the videos from the album ‘wait for me’ have all been made by friends of mine who were given complete creative control. the video for the song ‘wait for me’ was made by my friend jessica dimmock. i gave her $5,000 and complete creative control to do whatever she wanted to do, and i think it’s an amazing and honest short film. i’m having a competition where mobygratis users can win $5,000 to make a video for ‘wait for me’. details are at mobygratis.com. thanks, moby

+ download the track and submit your film on the genero.tv competition page >>

For instructions on how to sign up for these courses please visit our previous blog post on our free online screenwriting classes.

If you’re interested please email us at info@lightsfilmschool.com with the following information:

1. Type “Lab Chats” in your subject line
2. In the body of the email let us know a little more about yourself and your interest and experience within the realm of screenwriting.
3. Let us know your top 3 choices for the lab chats you want to partake in. Ensure you include the proper title of the lab chat so we know where to place you.

After we receive this information we will email you a confirmation within the next week! We cannot guarantee placement as we need to cap the number of students who enroll in these free online screenwriting courses, but we’ll do our best to try and accommodate those who RSVP quickly!

The Lab Chats and their descriptions can be found below.

Writing for Small-Budget Productions
While some of us may dream of penning and selling the next Avatar, the truth of the matter is that most of us will get our first break on a much smaller scale. Learning the craft of writing for a manageable production budget is essential for every screenwriter – whether you are trying to sell your scripts to Hollywood or plan on producing them independently. In this session, we’ll delve deeper into the choices you must make in areas such as location, actors, and special effects when you are writing a script on a tight budget. We’ll discuss how to maintain a high level of creativity without requiring 50 million dollars worth of explosions and car chases. We’ll also look at examples of films written with a small budget in mind. The registration deadline is February 22, 2010.
DATE: Monday, March 15, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

The Paradigm of Dramatic Structure
One thing that all good stories have in common is a beginning, a middle, and end. A screenplay is no different. In order to hold all of these elements in place, we need structure — a form — the paradigm. — the foundation – not formula – of a good screenplay. In this session we will be dissecting the paradigm and putting it through the test. I encourage you all to bring a film – that truly works! – to the table so we can run it through the paradigm machine. We all want to be the first to create something unique and innovative, but remember: we must first examine and analyze our foundations before we can attempt to create something truly productive.
Registration deadline is February 22, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, March 18, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

Landing the Hook: The First Ten Pages & the Inciting Incident (WORKSHOP)
Producers and agents (or their assistants) see dozens, if not hundreds, of scripts a week, many of which begin to blur together. And the sorry truth of the matter is that if your script doesn’t capture their attention within the first ten pages, it will most likely be quickly thrown into the recycling bin. A screenplay fails or succeeds in the first ten pages, and if you start out poorly you will have a hard time throughout the entire process. In this session, we’ll take a look at the first ten pages and the inciting incident – the place from which your story launches. We’ll look at the beginning of two successful scripts and discuss the mechanics of what makes them successful. If students are interested in submitting the first 10 pages of their own scripts, we’ll also take the time to workshop each piece. The registration deadline is March 1, 2010.
DATE: Monday, March 22, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

Catalyst / Pivotal Characters
There comes a time when all your protagonist needs is a boost — something to change their immobility into actuation. “Pivotal characters” have the difficult job of launching action between our protagonists and antagonists. Find out why they are so crucial to the plot and when we can expect to have them give our heroes that much-needed shove. Here’s a hint: somewhere around page sixty…
Suggested reading: Jacob’s Ladder by Bruce Joel Rubin. Registration deadline is March 1, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, March 25, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

Actions Speak Louder than Words: Using Action to Move Your Story
Contrary to what most think, dialogue is the leading killer of successful screenplays. Pages upon pages of snappy, witty and erudite dialogue usually leads to boring, slow-paced scripts that leave the audience yawning and checking their watches. In this session, we’ll focus on ACTION – the most important thing to propelling your story forward – whether you’re writing for Michael Bay, Gus Van Sandt, or any director in between. We’ll discuss how to write strong, active descriptions that will force your screenplay to leap off the page. We’ll take a look at excerpts from a few produced scripts and discuss how action works (or doesn’t work) in these stories. We’ll also discuss how action and dialogue can work together, and play off each other, to create exciting scenes.  The registration deadline is March 8, 2010.
DATE: Monday, March 29, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

