What is Directing?

Re: What is Directing?

If it's pointless why bring it up?in the 1st place...hmmm...interesting

the other day I found an interesting book about a significant director. In the book the director said he and other top directors often talk about what directing is, how to do it, etc... they share ideas, appoaches and experiences, stories and help one another. What is really enlightening is how open they are about learning more and finding out about the craft. It's interesting how these old pros are still grappling with these basic questions and enjoying the process of discovery. I think they must be on to something.
 
Re: What is Directing?

To me the difference is this: A filmmaker is the person who takes an idea and brings it to fruition. At some point, he probably directs the film as well. A director is a person who takes care of one step in the process. I guess I am looking at this from the indie mentality.

I don't think it's pointless to discuss what we think a director is, or what their responsibilities are, but it is an academic argument for the most part.
 
Re: What is Directing?

The question is what is directing, which basically asks one about their process for getting there. We all have some sort of ideas for how & why we approach it the way we do. If we don't then I would think an individual either operates on gut instinct ( not Bad) or they....well, they might some day :)

All actions have a philosophy behind them. Academic in my mind simply means we acknowledge that which is before us and try to understand it. By doing so we become aware and at some point we wake up.
 
Re: What is Directing?

I'm not trying to pick nits, but the question as you asked it in the title of the thread seems somewhat philosophical (My POV). If you had asked "How do you approach directing?" or "share what your experiences have been", Or "what do you see as the director's responsibilities?" I think you might have gotten more practical answers.

For me, simply put, the director is the guy who takes the script, cast, crew and locations, and gets what is on the page on the screen. He's the key guy between pre-production, and post. Whatever that takes in a particular production. But ultimately, although you can paint the picture in rather broad strokes, the specifics will vary from film to film and director to director.
 
Re: What is Directing?

Jim, good point about the question. I guess I like to understand the thinking behind the action more than the action itself so I ask philosphical questions. Anyways, I'm find myself shocked sometimes when i talk to other directors and see how they approach the work. I find we have radically different ways. Then I tend to ask myself, hey maybe they know something that is even better than I. Once I know what they do I can get a sense of their approach, but when I find out why they approach it the way they do, it frees me to then see it through their eyes. Sometimes that is helpful, but most of the time it's really fun & exciting to see the familiar in a new light.
 
Re: What is Directing?

I would say the name says it all. Directing the actors or subjects in the direction you want to take the film.
 
Re: What is Directing?

are there directors who can visualize from start to finish an entire feature film? who has that kind of concentration and precision and strength of visualization skills? spielberg?
 
Re: What is Directing?

[quote author=Young-H._Lee link=board=Directing;num=1104979415;start=15#26 date=02/03/05 at 13:22:39]are there directors who can visualize from start to finish an entire feature film?  who has that kind of concentration and precision and strength of visualization skills?  spielberg?

[/quote]

Robert Rodriguez can do it. That's one reason why his films are shot so quickly and way under budget. Before shooting El Mariachi, his first feature, he'd close his eyes, play the entire film in his mind and use a stopwatch to time himself. It would always be just over 80 minutes. His script was only 45 pages long, but he felt it would be long enough based on his previsualization, and he was right.
 
Re: What is Directing?

[quote author=10s link=board=Directing;num=1104979415;start=15#20 date=01/14/05 at 08:10:16]If it's pointless why bring it up?in the 1st place...hmmm...interesting

the other day I found an interesting book about a significant director. In the book the director said he and other top directors often talk about what directing is, how to do it, etc... they share ideas, appoaches and experiences, stories and help one another. What is really enlightening is how open they are about learning more and finding out about the craft. It's interesting how these old pros are still grappling with these basic questions and enjoying the process of discovery. I think they must be on to something.[/quote]



what book was that?
 
Re: What is Directing?

There are a series of interview books with top directors titled, "Interviews" by university of missisippi press. Right now I'm starting Kubrick's stuff.

Check this out:

http://www.dga.org/news/mag_inter.php3 ;)

here's a snippet from a Sydney Pollack interview:

Pollack was then asked what drew him into acting in Eyes Wide Shut and what did he think of the movie.

"What drew me to the project was Stanley Kubrick," Pollack answered. "He's a filmmaker I admire enormously. I've never run into a director that didn't learn from his work. He also happened to be a longtime friend. We would have long talks about films for hours and hours. He had enormous curiosity about life; it made me feel good to talk to him. He called and asked me to do it, and I was worried because I had heard stories about how he makes people [who work on his films] into prisoners. He promised me it would be two weeks. It wasn't two weeks, of course; it was more like two months. But I enjoyed it.
 
Re: What is Directing?

10s thank you for the link, i'm always interested in reading articles and interviews with the directors.

Back to this topic what do you guys think about working with the actors? do you care much? do you let them do their thing? do you strickly tell them you must do it this way? what is your way?
10s what do you do?

do any of you apply the method approach to directing your actors, developed by Konstantin Stanislavski.

what I did for my last short was ... not much of rehearshing but some....

Frist I got the actors to introduce themselves by me and all of them standing in a circle and we would throw a beach ball to each other while calling our name/ and character they are playing. First I would get the ball all the time since that's the only name they knew but once everyone got to know each other... it was time to sit down around the table.

What we did was a cold read of the script. No acting, Just saying the words.

Then I asked each of them to talk about how they see the film and how they see their character like and what do they want to bring into this film. Then I talked about my vision of the story.

Next step was getting them into a circle... and we would go thru the script by the characters telling the story through their eyes. So for example when character A's line was up in the script he would step inside the cirlce and say what he was thinking. Same in the scenes where they had no lines but actions. At then at end of the rehearshals for each day I would talk to the actors privatly before they left about their character and what they had to say more and more about them.

There was more of these excercises I wanted to do but I had no time only 3 days of rehearshing. So next steps were having a read around the table with expressions then right after that was doing the basic rehearshal routine- the blocking and staging, by basically acting out the script in the location and the setting.
 
Re: What is Directing?

anybody has the ability to step into a crowded room and get everybody's attention, particularly if they've paid money to listen. it's not enough.
 
Re: What is Directing?

Woodson, my way takes a few different paths. I do my best to previsualize the scene, know it well and plan the shots so the shots support the telling of the story.

In my pre-viz i see & feel the characters, how they react, discover, etc... when I work with actors i like to share my vision, feelings, and get their input also...this takes time. Actors can and will find interpretations that are fantastic, our job is to help them help us.

I shoot scenes according to how I see it and then if I feel it isn't panning out, I'll ad-lib and have actors ad-lib. The trouble with acting is that they need to be authenic but it's not, it's pretend, and in film it's just these tiny pieces, and that's wierd for actors. That presents a problem....the main advice I have is to understand the emotion of the scene and capture that... everything else is sencondary.

Oh, and yes do care about your actors.... a whole lot. They are in a vulnerable position. Their job is to bring emotion to the story so the audience too can access it emotionally. I hope this helps a little.
 
Re: What is Directing?

10s thanks for the advice.

Recommend any good books/articles on understanding the emotion of the scenes and capturing it ?
 
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