Film Directing

Principles of Directing

The film director’s primary task is to interpret the screenplay and translate it visually. He is the creative mind that chooses the aesthetical and technical specifications to be implemented in his vision. To succeed in this mission, he is involved from the early stages of pre-production all the way to the final phase of post.
Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973) is perhaps the movie that best romanticizes the job and life of a director on and outside of the set during a film production. Their amazement and frustrations are subject matters featured in Truffaut’s Academy Award-winning film.
Even though directors must oversee the several stages of production, during photography, everything could get exponentially hectic. Their personal lives – family, friends, and affairs – are shoved aside to pave way for the film production. Weekends and holidays too. Everything revolves around the production schedule. At daytime, they shoot. At night, they rewrite the script. During breaks, they rehearse. Lights, costumes, decor, props, camera, actors are all supervised by the director, who’s often multitasking and micromanaging all of those. Directing movies requires extensive command of the craft. It takes decades to master and centuries to forget.

Traits of a Director

The director must be a tyrant and a democrat, a dreamer and a realist, a rebel and a loyalist. He has to give orders and follow them. He has to demand and obey. He has to be the most snobbish and most sociable person on set. He is the manager, the judge, the president. A friend. He is all of those and much more.
During a film production, the director assumes very many roles. Besides mastering the production process and storytelling techniques, he has to be aware of cultural and political issues that surround his movie. He has to be sensible of possible implications that any elements in his picture may cause.
Well-rounded, the director must know, for instance, that the color red means danger and emergency in America, whereas in China it connotes courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, and happiness.
In the exceptional example of Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock foresaw the encroaching revolution of the 1960s and took advantage of it. Being entrepreneurial, he purchased the rights to the novel of same title and even bought copies to obscure the ending. Hitchcock was so sure that the picture would be a hit that he even deferred his director’s salary in order to get some support by the studios. By noticing the approaching revolution, he knew he could have Janet Leigh in her underwear in the bedroom and naked in the shower. The picture became the highest grossing film of Hitchcock's career, a box office triumph, earning $11,200,000.

Training

The essential training to be a film director usually begins at a very early age, watching movies. Aside from the very first ones, all great filmmakers were once kids enamored with moving pictures. Not just a hobby but a full-time love affair. As the kids grew up, they refined their vision and hearing to scrutinize the components inherent to the movies they watched. They observed camerawork, editing, acting, score… everything.
The next step would be actual hands on a film camera and shooting. Decades ago, making short movies with friends and learning the necessary skills by trial and error were considered a valuable method to become a filmmaker. But times have changed. The competition is much bigger now, and digital has ruined many youngsters.
With a generation that grows up watching YouTube, the discernment between good and awful is shattered by a criterion that values number of hits over technical excellence. Shaky cameras, trite stories, squeaky voices, and porch lighting are among the many problems caused by the preponderance of digital cameras.
Nowadays, attending a film school is a wise option to become a filmmaker. There, students will have keen insight on all the levels of production and the many professionals involved to make a movie, plus the chance to make friends that share the same passion. Networking.

Blocking

Blocking was originally a theatre term that refers to the positioning and movement of the actors in the stage. An essential part of rehearsal, blocking is necessary for a smooth performance.

from wikipedia The term derives from the practice of 19th century theatre directors such as Sir W. S. Gilbert who worked out the staging of a scene on a miniature stage using blocks to represent each of the actors.

 In cinema, camera and lights are added to the equation. Blocking a motion picture involves the precise synchrony and movement of the actors in relation to camera and lights. The director is the one responsible for blocking. He must guide the cast to accommodate his vision for the arrangement or composition of the frame. The more “trained” actors are during blocking, the faster principal photography will be.

Sketch the Scene

One efficient way to block actors and camera is to use drawings. Hand-drawn pictures are fine, although computers make the job easier. Floor plans and storyboards are often combined for a faster process but also to help the crew visualize everything needed for the shoot to happen.

Floor plans are used to design the layout of a scene with actors and camera positions. Floor plans are quite convenient when shooting a scene with an elaborate setup. Too many actors and ambitious camera movements (dollies, cranes) constitute a good definition of “elaborate setup.”

Storyboards are also common. They are a collection of frames that tells the story visually. The frames illustrate the more important shots in the movie. Storyboards are quite convenient when the directors is explaining exactly what type of composition he desires.

Attention to Body Language

Deciding on the positions of the subject and camera are only the first and second steps of blocking. The third is body language - posture. A director must pay close attention to how actors use their bodies and what is signified by their postures and gestures. Quite regularly, professional directors instruct actors on how to move their hands and legs and eyes. It is attention to detail that separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls.

In the frame above, you can see two actors with contrasting postures. Angelina Jolie, impeccable, holds herself straight, with air of nobility. Her back does not touch the chair. Her hands are held in front of her bosom – we can tell this is not comfortable.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Johnny Depp, slouched in his chair, legs crossed, supporting his arms. He looks tired and uncouth. But not Angelina. She's refined, elegant, sophisticated... A lot information is conveyed by posture. Keep that in mind.

Coverage

The initial recording of a scene is usually done with a master shot, a shot wide enough to capture the action in its entirety. But screening the whole scene from a single wide shot would be boring, not to mention all the detail that would be missed.
Ergo crafting a film involves recording a scene from different camera angle using different shot  sizeto emphasize important elements of the film, such as a gun in someone’s hand or a tear in someone’s eye. This use of subsequent camera setups is known as coverage. Coverage is important not only to keep things dynamic and exciting within the scene, but also to ease the editing process of the movie.
Observe the example of coverage below from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). All the shots combined together make the scene very interesting, especially as it contains very elaborate compositions and as it focuses on character’s facial expressions.

Among the several types of shots, we find in the example above long shots, medium shots, close-ups, ECUs, high-angles, inserts, and reactions. In the movie, the scene is practically silent. Yet the amazing coverage is able to convey emotions and tensions.
It is one of the director’s tasks to create a shot list, and thus define how the coverage will be. Before principal photography starts, the director should know where the camera will be and what or who it will shoot. A movie with poor coverage always feels awkward, for it usually impedes the editor from accomplishing the much praised invisible editing.

Shooting Script

The shooting script is more elaborate, precise, overwritten version of the screenplay. Unlike what common sense may suggest, the shooting script is not written by the screenwriter. It is written by the director alongside his cinematographer, while both discuss their ideas and shot plan desired for the movie.
In broad terms, the main difference between the screenplay and the shooting script is that the screenplay is a selling tool, whereas the shooting script is a production tool.
When a screenwriter pens the screenplay, he is trying to sell, above all else, the story. Therefore, he has to create a smooth read with a harmonious flow, otherwise his screenplay and hard work end up in the wastebasket. Screenplays should contain little to no direction whatsoever. Directing the movie and calling the shots is not the writer’s task; it is the director’s.
Ideally, right after a screenplay is purchased, the movie enters pre-production. The director then will alter the story as he deems fits and eventually craft the shooting script. The shooting script is normally broken into shots, featuring precise cinematography terminology such as close-ups, dolly in, overexposed. The idea here is to inform the crew what is going on. Before principal photography starts, the shooting script will be divided into dates, so everyone knows what is being shot when.
Although terrible to read, the shooting script is essential to a complex production such as the one of feature movies. The goal is to let all the crew members know what they will need to bring or arrange beforehand.