F/TV 26 F/TV 26 Khanh An Tran Reading Journal Presentations Read CHAPTER X: Shooting and write down the answer to the following questions: -What are five things that you learned from reading the assigned chapter? Please, enumerate the concepts discussed in the assigned chapter and discuss them in some detail. Say something to each actor before and after every take. It’s often preferable that during shooting the actors are at their most raw. Because every factors can have an affect on them, it recommendable that the director should let the actor feel the directors’ attention first by speaking to them before and after everything take. If possible, give them something new to work on. Script analysis is usually important for this, as it will give you a number of different ideas and ways to express these ideas when shooting on set How do you plan to incorporate the information above in your film/video work? Be specific. It is important that there is a sense of privacy between the director and the actor when communicating, even when other people, e.g., the crew are close by. In some situations, it is preferable to speak to the actors together. If there is really nothing meaningful to say—if, for instance, there must be multiple takes unrelated to this actor’s performance, or if a good actor is inexplicably struggling and you realize that they are having already a problem—then don’t try to say something profound, but at least try to say or do something anyway—make eye contact at least—to keep things loose or focused or, in any case, connected. Let the actors know they are supported. Tell a joke, even, or a secret to loosen the tension Don’t use result direction. 1 F/TV 26 In rehearsal the actor can explore a result direction and turn it into something playable, but on the set he doesn’t have that time. Director may just want to launch their actors into the scene without considering all of the options. This is best achieved via verbs, facts, images, events, and physical life; that is, playable direction. Result direction is rather useless. Letting the actors in on the effect you want to produce may give you the take you need. But if you need to do a retake then you will need to come up with a new, playable idea for the next take, since it is not often the case that the same action can be repeated in the same manner given only the result. How do you plan to incorporate the information above in your film/video work? Be specific. Say an actor on the first take has to wince in a certain way, but then you realize the lighting or something unrelated to the performance wasn’t right so you have to do a reshoot. If you ask the actor to repeat the action you’re not actually asking for what you liked. What you liked was the listening, the interaction, or the emotional event resulting from her concentration on a verb, fact, image, etc. If you must give result direction, at least acknowledge it to your actors first so do would be preemptive to it. Make sure that the actors receive feedback from one source only. Any complaints (or even compliments) by the writer, the producers, the editor, director of photography, script supervisor, crew, or other actors have about an actor should be told privately to you. Then determine what you should do with that information. Directors are the only people who say “Cut.” and are responsible for telling the actors that even if they make a mistake you want them to keep going until you cut the scene. Don’t let the D.P. or the technicians cut the scene. Even if the camera crew have to tell you when to cut (out of technical or budgetary reasons), inform them of a way to tell you privately without calling attention to the actor How do you plan to incorporate the information above in your film/video work? Be specific. For example, if my budget requires me to be conservative with the use of film stock, to the point that my camera crew to let me know before the end of the scene if in their opinion the take is no 2 F/TV 26 good, then I’ll have arrange a signal with them ahead of time so that they can discreetly let you know, and you can say, “Cut” so not to influence the actors’ performance Marks, matching, overlapping. The director’s priority should be to have the scene go somewhere and to create that shimmer that gives that sense of something is happening. The actor’s priority therefore should be to be authentic in the moment, to connect to the emotional life of the script in the instance. As a director you want the actor to prioritize staying alive and dynamic on every take and not become concern with the technical considerations of the shots as it can make their performance feels dry. But as the director you also have these technical considerations you want the actors to fullfill in order to maintain continuity. It is often better for directors and technicians to approach the problems of hitting marks, matching performances, and overlapping without retreating into asking the actors to also consider them. How do you plan to incorporate the information above in your film/video work? Be specific. One thing that I could possibly do to avoid encounter these problems on set (though rather radical) is to shoot exclusively on long masters so that the actors can be free to overlap dialogue, or even cut dialogue out entirely when the actors do overlap and don’t pause between each line. Know when to say “Print.” An actor might be able to help you decide whether a take is good enough by letting you know whether it “feels” solid. An actor doesn’t need to not re-watch or check and control his performance in order to connect with the subconscious. The actors may sometimes give a great performance and think the take was bad. The actor may feel undermined by unguarded moments or by direction that leads him to unguarded moments. Sometimes an actor will say “I don’t feel it,” or “I have to feel it.” But when acting is really good, it often doesn’t feel like anything. So when the director can find of a structure for a scene to work and the story to get told (through 3 F/TV 26 script analysis and rehearsal), the scene can work and the story get told, even if the actor is not “feeling it.” How do you plan to incorporate the information above in your film/video work? Be specific. If after take, the actors approach me and say that they couldn’t feel the performance in that take, but upon reviewing the footage I find the performance to work in delivering the story need to be told, then I can proceed to use that footage without much consideration to whether the actor can “feel” it or not. 4
