not, then at least some fellow travellers on this enormous learning curve.