Film/TV 1 – Analysis/reflection 6; Question 6

Consider Sandra’s lecture “Directing Actors” and describe at least a couple of points that you took away from it (even if you’re not the director).

The lecture hosted by Sandra was actually my favourite lecture of this semester – she had numerous points that I found not only interesting but extremely relevant and useful to our classwork and assignments. Some of these points included:

– When it comes to casting, make sure you really know what genre you’re working in, so you can inform the actors of how they are to present the work. Sandra also mentioned that it would be a good idea to encourage actors to bring in pieces of their own work, in order for the people casting to not only see them act out the work they are auditioning for, but also their own work – you get a better variety of what it is they are able to do.
– In relation to actors, Sandra also stressed the importance of actors truly understanding their characters. A director can’t just tell them what to do – in that case, he just has puppets. Instead, it was suggested that the actors are asked questions about their parts – ‘what do you think if this…what do you think of that..’ and ‘what do you think the story is really about’ – don’t just get them talking about their character, but the bigger picture.
However, it is important to not give too much backstory, you don’t want to overwhelm the actors – they really just need to be able to walk into a scene with an intention. The right words from the directors opposed to too many words.
– Actors do need the most from directors, but on the day, if the cinematographer needs the director – he has to go. Actors should have asked questions in the rehearsals leading up to filming, so they shouldn’t need as much time on the day – make sure you cover everything in rehearsals!
– Sandra also spoke heavily about ‘b’ scenes – something I hadn’t really grasped until her lecture. She poke about only the writer and director knowing b scenes, because if everyone else knew, they’d be cutting those scenes by lunch time to avoid work. These scenes work in conjunction with the idea of how you are going to merge scenes if something god wrong – you have to work out how you’re going to get the essence of that scene if you don’t get a chance to shoot it.
– The last thing I am going to talk about in relation to Sandra’s lecture is in relation to shooting out of order. This is where Sandra spoke about playback. If you have a scene where the actor is following a scene where they were previously angry (but you shot that scene a few hours ago), playback the footage to them to get them into the scene – get them feeling the scene before they walk on set.