From “Directing The Film – Film Directors on Their Art“,
Eric Sherman, 1976, Acrobat books, Los Angeles.

Usually the AD, the Assistant Director, will take charge of getting everybody ready for the shot. Any final make-up touches and powder will be applied to bright, shiny faces and last minute hair adjustments will be made. Continuity will be checked. Props will have been set in place and lights will be tweaked. On set, mobile phones should always be switched off whilst filming.

Unless you are on a sound stage, the sound recordist will wait for the numerous planes to pass by overhead and cars to disappear before giving the all clear.

Going for a shot will go something like this:

The Assistant Director will ask:

• AD: “Everybody ready?”
• EVERYBODY: Yes / yo / you bet / Do it, do it! / yeah / fuck yeah!/kiss my ass.

Everyone is ready to go.

• DIRECTOR/AD: “Roll sound” or “run sound.”

The sound recordist (opens eyes/puts down newspaper or porn mag) switches on his gizmos and announces:

• SOUND RECORDIST: “Rolling/running!”

The AD or Director will then say:

• DIRECTOR/AD: “Roll camera” or “run camera” or “turnover.”

The camera operator or his/her assistant will start the camera. (This depends upon the crew size,budget and whether shooting film or digital).

• 1st CAMERA ASSISTANT: “Rolling” or “Running” or “Speed*”

The 1st or 2nd camera assistant will then hold the ‘board’ or ‘clapper board’ at a distance where it will appear in a central position in the camera frame. You can determine this by either looking at the size of the shot in the monitor or the viewfinder or through experience, by judging the distance based on the lens focal length. The Operator will then say:

• CAMERA OPERATOR: “Mark it!“

On ‘mark it’, will declare:

• 1ST/2ND/CLAPPER LOADER/CAMERA ASSISTANT: “slate 1, take 1.”

The camera assistant may also sometimes announce the name of the production before snapping shut the board.

• DIRECTOR: “Action.”

The Action takes place.

• DIRECTOR: “cut!”

The director will check with both camera and sound departments for their feedback on whether there were any problems/issues with the shot. If shooting on film, the camera gate will be checked straight away for dust and small particles which could have scratched the film’s surface.

The Director will confer with the actors on their feelings about the performance and give them his/her comments. It’s rare to have a one take wonder so there will generally be another couple of takes to improve any or all of the elements involved.

* The term ‘speed’ comes from the camera operator announcing when a film camera had been started and run up to the desired amount of ‘frames per second’, its proper speed.

Putting that shot footage together and watching it back involved processing, sticky tape, swearing, film-projectors and making a screen with sheets nicked off your bed.

Luckily, this was much more of a problem in the past than it is now. Within the last decade advances in digital video technology has resulted in an abundance of low-cost image capture devices, digital camcorders and accessories, enabling anyone with an interest in the subject to experiment and learn the craft.

That craft contains certain skills that all directors and soon-to-be directors need if they want communicate their unique vision, firstly, to their cast and crew and then eventually to their potential audience, waiting breathlessly in the dark.

Film making is a collaborative activity and you will always need others to assist you but one of the most important skills for a director is also easy to practice alone. This is the art of framing or composition.

What is composition?

Composition is the art of arranging elements within the camera frame into an appropriate and harmonious form. The organisation of the physical (objects, people, landscape) and the psychological aspects (viewpoint, mood, position) of a shot, is designed to communicate an idea or essential aspect of the story you are telling. Of course, if you are trying to disturb your audience you can deliberately create disharmony within your frames.

Everything within a frame will attract the eye of the viewer if you allow it. Now, where do you want that eye to go? Do you want it darting about all over the place? In that case, have lots of objects, people and activity going on in that frame, all of equal interest. This is what photographers call a ‘busy’ frame. There is no one centre of interest and this can be quite tiring to look at.

The questions you have to be asking yourself are, “

• where is the major point, or points, of interest in this frame?
• where do you want the audience to look?

It is good practice then to produce images that ‘lead the eye’ to a point that you have decided upon.

All you need is a device that takes pictures and some motivation. Ideally that would be a dedicated camera but a cell phone is just as useful. Practice capturing people, buildings, landscapes, objects. Practice and then practice some more. You’re not trying to take the best picture ever; you merely want to develop your ‘eye’.

As a visual artist, knowledge of how to compose shots is a must-have and there is no excuse for not developing it. Once you do however, you will be able communicate your filmed images and cinematic vision with much more power and authority.

There are several things you can do to maximize your chances of understanding actors and the process and therefore pinning down exactly what you are looking for:

1. Read books on acting. I recommend anything by ‘Directing actors’ by Judith Weston, who has great understanding of the process but there are plenty of others out there.
2. Try out some acting classes at a local college or evening class. There is nothing better for learning a subject than throwing yourself into it, if you have the courage. It will build confidence too and you will start to get a hook on the language and methods of acting.
3. Watch them work. Live theatre is a great place to study actors in the moment. You will soon start to recognize people who lose themselves in their characters and people who don’t. Good and bad acting will start to shout out to you and you will develop the skill of seeing when an actor is really listening and when they’re just saying the lines. You may need front row seats for this though otherwise it’s the binoculars.
4. Check out nearby drama schools that often have regular free or cheap performances of both well known works and more experimental stuff. It’s a great place to find local talent and possible collaborators.

Working with actors is about you as a director being able to draw the performance you want from another person. That other person is not a robot or a machine but a human being who is making themselves vulnerable every time they go up for a role in a film or a play. To put oneself in that position time and time again takes a lot of guts and stamina. In order to protect that vulnerability, most actors will need to feel ‘safe’ working with you so that they can fully express their emotions and do a good job. It is up to you to generate that ‘safe place’ and the freedom for them to create. We are not talking about a physical place as such; it’s simply means having their director’s (that’s you) confidence and trust.

Directing actors can be frustrating at times like any human interaction, but it’s mostly rewarding, exciting and an incredible learning experience; of which you will probably become aware of much later. For the most part it’s a short term relationship, but a relationship nonetheless and if you go about it the right way, it could lead to much longer, mutually beneficial collaborations.