Directing Actors

Working with actors is a major aspect of becoming a director. It is very easy to tell someone what to do, but directing someone is an entire technique and skill on its own. You need to be:

- Organised
- Creative & Technical
- Autocrative / Authoritative / Democratic
- Visionary
- Self Motivated
- Entrepreneurial

Especially when working with actors you need to:

- Provide constructive feedback
- Earn actors’ trust and respect
- Understand different communication techniques
- Allow them ‘act’ rather than ‘do what you told them’
- Read through the script with them – Primary Blocking
- Make key notes (i.e. position, posture or even actor suggestions)
- Ask them questions and ask for questions from them
- Encourage actors to develop their character background
- Work through the script from ‘beat-to-beat’

Blocking

This means physically working out how the scene will work. This includes the positions of actors, the camera, the set and props.


Scene Descriptors

These are emotional events of a scene. These can be used as tools to generate appropriate beats and action verbs.

Action Verbs

These are words are very useful on set when trying to achieve a particular emotion from an actor. They describe an ‘actable moment’ clearly for the actor to ‘feel’ as a character and then act it out through the script. Below are some examples.

Facts

When directing an actor it is more practical to use facts in your explanation rather than psychologising. For example if you are explaining a particular scene and say “she can’t cry” is harder for the actor to ‘act’ that out. Therefore a simple fact like “she doesn’t cry” would be a more appropriate way of communicating your idea. In addition to this, describing what a character is or isn’t like complicates things further. A fact about what that character does illustrates the direction you are trying to achieve from the actor.

Characterising Beats

There are various types of beats that are involved with actors:

Plot Beats

- Story beat – progresses the story / plot
- Preparation beat – sets up the beginning of a sequence
- Expository beat – reveals information about the previous circumstances
- Crisis beat – reveals a problem or conflict in the story
- Mood beat – presents an emotional circumstance
- Reversal beat – reverses an action

Character Attitude Beats

- Dispositional beat – reveals a personality trait
- Motivational beat – expresses desire and provides reason for actions
- Deliberate beat – expresses a reflective or emotional thought
- Decisive beat – indicates a significant decision

Character Thought Beats

- Emotive beat – expresses what a character feels
- Reflective beat – expresses what a character concludes considers or discovers
- Informative beat – presents information relevant to the film
- Exaggeration beat – expresses maximising or minimising of a topic
- Argumentative beat – contains a conflict or problem

[Lecture Notes: Julius Ayodeji - 13/11/06]