Film Courage: Should a good director be open to interpretation of a line,
of a character from an actor's perspective?
Thomas Verrette, Filmmaker: Yeah, absolutely the collaboration let's say is part of
where magic really can happen and if I am so stuck in my ways as a director where this it
has to be this and only this, I'm just going to create so many problems for myself down the road.
It might not be apparent but I do think that the director's role though of course is to guide
everybody towards a common vision but collaborating in a way where yeah let's say
an actor wants to do it this way I'm always going to be open to that conversation essentially I may
disagree or agree depending on what the answer is or where this is going or at least maybe
this isn't the right time for it but I see what you're saying there's a 100 ways to to kind of
invite that in so that it's a safe space and people feel they're being heard and listened to
that for me is one of the most important aspects of directing in general is to to be a collaborator
and if you tell people or you give the impression that you're not there for that then it can be very
off-putting for people that are working with you and working for you even to try to get
your vision told what so but that doesn't stop it at an actor it stops it doesn't stop with an actor
it applies to any crew member really in in at the end of the day and maybe it doesn't done a hundred
million dollar movie where yeah I don't want to hear the or I'm assuming that the pa that's
there isn't going to go up to the director with an idea but I have I’ve never worked on that size
story and I'm general and in general I am of the opinion that if somebody has an idea that's going
to make this movie better I want to hear it too so it's exhausting too and some people have great
ideas that you never even think of because you're so focused on just getting the shot done or moving
to the next setup or whatever it is that stuff is important if people feel they can be a part of the
process sure so if a character is so embodied in that actor and they're just what I'm sorry Thomas
I just don't think that she would do this in this scene I feel she would go here you you would be
open yeah don't don't get me wrong I'm sure like that there's been times where that's actually
difficult to hear because you're well the whole scene I now need to rethink how it's gonna get
shot and stuff that but at least you're solving it at that moment as opposed to seeing it in the edit
where we're maybe even more problematic or you have to reshoot the scene what yeah sometimes
you're you don't have the freedom to do those things either and you just need to get it done
and as long as everybody's under the that understanding too there may be a time
realistically where an actor says that and I'm i'm sorry we have to do this way but can we find a way
to to make it a little bit more comfortable for you as your character what can we do that
simplifies how to get to make our day because you have the really the realities of of the production
that you have to deal with as well do you still recommend Judith Weston's Directing Actors
I haven't read it in a long time but I do remember it being really valuable to me when I was young
so so there's a lot of things that I remember about it but also
again that book and actually any book that's related to filmmaking is about providing people
with a structure to begin their journey into this a making a film or a short or whatever it's it's
a way to help you understand what the things are that you need to think about at a certain point
it becomes less I need to do it this book said and more I'm gonna do it my way because this is
what works for me but I do think that all those things are valuable especially for people who are
starting out for sure how is directing documentary subjects different than directing narrative actors
or is it the same it's so different that it's hard to actually tell you how one is
you're not directing doc subjects that much at least I wasn't and I haven't in my experience
with zero gravity one the the the subjects are kids which is another challenge in and of itself
but also they were already on a journey that I didn't really want to get in the way of and I
also wanted their experience to be genuine and I didn't want to prevent them from having
that experience those were two things were very important to me so so what I did most of the time
is film their day in the class let's say for the sake of zero gravity because they're coding
satellites aboard the space station and really try to use long lenses and get out of their way
so they kind of forgot that we were around we shot it as close as intimately as possible but that was
one way that we did it especially because because of kids and also you're reacting constantly
to what's happening in front of you you're not setting up shots really you're you're being in
the right place at the right time and you have to anticipate often where that right place and right
time is going to be that was also maybe the the hardest part especially in the big event sequences
which were at nasa generally for the film we're oh they're gonna have the awards stuff here they're
gonna be looking at the screens here this is when they play I gotta be in the right place
to get any of those kids on camera and what their reaction is when those things happen so I'm we had
a schedule that was different than what the kids had because we would have to be two minutes before
them so that we could make sure that we were where we needed to be and things that obviously
that's so different than a narrative potentially where you're scripting things and you're setting
up your shots and you're communicating with the actors to give you your performances and all those
things that there's some value though in adapting documentary approaches to setting up scenes
in narrative in particular we did set up some stuff in in zero gravity for instance where it
was okay this is what we want we're in the kids home let's say with their parents or something
and this is what we want to do basically so you obviously are gonna set up certain things
that especially in the personal lives of it so they can kind of convey more
personal aspects of who they are and and then they kind of run with it but you're not really
doing takes or anything that you're just sort of going and that experience of doing that I'm really
excited to apply that to some extent to how I set up certain scenes in a narrative because that
there is a naturalness happened that was constant for the documentary zero gravity in particular
as the director for it that I just really am excited to see how to apply that in a narrative
sense sending Paul Greengrass is a really one of my favorite directors because of how he stages his
sequences so that they're shot in a way kind of documentaries obviously they're going to go in and
get coverage and things that but even in united 93 as an example where they created that flight
control room as a and then ran it as a two-hour setup as is how they they would do some of those
sequences just to keep it constant and the the in intensity real that's fascinating to me and doing
the documentary stuff and narrative makes me think that they can be linked but it doesn't they're not
ever gonna you can't really just take one and do the other either there it depends on the narrative
of this of your script in the in in a certain case and then a documentary is the story is going to
tell itself so you just have to really prepare that you're in the right place and ready I guess
did you see Framing John Delorean no because it was it was a mesh of documentary and narrative
and so you had it was Alec baldwin playing John Delorean and so he would reenact certain scenes
and then they would also show him in the makeup chair about to go into a scene and how he would
envision John dDlorean doing these different things and then you saw actual footage from news
reports and different things so it was it was a great mesh yeah it was a movie within a movie and
then they had all these different documentary filmmakers that had done movies on john
giving their commentary so it was just this great mishmash oh that's fascinating yeah yeah
documentaries are you there's so many different ways to do it they can be experienced experimental
they can be archive based entirely with with interviews and things that I in my both for
phenoms and zero gravity we I opted for a verite kind of approach well I want to be in the moment
as much as possible but of course that's not that may be where it becomes similar in a sense
and what I meant talking about where the where you can cross over in the narrative sense just from my
from my experience but I can absolutely recognize that anything is possible in either case really.
What do you think is the most important part of a director's job?