3-6-24
Newsletter #566
The Crack of Dawn
I’m returning to the concept of “process,” which fascinates me. Everybody has heard about how Method actors go through a certain process to get to the emotion needed for the scene. All actors have their own methods to get to where they need to go. Some actors can turn their emotions on and off like a light. I like actors like that. I like stage actors. Truth be told, I just like actors.
But directors must have a process, too. I’ve been thinking about this lately. Specifically, how many times I have faced a crew and cast, which is in the hundreds. In my fantasy there is an assembled cast and crew and I get to make an entrance. “Look, it’s the director.” The reality is that the director, DP and 1st AD are there first, then everyone else shows up.
Since I’m the one who is interpreting these words into pictures – notating my ideas with either storyboards or a shot list – it’s my job to know this script better than anyone else. Most of the folks on the set, no matter who they are, have absolutely not studied this script more than me. Honestly, most of them haven’t even read it. The actors have only learned their lines (an old observation is that actors read scripts like this, “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, my line, bullshit, my line . . .”). And since I have assiduously read this particular script – the one we happen to be shooting – I’m really the only one who has any clue what the hell is going on. The 1st AD has the schedule, but they don’t see the show; only I do. And I am secure in this.
A directorial “process” that I use that may well be unique to me – I’ve never seen it or heard about it anywhere else – is that I sing on the set. It’s sort of a variation of John Ford having a fiddle player on his set all the time. The point is the same – let’s all just stay cool. Since I am the director, from whence most shit descends, and if I’m gleefully, though poorly, singing Barbra Streisand and Broadway show tunes, then I’m clearly not be freaking out. It should be noted that many directors are in a state of freak-out from the second they arrive on the set until the second they leave. Not me. I’m smart enough to have figured out a long time ago that if I’m on a set making a movie or a TV show, I’m in exactly the place I want to be – I’m a pig in shit. If I can’t have fun doing the thing I love most, I’m an idiot.
As I’ve mentioned any number of times before – and not humbly; proudly – I may well not be a great director, or even a good one, but I’m extremely competent. I always get my day, meaning the proscribed shots to be gotten that day. I was born for the factory-like process of TV, and I can apply all of the same techniques to low-budget indie movies. It doesn’t necessarily make my movies or shows good, but it does make it a calm, fun set to be on, where it’s just possible we might do something good. Also, since I’m not a very good singer, and Streisand songs aren’t easy, the crew tends to move just a bit faster to get to the shooting, so I’ll be forced to stop singing. And what’s really lovely is that there is usually one person on the crew who also knows the lyrics of the songs and joins in. Sometimes two people. And I encourage them to accompany me.
Here is yet another thing that I do which I haven’t seen other directors do. The first thing that happens on a movie set every morning is the actors go to wardrobe, makeup and hair while the crew sets up the shot. There is 10-15 minutes before we get the actors, which is plenty of time for me to explain what I want to the crew. However, once I’ve given my instructions to the crew and all of that is occurring, and I finally get the actors, I don’t want or need to talk to the crew anymore. When I get the actors, the set now belongs to me and the actors. I don’t want to hear crew people yelling for lenses, or anybody yelling for anything. I want a nice, pleasant, peaceful set where actors feel free, and are more important than the camera. We’re not there to get perfect camera moves; we’re there to make great scenes.
We shot my last film, Warpath, which is a western, about a mile up the street from where I presently sit, in Pontiac, where they used to make the cars. We found a huge (maybe 50 acre) woodsy area, with a stream, many different kinds of trees, and a few hills. We built sets and part of a western town. It was like a movie backlot and almost the whole film was shot there.
I’ve used this method before, but I did it all the time on Warpath. I must digress for a moment. When you are shooting a movie or a TV show, the most time lost is transitioning from the shot you just got, and the one you are about to get. If you let the cast and crew takes a break and get coffee between every shot, you won’t achieve your schedule (called, “make your day”) and you will be fucked. So, when we finished a shot and were ready to move on to the next shot, I simply take my chair to where the next shot was going to occur, plunk it down and sit in it, with the script on my lap. Everyone clearly understood why I was there. Now, if only the crew would bring all of the myriad items needed to shoot the scene, we could shoot the scene. If anyone got anywhere close to me, they had better have something in their hands, otherwise they are leaving themselves open for snotty, snide remarks. If the camera crew happened by, I’d say, “Shouldn’t the camera be here?” Or “Shouldn’t there be a video monitor?” Or “Aren’t there props in this scene?” Admittedly, it was a young, inexperienced crew on Warpath, but we still brought the movie in on schedule, so my process even worked with them. What I’m doing is setting up a penumbra of guilt – I’m the director and I’m doing my job, what are you doing?
I love this subject.
A good day to one and all.
I had a great time working in Warpath!