You’ve gotta be…
Respectful
Responsible
and
Keep Calm
Before we had our shoots, I attended the studio workshops James had organised for us. These workshops allows us to explore a deeper understanding of lighting principles and cinematography techniques and some directing tips from James himself and Peter White. Our group have had tries to set up our camera and lighting points and figured that we won’t need much LEDs, spotlights or other heavy lighting as we will take advantage of the natural sunlight. Beside cinematography, we’ve also gain a great deal of tips and knowledge about producing and directing. Here are some dos and don’ts that will save us from glitches during the shooting days and the process after.
Dos and Don’ts
Director has different stations to go to in individual bubble;
- Cinematography
- Actors bubble
- Producers bubble
Etc..
Do not speak to everyone at once.
Do not let the team scatter.
Do not let anyone lost track or had nothing to do, even just getting them to eat is fine.
Do separate each station away from each other.
If things got scattered, do get it together again.
Towards the actors:
Do speak individually but also bring them together to speak to them
Do get actors to know each other, talk and form relationship
Do get along with the actors.. tell them the back story but let them explore and add to their own back story if they want.
- Actors can use their own past experiences
- You can also get them to think of something from their past in order to trigger certain emotion
Do communicate the main point
- Simplicity: What is the film really about and say it to the actors
- Do be specific!
Do present what you what,
- What the main point is but at the same time,
- Do give them freedom.
- Do be very clear of what you want from every scene
- Don’t generalise
Do give actors their space
- For their performance
- Don’t act it out for them
- Don’t ever demonstrate
- Do let them find their own inspirations
- Don’t always tell them what to do; let them improvise and let them find their own naturalistic vision
- Do invite them to improvise
Do keep reminding them where they’ve come from, their background and which scene they were just on
Do remind and explain their story
Contextualise
Dialogue..
- Do let them try and if it doesn’t work, try..
- Changing the Subtext- “think about carving a wood” to trigger the concerned expressions. Etc
- Do simplify dialogue if it doesn’t work;
- Instead of lots of long sentences, perhaps show body language.
and obviously…
Don’t lie,
Do be honest.