Film Directing 109: The Director's Eye

/

LEVEL 100 blogs are for film students and first-time directors taking on the directing role for a short film. The series is designed to help and guide new filmmakers through the director’s prep duties, pre-production activities, and principle photography dynamics.

Develop an eye for visual possibilities

Developing your eye as a film director is an ongoing process of observation, understanding, and patience. Every day and every film is full of opportunities to learn.

Directors start with a script. The director must be able to see the visual story in the words and written pages.

Firstly, the story must have a narrative shape. The characters, situations, and relationships must have a progression. Things have to change, or it’s probably not a good script.

The story must have a dynamic arc. The emotional charge of every scene must move from positive to negative, positive to super-positive, negative to positive, or negative to super-negative.

Working through all these details helps you develop the building blocks — the images — of a strong, cinematic story.

There are 5 underlying factors to consider when you set out to direct a film:

1.        Moving images can express ideas and convey emotions,

2.        Directors are responsible for the audience’s understanding and engagement,

3.        Leading, holding, and focusing the viewer’s attention is the director’s responsibility,

4.        Directors co-create with the cast and crew,

5.        A successful interpretation of the story results in audience enjoyment.

The director’s primary tool for telling the story is the camera. We know that filmmaking is a collaborative art and that the cast and crew work together to support the best possible storytelling. But firstly, the director needs to develop an eye for visual possibilities.

Dramatic events can be constructed in a myriad of inventive ways.

Knowing how, where, and when to apply the cinematic techniques of storytelling is the director’s main job.

We've talked about developing cinematic techniques in script analysis, blocking ideas, schematics, and thumbnails –- all done in the director’s prep. There will be more to add as we move beyond the beginning director stage, but we have a solid foundation to build on.

The director can start to plan camera shots, angles, and movement well ahead of arriving on set because of the universal understanding of the language of cinema.

Even as a beginning director, you inherently understand how cinema works if you’ve ever laughed, cried, jumped, or held your breath while watching a movie. What techniques did the director use to get your reaction?

If we just start with the basics of composition to build a frame, there are many emotional factors to consider.

A frame can be:

  • Balanced

  • Shared

  • Awkward

  • Lonely

  • Crowded

  • Tight

Ideas and choices are made in the director’s prep. Then further developed with the cast and crew. They are finally realized when the lights are set, the actors are in makeup, and the camera rolls on the scene.

The beginning director's knowledge of the universal language of cinema is constantly growing by applying the techniques of visual storytelling in their own films. Will the character be in profile? Will they have their back to us? Will we see only their eyes?

A character position in a frame can let us know a lot about who they are:

  • Powerful

  • Diminished

  • Honest

  • Mysterious

  • Victorious

  • Defeated

The director must know what they want to say with the image that they are constructing –- and how it advances the narrative.

The framing, emotion, and meaning of a composition is the director’s job and it comes from a vigorous script analysis. Ultimately, what is the shot about?

The shots the director selects to tell the story is known as ‘coverage’. The number of shots for the coverage of a scene is linked with the camera setups noted in the shotlist and schematics. Does your coverage tell the story? Do you need a close-up? Do you have a reaction shot?

Developing your director's eye is a constant learning process.

Learning from other films, other stories, and other film makers is how a beginning director starts building their visual storytelling muscles.

Watching films is enjoyable, of course. But studying films is a beginning director's homework.

All-time favourite films have stood the test of time because of cinematic language. Audiences around the world engage with the visual storytelling techniques. The language is universally understood.

Study classic films for the cinematography, the character development, and the camera choices.

Watch the blocking in a highly-charged relationship scene with just two characters. When do they get turned on? When do they get turned off? How does the director guide the audience — visually — through the situation?

Breaking down a dramatic scene is best realized through repeated screenings. Look at frames in the beginning, middle, and end. Examine the important story points — and the shot choices and frames that your favourite director uses to convey the emotion of those moments.

Watch, dissect, and learn.

Yes, homework can be fun!