Atmosphere in the Screenplay
The screenplay form can be constricting and intimidating for some — you have a certain foundation you must adhere to and a laundry list of ways you can unintentionally bog your story down. Some people can be afraid to explore their character’s surroundings – we can’t tell the director how to do his/her job – but through atmosphere the screenwriter is given a chance to add dimension to their characters. Take advantage of this visual medium by filling space with artifacts that allure to our character’s dreams, beliefs, fears, hobbies, habits, secrets, and emotions. Suggested reading: Edward Scissorhands by Caroline Thompson. Registration deadline is March 8, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, April 1, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

Building Complete Characters (WORKSHOP)
It may seem obvious that characters are one of the most important parts of any story, but character development is something often overlooked by writers anxious to get their screenplay out on the page. For a story to succeed, characters must be developed in excruciating detail – details you know will likely never make it into your final script. However, the better you – the writer – know your own characters, the more believable they will be for your audience. In this session, we’ll discuss character building from the initial idea through the actual writing process. We’ll work on character development exercises in real-time and discuss the results of our work. This a great session for new screenwriters or those who would like a refresher on character development.  The registration deadline is March 29, 2010.
DATE: Monday, April 19, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

The Killer in You: Writing for Horror Cinema
“We make up horrors to help cope with real ones”. – King. Over the years, horror films have received a bad rap. A large percentage of them are exploitative pieces of celluloid carrion that hold no weight. Every once and while, a horror film comes along that shocks and surprises — by holding substance! Allegories, metaphors, and similes are abound in this lecture where we will be discussing the craft of combining excess and social commentary to ensure that your horror film can hold its own weight (We will – of course – be examining some classic horror films for comparison).  Registration deadline is March 29, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, April 22, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

Writing Tension: A Close Look at ‘Munich’
Few films capture the essence of tension as well as Steven Spielberg’s Munich. This film ratchets up the suspense from the first frame and continues to do so throughout the duration of the film, pausing only briefly to allow the audience a few moments of introspection. In this session, we’ll discuss this film in depth, paying specific attention to the writer’s role in orchestrating the film’s tension. Prior to the session, it would be helpful if participants read excerpts of the script (sent via e-mail upon registration) and watched the film. We will look at how tension and suspense influence everything in this film, from the characters, to the setting, to the political and emotional climate. Bring your questions and comments. The registration deadline is April 1, 2010.
DATE: Monday, April 26, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

Beginnings and Endings
How are you opening your screenplay? Are you introducing your characters and story in a way that grabs the reader – and hopefully later on, the viewer – insuring that their attention is kept? Do you know your ending? Does your character live or die? Save the maiden? Loose or keep their superpowers? Do you have direction? In order to get from points A to Z, you need to know what A and Z are. While many believe that characters and story will determine the ending, those endings are ineffective. Whereas you can chose how to get there, you must figure out a definitive ending. Let’s figure out yours.  Registration deadline is April 1, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, April 29, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

On Adaptation: Working from Source Material
A majority of films today are based on source material from another medium. Whether they’re novels, plays, or short stories, source material is notoriously difficult to bring into the realm of film. Film is an active medium, where the filmmaker is only allowed 2 hours to tell their story. In this amount of time, it is nearly impossible to stick to the source material completely. In this session, we’ll look at a few films based on original material and talk about the success (or lack of success) of these projects. We’ll also discuss the various methods to use when approaching an adaptation.  The registration deadline is April 5, 2010.
DATE: Monday, May 3, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

Story Development: Subject and the Obvious Idea
Creating a subject – action and character, what happens and who it happens to – out of nothing can be a formidable task, but chances are, if you’re looking for your subject, it’s also looking for you – you just have to figure out where it’s hiding. Once your subject has been discovered, it’s beneficial to examine it — to see if it is – in fact – a “good idea”. If you keep your ears open long enough, you will hear the exclamation, “That would make a great movie!” Would it really? In this session, we’ll explore initial inspirations and how to weed out the obvious idea. Can your idea really be turned into a one hundred and twenty page screenplay, or will it hit that formidable “first-act wall”? Be prepared to run through a few exercises – in real time – to see where our minds can go during inkling inception.  Registration deadline is April 5, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, May 6, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

