Director talking while shooting

jeez, yes. im very familiar with the Transformers behind the scenes footage -- i was an editor on the dvd extras. don't you love how michael bay uses the megaphone to talk to someone six feet away?

anyway, you should see my dailies, i am talking all over them. sometimes i even step into frame to whisper an adjustment in an actor's ear. obviously, one would expect the editor to cut around it, using a bit of room tone to replace the area of production track occupied by my voice.
 
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I do that all the time when were rolling. Helps keep the flow going a lot of times.

Easy to just cut around in editing. Also for a scene like that I'd imagine they'd be ADR'ing just about all his vocal performance since there is so much other noise on set.

peas.
 
they're not going to use any of the audio from that shot, Como. it will be entirely constructed in post. even Shia would have been ADR'd.
 
I'm a little surprised to see talent in such a primatively realized analog effect. For starters, the construction equipment they're using pivots, which introduces a possibility of operator error. A GradAll would be a much better piece of equipment for that effect, as the operator is offset from behind the arm and there is only one axis of motion available to him - straight up and down.

I'd guess that 100% of the effects seqences on a show like this are ADR, while some stage work (like Shia's parent's home) might have some usable dialogue. It isn't uncommon to have the director talking to his talent throughout a master shot - especially between lines of dialogue to help pace the scene and dictate actions, eyelines and so-forth.

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Have you ever seen films of, for example, Fellini directing? He stands just out of frame, talking non-stop to the actor, guiding him/her with a stream of instructions, encouragements etc. That was very common for films back then, as a lot of stuff was shot "mov" without sound. Even today, the same principle applies for many scenes - this really is nothing noteworthy. "There's nothing new under the sun" :)
 
I speak over takes a lot, especially to cue different actions... I should post raw footage from my hallowfest entry, hehe
 
I find that obscene and threatening gestures are almost as effective, but I don't have to worry about them in post.
 
...But not all directors talk through takes.

I was on a shoot recently where all takes (mostly MOS) where still done in complete silence. The actors/actresses where coached considerably before each take and lots of reharsals where done - it was super low budget, enough film for only one take of many/most shots. So every shot was built and perfected, and then simply captured onto film in one take once it was ready otherwise.

When it was time to roll, everyone was dead silet and let the talent do their job. I had a couple of (steadicam) shots where I'd have to cue myself based on the director's requested timings; just like the talent, I had to learn my "lines" of when to move.

There where a couple of instances where I really wouldn't have minded a "and go" or even a tap on the shoulder from the director to cue me, but pre-planning and carefully rehearsed excecution was his style and it worked very well. We used very little film too!

- Mikko
 
In most of the shoots I work on, the directors are silent throughout and will only speak inbetween takes. If we do a series then they may cut the performance but ask the cameras to keep rolling, give them directions and then have them start again from 1 or the pickup.
 
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