Rehearsal Tactic

M

Mortimer

Active member
So what do you do once the script is finalized, storyboard done and you've pre prepped like the mad man that you are?

Rehearsals!

This may seem obvious for some but not an option for others. But I find you can almost spot the shorts that didn't put time into rehearsals and those that did.

So thinking about rehearsals, I said to myself, what could be a really efficient way to do them, improve on it and gain that much more confidence before the shoot?

Shoot them! Tape is cheap!! Not sure if this has been brought up or not, but for those who haven't tried this yet, try it. Don't worry about set design, worry about blocking, line delivery etc. Afterwards...watch it with your actors, discuss things, try it again.

This may not be practical for all shoots, but for those starting out, this can be a huge advantage, especially if you own your own camera.

I believe the big bad R.R. shoots some of his scenes handheld as well and then uses it to refine his blocking, storyboarding etc.

So try it out guys, let me know how it works...suggestions, improvements etc.

I apologize if this has already been discussed, didn't see it anywhere.

Happy shooting -
 
Even if this has been discussed before I'm just starting rehersals (first time I've done them) and that's something that will be really helpful now that I think about it.

Thanks!
 
I did a rehearsal with ym actors for a small short I did. All the actors could make it to the first one, and only 2 of the three made it to the second one.

Let me tell you, the shoot went smothly in terms of the actors. I hardly had to direct them simply because we had gone through all the directions during the rehearsals. The only actor that sort of held things up was the one that didn't show up to the second, but his role was the toughest as well, so it would have happened anyways. It would have been terrible if we didn't have any rehearsals.

Rehearsals are key... you need at least one, I'd recomend two, but the more the better.
 
Have any of you guys tried filming it? Let me know how it works or if anyone has, how it went.

I also agree with Jon with "the more the merrier" attitude. It saves soo much time!
 
I always film it. The second time we went over the tapes cause they did some improve in the last one that worked well. They took note of some of the points they brought about in the improv.
 
I find taping rehearsals is always good for the director, but be careful about showing the actors what they've done. Some actors find it helpful, some inhibiting. The problem is that an actor may think it's helpful when in reality it's inhibiting them. Which brings me around to my personal golden rule, KNOW YOUR ACTORS.
 
Just curious, but when you tape rehersals do you just set a general camera up for the actors and just go through scenes? Or do you actually go through scenes multiple times getting each actor in CU shots?
 
Hey Gohanto,

Depends on what you want to get out of it - if my peice of work is really dialogue heavy, then yeah a master or over the shoulder would do fine. If you also want to work out the camera movements etc and kill two birds with one stone, then a more tedious set up would be required.

rsbush brings up a good point I never thought of - showing them the footage could potentiall throw their game off!

Some of my best stuff has come from pure improv - Jon brings up a really good point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top