Writing in War Films
War films have been around since the creation of the medium itself. Every American war has been portrayed on film, with many approaching the subject matter from an evolving set of perspectives and angles. Themes of heroism, trauma, loss, love and confusion are all present in this multi-faceted genre. In this session, we’ll take a look at a series of films ranging from Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator to Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and discuss the genre of war films, as well as their social and political implications. We’ll pay special attention to the writing in these films, and for those interested, we’ll discuss how to approach a story that is framed by a historical (or fictional) war. Please RSVP early for this class, so that the instructor can send you the pre-requisite viewing list for this session. The registration deadline is April 12, 2010.
DATE: Monday, May 10, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Phil Duncan

Avoiding the Novice: Formatting Do’s and Don’ts
Studio execs, producers, directors, etc. — they are all looking for any excuse to not read your screenplay. Don’t give them one. With the mess of material that graces their desks on a regular basis, any reason to not have to dig through another novice’s script is exceedingly welcomed. In this session we’ll be discussing those “red flags” that tell your reader that your experience is limited, as well as ways to avoid turning a simple form into perplexity.  Registration deadline is April 12, 2010.
DATE: Thursday, May 13, 2010
TIME: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM PST
Led by Kyle Aldrich

There are certain fonts that lend themselves well to web design, others that work better in print and others that are optimal for use against dynamic content such as moving images.

While web fonts such as Tahoma, Verdana and Georgia are great for use in web media, they were designed to work well in static design environments where the background doesn’t change.

There are three fonts that are widely used for subtitles in films and documentaries. They are:

Univers 45
Antique Olive
Tiresias

These three fonts work well as subtitles over dynamic content and will allow you to communicate most effectively with your audience.

When you design your subtitles, you will need to keep in mind that moving images interact with your top layer subtitles. For example, if your subtitles are white and they rest on top of a similar white tone in your image, the text will be difficult, if not impossible to read.

To ensure this doesn’t happen you should use a black outline around your text. This helps ensure your text will be viewable even against common black and white backgrounds.

Alternatively, some filmmakers use a yellow font for their subtitles. However, even if you decide to use yellow subtitles you should nevertheless use a black outline (and possibly even a soft shadow) around the text to ensure its readability.

If you experiment with fonts for your subtitles ensure you experiment with Sans Sheriff fonts. They are much more readable than their sheriff cousins.

Below is an example using the free Tiresias font mentioned above.

Example 1: Using no shadows or outlines

Example 2: Using a soft shadow and no outline

Example 3: Using a soft shadow and a subtle outline. Notice how the font stands out much better against the lighter tones in the image?

That being said, it’s important to leave out technical information. In a script you may include camera information (angles, movement etc), but in a treatment you’ll want to keep it limited to non-technical information.

Similarly, you won’t want your treatment to have an editorial tone. Rather than saying things like:

“This documentary will dive into the subject of gender relations in the hip hop community.” The documentary will look at the relationship between two nemeses; Mr. Bugz and Mrs DJ Spinna.

Instead say:

“Mr. Bugz B and Mrs DJ Spinna stand toe to toe in front of their microphones. Mr. Bugz rhymes and misogynistic rhyme stating “we don’t want no ugly girls in here tonight” to which Mrs DJ Spinna retaliates with a rhyme mocking Mr. Bugs unusually large ears. The crowd goes wild. Mr Bugz continues, but with less steam. The insult has touched on a vulnerable part of his identity.”

Again, it’s important to stress that you need to avoid editorial writing when writing treatments and instead speak in an active and present voice. Similarly, you should avoid using words and phrases like

“Next we see” – Don’t start sentences with “we see”. Tell the audience what they see without introducing your sentence with “we see”.

Try to avoid passive words such as: Should, will, might and maybe.

Passive words evoke less emotion and take the audience out of the story. Feel free to use dialogue snippets, descriptions of the environment and characters. Essentially use any non-technical element that helps you paint as colourful of a picture as possible.

This all being said, documentary treatments are inherently difficult to write. Because of the nature of documentaries where most of the action is unknown until the end of filming, it’s challenging to come up with a treatment for a documentary before it’s filmed. For this reason you might not be able to write a treatment until the end of the production process. However, there are two good reasons to attempt a treatment before you start filming.

