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so I have a script to work off of to
tell you about directing but what do you
think we should do in this video should
I show you what a director does should I
explain everything a director does
should I try to get you to guess what a
director does people often assume that
the director has all of the answers but
directors also ask a lot of questions
according to American playwright and
filmmaker David Mamet directors only
have two main questions to ask
themselves what do I tell the actors and
where do I put the camera and that's a
cheeky way of encompassing a lot of what
the directors should do but maybe a
better way of looking at it is that
director has a strong sense of where the
answers are buried and their job is to
steer their team to where they can
uncover those answers that might sound a
little foofy but it's the clearest way I
can describe what the job of a director
is a director must use everything at
their disposal to clearly communicate to
their actors their crew and ultimately
to us the audience
a director's job is to bring their
vision to life in the film so a common
misunderstanding is that the actors are
just like puppets illustrating the
directors ideas an actor's job is to
bring a character to life and we need
actors to think real thoughts and feel
real feelings to make the film relatable
a good actor gives the director options
by making informed choices about how a
character would act in various
situations that the script puts them in
we've talked about the language of the
camera and how the way shots are frames
can help convey a story but the cameras
most important job is to read the
characters thoughts or that to happen
actors have to be vulnerable and think
as the character this is incredibly
demanding work so it's up to the
director to ensure that the actors have
a safe space to explore their characters
and to take risks and the actor relies
on the director to steer them in the
right direction I joked earlier about
having you guess what I would say in
this video
that's because forcing an actor into a
position where they're unsure about how
to act in a scene is one way to ruin
their performance if an actor feels like
they need to direct themselves in the
scene they won't risk losing themselves
in the world of the film and it'll feel
fake to give an actor the confidence
they need to inhabit a character a
director must give clear actionable
directions what do I mean by that well
let's say we're working on a scene about
a breakup a clear actionable direction
could be since your character has been
blindsided by this breakup you want to
keep the other person from leaving the
room so you can get answers the actor
receiving this direction now knows that
their character has just learned they
were wrong about the other character and
they have a goal of keeping the other
person there they know where they're
coming from and where they're trying to
go now no matter what happens in the
scene the actor can feel confident in
their decisions if they're working
toward keeping the other person in the
room on the flip side of that an unclear
or non actionable direction in that
breakup scene could be you wish this
wasn't happening and it reminds you of
when your parents got divorced how do
you act wishing or being reminded of
something that's way too vague but if
the director knew what they wanted they
could tell the actor something like you
see this person is the father who left
you when you were 10 and just like then
you'll do anything to keep them here so
now this is a more active all note
because our actor understands the power
dynamic of this relationship and knows
that they're using the same tools a
ten-year-old would and most importantly
the actor now has a goal keep the other
person from leaving so the director has
a plan for how they'd like the scene to
go and the actor will add their own
interpretations to that and the hope is
they uncover the best possible scene it
is possible for a director to get the
scene they envision without allowing the
actors to do their work but this doesn't
build trust or create conditions for a
better film than the director is capable
of imagining this is something author
and directing instructor Judith Weston
calls result-oriented directing and it's
a common mistake of new directors who
are focused on the surface level aspects
of acting instead of the true work that
goes into it instead of working with the
actors to unpack what the line means and
what the purpose of the scene is a
director will focus on outward of moding
and try to control how an actor does
things you may have heard directions
like on that line laughs or when you see
her you start to cry this tells the
actor nothing about what their character
is actually thinking and feeling a
director might think they're helping the
actor by telling them how they should
say the line or where they should put
emphasis on the line but this is called
a line reading and it limits the actor
to just mimicking the director rather
than communicating with the characters
feeling a result-oriented direction will
usually give the director what they
think they want in that moment but at a
pretty high cost these directors are
only paying attention to what the
characters look like outwardly instead
of what's going on inside their minds
and when you're working with a good
actor who's thinking real thoughts the
camera and therefore the audience can
pick up on those thoughts the result
will be a deeper more nuanced
performance than when the actor is just
pantomiming what the director tells them
to do it's important to remember that
filmmaking is collaborative by design
and while the director is the creative
leader insisting the film turn out
exactly like the director imagines can
severely limit the film result-oriented
directing can also break trust that's
been built between director and actor
after all if a director can't trust an
actor to experiment and discover what's
needed from a scene then why should the
actor trust the director the detrimental
shortcut of line readings can be avoided
by making time for rehearsal and
rehearsal is a great way for the
director and actors to build trust some
directors like Sidney Lumet's are subtle
about it Loonette would tell each person
where to sit at the first read-through
of a script this made it clear to the
actors that he had a plan and was
confident in his choices directors like
Mike Lee are more overt about building
trust and rehearsal Lee purposely works
with actors who are willing to explore
themes and ideas before they even have a
script they work through proposed scenes
together and then Lee develops a script
around what they've uncovered together
in the rehearsal process by the time the
cameras are rolling the actors have been
living and growing as these characters
so they
how to approach every scene from
rehearsal to final cut a director's job
always includes guiding the actors and
their roles in shaping those
performances but the director also works
with every creative Department on a film
that's what Mamet calls where to put the
camera but it involves much more than
that just like with the actors the
director has to deeply understand the
other departments so they can
communicate clearly with everyone during
pre-production the director coaches the
location scouts on what the film needs
in its setting they work with the
production designers set decorators and
props department to build the world and
orchestrate everything in the Me's onsen
and before the actors even get to set
the director needs to understand the
film's characters to communicate their
personalities and struggles to the
costume designer both before and during
filming the director works with the hair
and makeup and special effects
departments to perfect the details of
the storytelling and yes the director
decides where to put the camera there
are an infinite number of ways to make a
shot look cool or beautiful but there's
usually one best way to shoot a scene
when you remember that every shot should
be motivated by what the scene is trying
to convey what's motivating the camera
placement movement can be practical like
if you need to show someone driving we
need to see who it is and also that
they're in a car but how the director
decides to use the camera can also help
us understand something about the
character or the themes of the film more
deeply starting in pre-production the
director and cinematographer work
together to design the shot list they'll
usually work with a storyboard artist to
illustrate what the shots will look like
and work off the storyboards as a
reference they can do this before
locations are nailed down and it's
possible to work on it even before the
actors are cast because what determines
how a film is shot is that blueprint we
talked about before the script just like
every line of dialogue every shot should
convey new information to the audience
we should be able to watch a film with
the sound off and still be able to get
what's going on we should be able to
know things like who our protagonist is
what they want what's standing in their
way and how they feel once we know what
to tell the actors and where to set the
camera there's still one huge job left
for the director post-production just
like with all the other creative leads
the director needs to communicate the
story with the editor and composers in
order to tell the best version of the
story the editing process introduces the
final layer of discovery for the
director the director is the guiding
force and uncovering the answers right
up until the final cuts what the best
version of the story is depends on the
director in the film while a director
leads their team in unlocking that best
version they're also the decision-makers
they're holding the whole
film in their heads and actors
cinematographers designers editors and
composers are all giving the director
options that they think are the right
answers for the film then the director
chooses which are the best depending on
the size of the production the director
might not be the one calling action or
cut but the director is always the one
who says yes that's what I want
today we explored the directors role as
a leader and creative guide for everyone
else working on the film we learned that
the director must have a strong vision
and be able to communicate it clearly
and we talked about how one of the
directors most important jobs is
creating a safe space for the rest of
the team to do their creative work one
of those people is the cinematographer
who we'll talk about next time crash
course film production is produced in
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space time this episode of crash course
was filmed in the doctor Cheryl C Kinney
crash course studio with the help of
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