Film Directing 126: The Director's Playbook
/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.
Directors need a strong idea for what they’re looking for in every scene
After all the planning, preparation, meetings, auditions, rehearsals, location scouts, etc. – the first day of principle photography is what all the work has been about.
The crew and actors gather. The clock starts ticking. All eyes turn to the directing team – and the production is underway.
The director on set is much like the quarterback AND the coach in American football; there's a team, a limited amount of time, a game plan, someone to call the play, and someone to execute it with the goal of making it a team win.
Expect the unexpected! There will be surprises (good and bad), problems to solve, decisions to make, and lots of thinking on your feet.
Anything can happen.
That’s what makes it all so exciting!
Before day one, having a complete and comprehensive director's playbook helps you:
manage the team,
manage the time,
make your day — and,
get great performances.
The good news: you’ve already done a significant chunk of the work.
Your script analysis, thumbnail frames, shotlist, schematics, and meetings with your creative keys have helped build the plan for the production.
All of the decisions and prep details have factored into the schedule and paperwork generated by your assistant director.
Things may change on set. They often do. Hopefully, any changes are for the better.
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Let’s look at a general timeline plan for the day:
The crew and actors arrive,
There’s a read-through of the first scene scheduled to be shot,
Then a loose walk-through of the scene,
The scene is blocked with final actor action and positions,
The camera is set for framing and focus,
Actors get into wardrobe and makeup,
Lights are set up using stand-ins for the actors,
A plan for sound is confirmed,
Actors return and rehearse the scene with the camera and sound and props,
Adjustments are made – such as lighting tweaks, actor positions, etc.,
Final rehearsal at performance level (the actual pacing and volume),
First take — from action to cut,
Director review of the shot (with continuity, actors, camera, sound, etc.),
Time is needed to solve problems and adjust the performances,
Second take – director review and notes,
Time is needed to process the adjustments and notes,
Third take – director review and notes,
For a wide master shot, the director selects one take to match with the closer shots,
That set-up is now completed – everyone moves on to the next camera set-up.
The work continues until lunch.
The amount of work completed by lunch is an important schedule marker.
If you’re behind on the schedule, it’s on you to correct and get things back on track. Running behind can create unnecessary stress, and other problems.
If the crew is working hard but things are not going as fast as you imagined, you need to recalculate how the last half of the day is going to go.
Not getting the scheduled work done before lunch may require you to reduce the number of takes for each shot or cut back on the time you’re using for your review and notes.
Clear, specific direction is the key to working effectively with your actors and your crew.
You may have a tough situation where you need to trim your shot list or make your shots less complex.
Your playbook can help you here: What is essential? What can you afford to lose and still tell your story?
Directing choices are not always easy ones. The goal — for amateurs and pros — is to make your day, on time and on budget.
What you’ll quickly learn is that a 12-hour day may only produce an hour or so of footage to take into the editing room – this is the director’s work between action and cut.
When you get to the professional ranks, the studio or network screens and evaluates the director’s daily work — and the director is not around to explain what happened to everyone. The work stands alone.
It’s important to enjoy the journey and have a happy set, but don’t fool around or waste time.
Delivering your best work demands organization, time-management, focus, and discipline.
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As a student director, you will likely be working with new actors who are learning their craft – and they will be learning along with you.
Young actors and inexperienced actors all have the capacity to deliver compelling performances, and it may require you to try some different techniques than you might use with professional actors.
Here are some ideas to help you get on the same page with new actors and get them to live truthfully in their character:
Read the scene and have the actors look at each other when they do,
As discussed in the rehearsal blog – you DON’T read your script when the actors are running the scene: watch them closely.
Listen for any confusion, stumbles, or mispronunciations,
Ask if they have any questions about the scene,
Ask them what’s NOT being said in the scene,
Listen to their answers,
Read the scene once again BEFORE you start blocking their physical actions
This can be time well-used. These few minutes of working with the actors may save you precious time should problems arise.
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After the first take, thank your actors. Give them some positive feedback but be brief and be honest. Basically, what worked?
Your actors may have comments or questions. Listen carefully. Answer responsibly.
Tell them we’re going to do it again. This is where you can start shaping performances. Provide an adjustment:
Maybe add a pause? Maybe shorten a pause?
Give them a simple objective (make him smile, laugh, cry, etc.,)
Try using an active verb (punish him, pick a fight, stab him in the heart),
Give them a task (get under his skin, let him know you’re mad, push him to the brink),
Introduce an ‘as if’ to adjust their performance (ie: say it ‘as if’ you’re talking to a toddler, ‘as if’ you’ve told him a thousand times).
Cautionary note: avoid saying ‘perfect!’ to your actors. It’s better to get in the habit of saying, ‘thank you’, ‘good’, ‘really good’, ‘great’, ‘really great,’ – but saying ‘perfect’ may make them reluctant to try something different.
Directors need a strong idea for what they’re looking for in every scene –from every actor. Yet also need to remain open for the performance choices that evolve as your actors work through the material and your direction.
If you have a wide angle shot of the action and plan to cover the same action with close ups, it’s a given convention that you pick one take of the wide shot as a ‘master’ shot that establishes the main physical action that the actors will use when doing the closer shots.
For example, if an actor walks in the room, sits down in a chair, and delivers a line of a dialogue in the wide shot, you can cover the sitting action in a closer shot and have 3 different versions of how the actor performs the line. This gives you a choice in editing to shape the final performances in the scene.
The last thing you want to realize in the editing room is that you have come away with 3 takes of the same performance – same pacing, same reaction, same emotional tone. Your actors want to keep their performances interesting. They want you to direct them.
Go for variety. Give yourself choices. It doesn’t have to be right every time. And nobody can be exactly sure what’s going to be right when you put your scene together, anyways. But you need strong ideas.
Pre-thinking performance notes and details are a vital part of the playbook. These are your private ideas. Nobody has to know what strategies you are planning for getting the performances you’re after.
Build out a list of possible adjustments (simple objectives, verbs, tasks, ‘as if’ ideas) before you meet your actors on day one. Keep this list handy on set. You’ll have more fun.