First, a treatment helps investors visualize your idea in a personal manner. Treatments don’t have a “business feel” to them. They sound dramatic, personal and honest.

Secondly, they help you figure out what your expectations are for your documentary and they provide the beginnings of a road map you can later follow. Of course your documentary will change as you start filming, but writing a treatment will make you aware of your own expectations and ideas. A treatment could be written as if you have already finished your documentary and now you’re looking back and giving a description of what happened. If you do this, your expectations and story ideas will be written and therefore visualized. This is a great place to launch your documentary project from and it will help you better understand the three dimensional shape of your intended project.

With the democratization of both the production and distribution process filmmakers are increasingly curious to know how to create and distribute successful independent films.

If you’re a filmmaker and you have a success story to tell we’d love to hear about your experiences. If your film meets our criteria and we feel our blog readers will benefit from learning from your experiences we would be more than happy to help you gain exposure to your film by publishing your film’s trailer, website, purchasing info and any other relevant information on our blog in exchange for an in depth interview about your filmmaking process. Our blog is viewed by tens of thousands of people each month so your film will benefit from the additional publicity.

If you would be interested in receiving this type of press / publicity please contact us. In the subject line of your email type “Film Interview”. In the body of the email include your name, your film’s title, the film’s trailer and website (if you have one) and we’ll get back to those who we’d be interested in interviewing.

Looking forward to seeing your submissions!

There is a sense of flatness and 2 dimensionality in many independent films that hurts the perceived production value of the film. This is caused not only by the safe choice of “fronty” lighting, but also by poor production design.

This blog post won’t explore how to use light to help mould shadows around your subjects to create the illusion of three dimensions (as this subject deserves a blog post onto itself), but we will discuss how you can incorporate a strong sense of depth by being aware of your foreground, middle-ground and background.

Many independent filmmakers (to their own demise) hyper-focus on one layer of depth within their composition. For instance, they may place their subjects in the middle of a room and put all of their attention into the middle-ground of the frame with no attention to the placement or design of their background or foreground.

Our previous blog post discussed the issue of designing your background, and now this blog post will discuss background and foreground placement.

Don’t forget that film (like photography) is a two dimensional medium. Filmmakers need to incorporate depth and shadow to help create the illusion of three dimensions. This way audiences forget they are watching a 2 dimensional interpretation of reality on a flat screen, and instead trick themselves into thinking they are looking at a real environment with normal spatial qualities.

A strong foreground element helps give the audience the feeling of “being there”. An object in the foreground helps the audience position themselves in the frame. For example, look at the use of a strong foreground in the following image. Notice how it brings you into the frame?

Even if your main focus is in the middleground you can always use a shallow depth of field to help isolate that layer in paticular. In many films, foreground and background elements are in soft focus while the middle-ground (if that’s where the actors are) is in sharp focus.

In order to get this soft quality to your image, it’s helpful to use a long lens and position your camera far away from your subjects. This will allow you to zoom in and slightly and blur your background without loosing the context of the environment.

When people focus on something, our eyes naturally become selective. For example, while you look at this screen right now, your eyes have adjusted themselves to slightly blur whatever is behind your screen. The more space there is behind your screen the softer your focus will be.

Slightly softening the sharpness of your background helps you isolate the area you want your audience to focus on. However, many filmmakers don’t want to use extremely shallow depth of field because they want their background to provide context and important environmental information. If your background was completely blurred then your audience wouldn’t have a sense of the environment.

Watch the following  Nuri Bilge Ceylan trailer for his film “Three Monkeys”. Pay attention to his use of shots with a strong foreground, middle-ground and background.

White Walls

Over the years we’ve been asked by our students what the “1 thing” we think they need to improve in order to make their films stronger. Well, usually when mistakes are made in film or video, it’s not just 1 mistake that’s made (especially when you’re first starting out).

There are thousands of possible mistakes to be made in each area of development. For example, if you cast poorly then your film is dead before you start filming. If you use an unskilled DOP (Director of Photography) to shoot your movie then your production value will be compromised and you’ll have a hard time getting audiences to sit through the mess that you put up on the screen. If you don’t work with a good producer you risk finishing your film, but then having it sit on a shelf with no distribution deal.

