How to Direct Actors

Directing a film is like no other occupation in the world. Many of our film students aspire to be directors, yet there is an enormous amount of debate about what a Directors exact role is. The truth is that the job of a Director cannot be described as a blanket statement because it will vary depending on what the production is and what your technical and artistic preferences are.

In this blog post I’ll shed some light on the main role of the director as well as provide some incredibly helpful insight to new directors who are having a problem with “overacting actors” or unbelievable scripts.

The first point to consider is that a film is not made by one person. A writer will create a story, an art director will decorate a set, an actor will stamp their character with their signature, the producer will want to “spice up” a scene and a director needs to hold the entire ship together and ensure it doesn’t become one person’s story.

The best advice to give a new director is to ensure you are maintaining the right “tone” of the film. You need to be very clear with your department heads about what this tone is. Part of your job is to ensure the wall color and carpeting help compliment the tone of your film. These many seem like idiotic details but the compilation of these small details helps set the tone for the film. If viewers see contradictions in your tone they will be able to feel it right away and they will be removed from the illusion of the story. Therefore your primary job as a Director is to control the tone of the story. The two main pillars that set the tone of a story are:

1. Writing
2. Casting

However, being the captain of the ship is a double edge sword. While maintaining control over the tone of the film means that you’ll need to pull the reigns on actors who are trying to make the film “theirs” or on the art department who’s vision is out of line with the other elements of the film. However, your control needs to be gentle, subtle and well executed.

This is when the real art of filmmaking comes into play. As a Director, it’s not your film either, and while you may be the captain of the ship, it’s the actors, crew and department heads who build the story.

Your job therefore, is to set the tone and make sure everyone is on the same page. At this point you need to let your team have creative control over the story. This stage is critical if you’re story is going to have legs. The rest of the cast and crew need to feel like they have something unique to bring to the film in order for the film to feel alive and real.

Many directors have stated that they try to stay out of the actor’s heads because they stunt their performance if the actor knows the Director is looking for something specific. As a Director you must remember that actors often spend a large amount of time in preparation for a roll. They have often thought about the story in great detail and they react naturally to it in a certain mind frame. If you mess with that mindset and force them to do it “your way” you’ll get a performance that is “too big” or “overacted”.

If your casting was done properly, this is one of the only other influences that could lead to bad acting.

When you give an actor a script their imagination blossoms. However, this creativity will be killed the moment you start to tell them exactly how to act.

In fact many of the best directors state that they are “stingy” with directing actors. They ensure they do a good job of casting professionals, but once they know they have someone who knows how to act, who is right for the part and has the idea for the tone of the film, they give them the creative freedom to bring the story to life.

Some of the best directing advice I’ve ever received was to direct a second scene with the following phrase:

“Let’s do another take to see what happens”

Or

“Let’s do another take and do it the same or better”

Which is equivalent to saying absolutely nothing. Sometimes you just have to let the actors interpret the story and feel the emotions of the scene. This helps the director stay out of the actors head and helps the actor feel like they are part of the story and not the director’s puppet.

If you really need to get in their and tell the actor what to do ensure your direction is interpretive and not controlling. For example instead of saying “fight back” say “don’t let him intimidate you”. This way the actor still have creative control over the scene.

I hope you found this helpful.

Popularity: 4% [?]