Directing methods

[C.H.Haskell]

Thank you David, for everything you have been contributing here...really helping out a lot of film makers like myself keep there priorities straight and aim for clean, and fun production.

I am all for hand drawn index cards, make changes on the fly (even if they are sick figures).

 

[David Mullen ASC]

My general rule when shooting typical dialogue scenes (not special efx scene or stunts, etc.) is that you should probably limit yourself to a shot list of 20-25 set-ups for a single-camera shoot, maybe 30-35 for a two-camera shoot.

You can always shoot more than that if you have the time, but the trouble with needing absolutely 50 set-ups for a scene, for example, is what happens if you only get 40? Maybe there will be some holes in your coverage.

You can think of it this way, 24 set-ups is a set-up every half-hour in a twelve-hour day (though a typical day is not that evenly spaced because of blocking rehearsals, technical problems, etc.) That's reasonable given the time to set-up and then shoot a couple of takes.

You quickly learn within the first few days of a feature shoot what sort of pace to expect from the cast and crew, and yourself. If it's lower than you thought it would be, you have to either lower your expectations or figure out a way to save more time on the set. Maybe you've got an actor that needs talking to about how long they are taking to get to set, or needing a lot of takes for some reason, or wanting rehearsals that run too long or wanting too much discussion time between takes. Or maybe you've got a slow crew member.

The truth is that there are three people most responsible for the pace of a shoot: the director, the AD, and the DP. If there's a time management problem, it's usually the fault of one or more of those people.

Of course, sometimes you have an unreasonable schedule that the producer insisted on, despite these three key people saying that it was near-impossible to make.

 

[Ace]

I think nothing beats the freehand sketch. The power of the sketch is amazing. Plus the instant/real-time connection between the hand and drawing medium lets you dictate the concept in a much more fluid way. If anything, I think any concepts which emanate from a computer based process tend to lack depth and conceptual rigour.. Even if you cant draw, tiny thumbnail sketches capture the imagination much better than anything computer generated. As David said, sketches are never solid.. they tend to open up further possibilities and keep the creative process open ended rather the absolute nature of computer generated visuals.

 

[Ramesh Jai]

I direct a lot of TV commercials. I usually spend a lot of time on developing the concept.

The economics of producing TV commercials here in Ghana is not very conducive to creativity but we try to do our best.

Most of the time it's only the director (also acting as the producer) who has the complete picture of how the TV commercial is going to end up looking like.

The DOP, the actors, the sound men, the grip, etc. most of the time come on set not knowing anything about the script.. it's extreme sometimes but we manage.

I usually draw up a hand drawn storyboard just the night before the shoot. And I put symbols next to each shot to bunch them in the sequence they are to be shot.

The actors are not professional so we spend a lot of time coaching them on location. Seldom do our budgets allow for rehearsals.

At the moment we are facing an energy crisis so there are lights off every other day. The generators are not well maintained so sometimes we have to use a fewer lights then we have too.

The sound of the generators also makes it impossible to film location audio so we have to record dialogues in the studio but since actors are not professional we have lip sync issues but we manage.

Diffusers and gels have been overused, our 5K and 10K lights should be in the archives, our crane was imported by the British in the 1960's.

I love this business!!!! You can check out www.apex-advertising.com to see some of our humble works.

PS. How do you manage clients who insist on coming to the location?

 

[number6]

I direct a lot of TV commercials.

The DOP, the actors, the sound men, the grip, etc. most of the time come on set not knowing anything about the script.. it's extreme sometimes but we manage.

The actors are not professional so we spend a lot of time coaching them on location. Seldom do our budgets allow for rehearsals.

At the moment we are facing an energy crisis so there are lights off every other day. The generators are not well maintained so sometimes we have to use a fewer lights then we have too.

The sound of the generators also makes it impossible to film location audio so we have to record dialogues in the studio but since actors are not professional we have lip sync issues but we manage.

Diffusers and gels have been overused, our 5K and 10K lights should be in the archives, our crane was imported by the British in the 1960's.

I love this business!!!!

I love that last line!

 

[Casey Green]

In terms of personalities, I've worked with all types, the screamers, the mumblers, the stoics, the comics, the drill sargents, etc.

The ones that can keep a sense of humor when things are going wrong tend to be my favorite.

I completely agree with this approach... Often times, maintaining composure during intense moments of production with some humor really helps you get past that difficult spot. (nothing ever seems to come from yelling and screaming anyway, I don't know why people think that ever helps.)

But a good sense of humor is invaluable... I would love to work with you someday, David.