The point being, there are countless mistakes you can make during the entire filmmaking process. At Lights Film School we’ve always encouraged our students to start building with a strong foundation. This is why our first lecture is on the art of storytelling and screenwriting. This benefits both fiction and documentary filmmakers alike.  A great story and a great team (both behind and in front of the camera) are the two pillars of any great film. Without these two elements your film will have weak legs and will likely fall apart by the time you get to the end of the post production process.

That being said, there are 5 problems that we’ve noticed keep popping up in independent films time and time again. Working on correcting these 5 problems is a great start to helping you add a stronger sense of production value to your independent films. This is by no means a comprehensive list. Not even close to it. But it’s a good start!

5 Common  Mistakes Independent Filmmakers Make

1. White Walls

Production Designers are hired for a film to help create the environment for the actors and the story. Many Hollywood productions are shot in studios so the entire set needs to be built from the ground up. In this scenario production designers, set decorators and art directors are all needed to help build the world the characters will inhabit.

Independent filmmakers don’t usually work in the studio environment. Instead they use natural environments. For example, a independent horror film may use a conveniently located forest for one of their chase scenes. Or an independent romance film may use one of the actor’s living rooms for one of their love scenes.

Using natural environments is a great way to add a sense of realism into your film. It’s also a great way to save money. That being said, natural environments need to compliment your story, your film’s color palette and your design preferences.

Allow me to take this moment to invent a filmmaking phrase:

“Not every living room was built to be in your movie”

Not a great phrase, no doubt, but it communicates the point. It’s important not to be lazy with location scouting or set decorating.

In the realm of production design there is a lot that needs to be considered. However, one of the biggest issues I notice repeatedly with independent films (the lower the budget the more common I find this practice), is the use of white walls as a backdrop.

White walls are infinitely boring. They lack texture, they don’t hold shadows well, they lack a strong emotional element and audiences subconsciously associate white walls with bad filmmaking.

You need to design your background. Add mirrors, curtains, coat hangers, paintings, wallpaper (you can put it up with double sided tape so you don’t ruin the paint on the walls). Nurse your background into a life of it’s own that compliments the mood of your scene. At Lights Film School our students need to study color theory so they can actively think about a color palette for their set which complements their story.

One of the world’s best filmmakers, Wong Kar Wai, is a great filmmaker to study from a production design standpoint. Watch his films and notice the attention to backgrounds. I would recommend you watch the films “2046″ and “In the Mood for Love”. He uses both natural environments and studio environments. In both cases he incorporates his love for color, design and texture. Watch the following video  to see an example of how to design interesting backgrounds using nothing more than color, texture, lights, curtains, painted walls and wallpaper.

Continue reading about common film mistakes below:

2. Lack of depth
3. Lack of design (makeup / hair / wardrobe)
4. Weak story
5. Camera movement

Dear Rob,

(Story title removed) is a great story.  I’m particularly impressed with your pacing, which is the most important aspect of creating suspense in a script.  You have the innate ability to utilize the ‘slow reveal’ in your writing, which is a trait that is hard to teach and difficult to master.  Instead of giving your audience all the facts from the outset, you take your time letting them rise to surface organically.

However, I have a few suggestions that will help even further strengthen this suspense.  While pacing is important, you must also give equal attention to character development.  Well-developed characters are going to be what makes all of your suspense worthwhile.  In order for the suspense to work to its greatest potential, your audience needs to believe in the validity of your characters.  If your audience doesn’t believe your characters, they’re going to have a difficult time buying into your suspense.

Let’s take a look at your protagonist Ricky.  Ricky has the potential to be a superb character.  He’s vulnerable, unstable, and chilling.  He is a man who instead of being consumed in fiery revenge, becomes calm and methodical in his violence.  This fact alone is what makes him terrifying, as well as pitiful.  If you can make an audience both loathe and sympathize with your protagonist, you have (in my opinion) done a great thing.

However, the tone of Ricky’s character is inconsistent.  In the first scene, there is no hint of any instability in his personality.  He’s absolutely normal, almost boring.  This is our first introduction to him, and like in real-life, first impressions are very important.  When he snaps later in the story – producing a gun, pistol-whipping people on a whim – it seems too abrupt.  Ricky needs to earn this violence.  I would recommend adding some sort of subtle hint of his instability – of this mental imbalance – in your first scene.

