Directing Actors

[Dave Watterson]

In another thread House (Scott Hillhouse director of "Life's Little Gaps") wrote:

"As for the fun of filmmaking, I have a little speech I always give to the actors just before we shoot. I explain that if you as an individual are having a good time it will show in your character and your performance will be all the more better. The camera will capture the energy you bring on set. I also explain to them that there will never be a sequel or a re-shoot and that they will never get another chance to wear that outfit or be that character again, so they must leave it all on location. Whatever is bouncing around in your heart has to come out tonight. So as a director, I have to work to keep their spirits up and the energy positive so that when I utter the words ..and action, I get to sit back in awe and pray the camera is capturing it."

followed by Willy Van der Linden's comment:
"Last year Peter Rouillard and I filmed the sequences with the actors for the film "Guernsey, I Love You !". The main characters are a young girl and boy. It seemed to us that the girl was really in love with the boy. You could see it in her facial expression. So we also filmed while they were not acting. They were not aware of it. After four days of shooting or the end of this session we thought that the girl gave up all her efforts. In the mean time we had taken some very useful shots. We had made a storyboard with about 350 pictures, but we took more shots and they seemed to be very functional. We fear that if we would re-shoot some scenes not only their haircut, but also their expression would be different."

This made me wonder how all the rest of you who make fiction films work to get the best from your actors.

Dave

[Graeme Webb]

This is quite an interesting question Dave.
Bob and myself have written about this elsewhere on the site (more in the way of how not to get the best from your actors :

http://www.fvi.org.uk/film-making2/last-drop.html

and

http://www.fvi.org.uk/film-making2/head.html

We had come to film making with no experience of acting or actors and felt that the guys who appeared to be self motivated should be able to look after themselves, of course this is entirely the wrong approach, and if we had thought about it long enough we could have saved ourselves some problems. Myself and Bob were totaly engrossed in operating two cameras, laying out dolly tracks and recording the sound to notice the little 'drop outs' that sometimes came when actors lost their concentration or became bored between shots.
Using friends of friends who came from amateur dramatic societies in the early days seemed to be a good idea, these guys lived for the stage performance and we feel (again on reflection) that we could have done far more in spending time (other than rehersals) in motivating them more in their roles and to the project as a whole. We now approach all of this in an entirely different way and use some of the online agencies (links in the above articles) to find our actors. In the past we would never ever think about auditioning (its only a little no budget amateur film) but we do now. Most actors on these agencies have showreels on websites so you see people in action prior to meeting them. With all collaborations there are elements of give and take but the whole team have to buy into and believe what you are trying to do so its down to you to carry this off and as always you learn by doing it. Your enthusiasm should rub off on them.

One of the hardest things we found was trying to keep peoples spirits up at freezing tempretures in an old garage for 7 hours with big gaps between takes.

As for Scott's speech a brilliant idea...I am working on my one now.

G

[Willy]

This is quite an interesting question Dave.
Bob and
G

For the "Guernsey, I Love You !" film Mary and Peter Rouillard found three girls. We needed two. We had a meeting in the bar of a restaurant and had a chat with them. Immediately you could see that one of them - the prettiest - was very motivated. She was very talkative and cheerful. It was not difficult to chose. The third girl was too young to fall in love with dreadlocked young folksinger and she seemed to be shy a little bit. The following day she called us to tell that she was not interested in it anymore. So we didn't have to solve the problem of "eliminating" one. In that bar we showed our storyboard and we also explained everything. We already felt that we we were on the right track.

[ned c]

Part of the answer is not to get too caught up in the technicalities. I suppose that many of us came from a technical background and feel comfortable working in that area but as a director what happens in front of the camera is what matters. My sole foray into using amateur actors and being both director and cameraman didn't work very well, the bonus features were better than the film!

I am a firm believer in having a "crew", minimum; director, camera and sound. A script clerk/continuity person is enormously helpful. Our gear is usually light enough that we don't need grips, but useful if available. Advantages of belonging to a club?!

Actors are different from each other and motivated in different ways, the director needs to know the actors well enough to understand how they work. I go with Graeme's suggestion that professional actors are the best way to go, for an addition to their showreel many will be happy for a one or two day shoot.

Stage actors are, in my experience, difficult to adapt to film, it really is a different discipline. I have found the bonus features/directors commentary with some feature films helpful.

ned c

[Graeme Webb]

Willy Said:

In that bar we showed our storyboard and we also explained everything.

Yes another important point you can't get away without a decent storyboard and sharing it with the actors. We felt that the stage actors felt uneasy with a storyboard as they were used to rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. When we turned to actors who had film experience suddenly things changed, they could read the boards and also contributed to changes in the dialogue and the camera moves etc.
Don't get me wrong our Am Dram actors helped us immensely in our first films and we all learned from the experience.

ned c Said:

I am a firm believer in having a "crew", minimum; director, camera and sound. A script clerk/continuity person is enormously helpful. Our gear is usually light enough that we don't need grips, but useful if available.

Again this is something we all need to work towards as film makers, getting a dedicated crew. We now have a collaboration with a composer and more recently a writer, so that leaves either Bob or myself to man camera and sound, you have to admit to your weaknesses and play to your strengths. Ask for help from others who have the skills that you havn't it isn't a crime, it just makes for a better production.
We have had the occasional 'helper' who talks a good fight but has to have a lay down after a couple of hours to recuperate or the other type who turns up after the shoot has finished, again its networking and finding people who are committed and reliable. We are still looking for a director who is sympathetic to our style and genres.


G