David Mullen ASC
Moderator
Just a description of some of the styles of directing I've come across, regarding being organized:
One director drew his own storyboard on index cards, white for day and blue cards for night scenes. At the start of the day, he'd lay out all the cards and we'd shuffle them around in what we (the AD, DP, and director) thought was the best order. The director would label some cards as less important than others (some he would tear-up right on the spot). During the day, he kept the cards on a metal binder ring on his belt loop and would flip through them, crossing off the ones we finished.
I've done a number of movies where the director and I would sit down and draw up a shot list for the week's work, for each day, and try and put them in shooting order. This was a quick way of seeing if the days were balanced properly, that we didn't have an excessively heavy day that perhaps could be re-organized, a scene moved to another day. I've even done a shot list for an entire feature during prep, but that's almost too much work.
When I did my first feature, I asked Allen Daviau, ASC for some advice and he said "Know your first week backwards and forwards." It's the best advice I've ever gotten. After the first week, you fall more into a groove where you can deal with upcoming work and know how long things take to do with this particular cast and crew, but it's great if you start the shoot out running, and know where you want to be minute by minute during the day, know exactly how you want to shoot every scene, etc. It also impresses the crew and cast when they see how organized the director and DP are and sets the right tone. By the end of the shoot, though, you are more in a reactive phase where you are picking up the pieces of what's still missing, etc.
On the TV series I just did, I worked with seven directors and they were all very different in style and temperament.
One director used little Post-It notes on his script for storyboarded shots and ideas, so he could transfer his notes to each draft of the script that came along. Other directors would email me and the AD a shot list for the next day's work. With the alternating DP approach, I could walk all the sets and locations with the new director a few days before the shoot began, and plot out how we were going to shoot each scene. But some directors didn't want to be nailed down too much, and some directors wanted more time to think. I had one director who wanted the key people on the scouts (DP, production designer, AD) to be quiet for stretches of time and just contemplate the location, rather than spit-out ideas quickly. Other directors would just march into a new location and start saying "the camera goes here and then here..." immediately without discussion.
I have worked with very inexperienced directors too -- I remember one guy who would constantly ask me whether we should cut the camera once the scene was over and the actors had left the frame and we were rolling on a blank wall for a minute. And then ask me what we were doing next. But when it came to talk to the actors about performance or story, he was one of the best directors I've ever seen at work.
One director drew his own storyboard on index cards, white for day and blue cards for night scenes. At the start of the day, he'd lay out all the cards and we'd shuffle them around in what we (the AD, DP, and director) thought was the best order. The director would label some cards as less important than others (some he would tear-up right on the spot). During the day, he kept the cards on a metal binder ring on his belt loop and would flip through them, crossing off the ones we finished.
I've done a number of movies where the director and I would sit down and draw up a shot list for the week's work, for each day, and try and put them in shooting order. This was a quick way of seeing if the days were balanced properly, that we didn't have an excessively heavy day that perhaps could be re-organized, a scene moved to another day. I've even done a shot list for an entire feature during prep, but that's almost too much work.
When I did my first feature, I asked Allen Daviau, ASC for some advice and he said "Know your first week backwards and forwards." It's the best advice I've ever gotten. After the first week, you fall more into a groove where you can deal with upcoming work and know how long things take to do with this particular cast and crew, but it's great if you start the shoot out running, and know where you want to be minute by minute during the day, know exactly how you want to shoot every scene, etc. It also impresses the crew and cast when they see how organized the director and DP are and sets the right tone. By the end of the shoot, though, you are more in a reactive phase where you are picking up the pieces of what's still missing, etc.
On the TV series I just did, I worked with seven directors and they were all very different in style and temperament.
One director used little Post-It notes on his script for storyboarded shots and ideas, so he could transfer his notes to each draft of the script that came along. Other directors would email me and the AD a shot list for the next day's work. With the alternating DP approach, I could walk all the sets and locations with the new director a few days before the shoot began, and plot out how we were going to shoot each scene. But some directors didn't want to be nailed down too much, and some directors wanted more time to think. I had one director who wanted the key people on the scouts (DP, production designer, AD) to be quiet for stretches of time and just contemplate the location, rather than spit-out ideas quickly. Other directors would just march into a new location and start saying "the camera goes here and then here..." immediately without discussion.
I have worked with very inexperienced directors too -- I remember one guy who would constantly ask me whether we should cut the camera once the scene was over and the actors had left the frame and we were rolling on a blank wall for a minute. And then ask me what we were doing next. But when it came to talk to the actors about performance or story, he was one of the best directors I've ever seen at work.