The audience needs to feel that something is off with Ricky from the beginning, something that gives us a gut feeling that this man is capable of committing atrocities.   It reads unnatural on page 6 when he states that he has been “thinking about this for a while.”  Hasn’t it only been less than a day since he first heard rumors of Nicole’s infidelity?  If he has, in fact, been thinking about this for a while – we need some very brief back-story here in the form of a few simple lines of dialogue or action in the very beginning of the story.  Set-up is very crucial, especially in a short film.  You must be very efficient in your craft.

I recommend sitting down and writing a complete character sketch on Ricky.  Even though you won’t use a majority of the material you produce, it will help you really get to know his character.  The more you personally know Ricky, the more believable he’ll read on the page, and ultimately appear on the screen.  What was Ricky’s childhood like?  Was it abusive?  Why is he so violent, so short-tempered and irrational?  Why does he own a gun in the first place?  Answering questions such as these will only strengthen your story.  I was also suggest doing this for all of your characters, though you don’t necessarily need to go into the same amount of depth with each of them.  It may seem tedious and self-serving, but if you truly want the audience’s sympathies – which you absolutely need for the suspense to succeed – each one of your characters needs to breathe on the page.

Finally, I noticed a few minor formatting errors in your piece.  While formatting, in the end, is a personal preference – there are a few things that can make your script read a little more fluidly.  First of all, character names only need to be CAPITALIZED the first time we meet them.  Also, they never need to be completely capitalized in dialogue.  It’s not the end of the world, but it is a little distracting to whomever may be reading your piece.  Secondly, your action paragraphs should be broken down by action.  For example in your very first action sequence, every one of Ricky’s actions – lighting the candles, checking the meal, grabbing the wine – need their own paragraph.  This will help the actor playing Ricky better organize his movements.  He’ll be able to glance at the page and rehearse on the fly without needing to shovel through a long paragraph.

Overall, great job Rob.  Focusing on character development – especially the character of Ricky – will only strengthen this piece.  You’ll notice as you do this that your dialogue will begin to read more naturally and that the interactions between characters will become more human.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this.  I’d be very interested in reading the revision.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or clarifications.

There is no right way to direct actors and every director–actor relationships will be unique. That being said, there are some techniques you can rely on and use as communicative tools to get your point across.

Too many directors want “cheat sheets” of verbs to help them describe action. For example a new director might want to know a replacement word for “sad”. They may think “How do I get my actor to be sadder without using the word sad. I want to sound intelligent and I want to establish a sense of authority through a strong vocabulary”.

This is the wrong approach to directing actors for so many reasons as we’ll discuss below.

For those of you who are a little rusty with your English you might need a reminder of what a verb is. A verb is one of the most critical parts of a sentence and they are relied on heavily in filmmaking because verbs assert something about the subject in a sentence and they express action, events or states of being.

To help you understand this even further you might hear an inexperienced director say “the character should be more angry”. In this case the verb would be angry.

However, it’s important that you go to a deeper emotional level with your actors than this. Giving surface direction that guides towards a specific outcome (such as the direction above) wouldn’t stimulate a very strong performance. Instead you’ll want to use action verbs. These verbs are interpretive and they focus on an actors relationship with themselves or other actors, rather than on a specific physical and emotional outcome. For example, if you told an actor to be “more angry”, they would focus on creating the physical display of that direction. However, if you told them “to confront”, their focus would shift to their honest relationship with the other actor. You can play around using different action verbs such as “to accuse”. This might amplify the anger you’re looking for in your actor. Alternatively, you could use an action verb such as “to pry” in order to soften their anger slightly. Some new directors might feel that having a list of action-verbs will make communication easier with actors. For this reason, we’re providing a very short list of verbs for you to think about their significance and meaning in relation to your story and your characters. This is a non comprehensive list, but the idea is to get you thinking about different ways to interact with your actors using engaging language.

Samples of action verbs

To believe
To satisfy
To punish
To listen
To doubt
To betray
To fear
To accuse
To confront
To convince
To beg
To complain
To punish
To tease
To soothe

Above we satisfied not a false need, but a very base need of new directors to learn verbs to communicate ideas. We almost didn’t include the list because it’s not very valuable for communicating honest ideas. Brushing up on your vocabulary is always helpful but your direction should be original, thoughtful and part of who you are. For example, before engaging in a conversation with a good friend who recently broke up with her boyfriend you wouldn’t study sympathy verbs to get your understanding across. In fact, maybe saying nothing would be more valuable to the relationship. Just as a director who says nothing could be more helpful than one who uses  insincere rhetoric to communicate something they themselves don’t fully understand.

You must think about actors in the same light as you would your non-actor friends. Your main goal is to work with your actors to bring a character to life. Both you and the actors may have different ideas about who their characters are and how they relate to the other characters. You’re asking a real person to embody the life of someone who they are not. Never overlook the fact, that this is not an easy task.

Each actors on set will bring in their own life experiences and will add more complexities into each of the characters than you could ever imagine. This is part of the thrill of filmmaking. Some character traits that you thought might take center stage could end up being more subtle than you initially thought, other traits might be lost and new traits might emerge. It’s your responsibility as a Director to know how to keep these changes within the boundaries of the overall tone of the story, but  at the same time being open enough to explore detail changes and nuances in each of your characters with great joy.

Actors love embodying characters they find challenging or interesting. It’s in your best interest as a director to allow them the opportunity to explore their characters. Some of the best actors in the world have stated that their favorite directors are those who don’t micromanage every little detail. Actors love directors who make themselves vulnerable and explore the character with them as well.

It’s important to listen to your actors. They bring an entire lifetime of experience to the story and it’s important to respect that if you expect them to respect your life experiences and your ideas. They may have new ideas for character motivation. They may gesture differently than you anticipated. They may have different speech intonation than you expected. They might have a goofy smile. They might be more naturally vulnerable than you thought such a seemingly confident person would be. Either way, knowing how to deal with each of these characteristics is an important part of the Director’s job. It’s a fascinating job because there are no right answers. For instance, I was recently at a screenwriting lecture and listening to one of the writers from the popular television series Mad Men. She said one of the lead males had such a goofy smile when he laughed so they needed to work around that physical trait.

Another example included a female I just worked with. I was expecting a physical role for her in terms of how she was dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. However, her performance was more internal. That being said, her discomfort was still communicated through her eyes and closed-off body language. You could sense her fear and discomfort by watching the small details of her performance. it all showed up on camera, so I didn’t change a thing. I liked her interpretation. In short, the performance changed from what I expected. We tried it a few different ways before agreeing that the actor’s interpretation of the scene was actually not only the best interpretation of the script, but also the strongest performance on screen.

You’ll also read in many books and hear in numerous lectures (including this one) about the importance of not micromanaging actors. However, if that’s what works for you, and the actors are confident with it then go for it. If you ever watch behind the scenes footage from the Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film entitled “Climates” you’ll see that in some of his scenes he controls the small facial gestures and body language of his actors. Most directors would see this as an amateur mistake. However, Ceylan has been nominated and won countless awards including Best Director from the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

The point being; it’s to understand the formulas and strategies but at the end of the day you need a strong enough vision to know what you want and you need to work relentlessly to pursue that vision.

Directors are often concerned that they won’t sound smart enough when talking to actors. They are concerned they may not sound like they know how to articulate the character’s personality. However, actors often respect directors who admit to confusion about characters or who show the inability to fully understand a character.

For starters, it gives actors an opportunity to contribute to their character. Generally speaking, actors really like putting their stamp on a character so don’t be afraid to ask actors questions if you have doubts. Again, directing is about establishing trust with your actors and having honest discussions about emotions, back-story, real life experiences, body language and expectations. Actors will respect you if they feel your being honest. Having a large vocabulary of verbs doesn’t help you work towards a good performance unless the words are genuine and used in a larger descriptive context.

At this point, we’d like to discuss different strategic approaches to directing actors. You may like using one of these methods, you may like using all of them. You may also want to invent your own methods. The only rules are to keep control of the films overall tone and be honest with who you think your characters are.

In the next section we’re going to explore the following communicative techniques when working with actors.

1. Understanding the character’s emotional life & backstory
2. Using “it’s like when”
3. Substitutions
4. Adjustments
5. Physical changes

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