Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television

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When that camera starts rolling focus on the actor's performance first. Leave the lighting, costume, hair and makeup, to the rest of your crew. Whilst you are watching the actors perform think about whether they are acting emotionally right for the scene and think about whether their performance is believable. It’s the director’s job to make sure that the actor creates an environment in which he or she can do this. Actors are very sensitive creatures who are vulnerable in front of cameras and microphones every time they perform.

Directing Actors: A Practical Aesthetics Approach is the first book to apply the Practical Aesthetics acting technique to the craft of directing. Timing: Hire a great first AD to make sure you don’t go overtime. Working longer hours results in tired performances. It’s not a concern if your runner starts to tire but trust me, you don’t want your main actors yawning between takes. When I was in high school, my drama teacher told me, “I think you could be a director,” and I thought, Oh, that sounds interesting. So I ended up going to Yale and directing a bunch of plays. I learned a ton from some great teachers and also just from trial and error. After Yale, I came to New York to start a theater company, but it just so happened that a lot of the young theater actors I worked with were also film actors. Some of them went on to be pretty big. Judith Weston has, for 35 years, brought tools and confidence to filmmakers and actors, with books, workshops, and one-on-one consultations.In 2015, after 30 yearsof teaching in-person workshops and classes to thousands of film and television directors, screenwriters, writer-directors, and actors around the world, Judith closed her studio space and shifted her focus to one-on-oneconsultations with directors and writer-directors of film and television as they prepare to bring their projects to life. She can be available for Zoom Q&As and workshops with schools, festivals, and organizations.

VOLUME 1: NATURAL ACTING

But sometimes you meet an actor for the first time on the set. This can be a problem if you need to work closely with that person all day, because you need to know how they react under pressure. But don’t worry, there are ways of finding out about your actors before filming starts. The best way to get started is to practice. Read books about movies and watch movies that you like and try to analyze them, think about what makes them good or bad, what you like or dislike about the director’s style. Working with actors who have different acting styles can be rewarding, but it can also be a challenge. Here are a few tips:

Rather than establishing the emotions your actor should be feeling, establish the circumstance of a scene. Renowned acting coach Sanford Meisner defines acting as “Behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” To behave truthfully, you must allow your actors to feel genuine emotions under the circumstances you create. Have pre-production meetings : Before filming, make sure that everyone involved in the film knows their role and is well prepared for it. Pre-production meetings are really important. One of the most important aspects of directing actors is listening to them. This is a hard thing for many people, directors especially, to do. They get caught up in their own ideas and lose focus on what the actor needs. Your job as a director is to set up your actors to have an experience on camera. For example, let’s say you’re shooting a scene where the character needs to find a book of matches. The characteris looking for matches, but the actor probably already knows where the matches are — top drawer on the left. So here’s what you do: hide the matches. Then tell the actor, “Go find the matches.” Now you are capturing a real performance.

Take an acting class

For example, if you needed someone for a comedy role who didn’t have much experience but was mostly known for being dramatic then it would be worth looking at someone who has been in comedies in the past. If they are not comfortable with doing something in a certain way then it may be best for you to change it up a little bit. If you are going for a different take but your actor does not feel comfortable doing it again then it might be best for you to do it another way. Then start making your own short films, because only then will the whole process become more clear to you and you’ll learn that by doing. But if you want to start right now, then pay close attention to the below tips on how to be a better director:

Remember that things constantly change when filming, so be prepared to adjust your approach on the fly if necessary. Don’t get married to your ideas; stay flexible to make the most of any situation. Another mistake directors make is describing in detail what they liked about the last take. You never want to be specific about what you liked, because it completely kills the actor’s ability to be spontaneous. What kind of affirmation should a director give? More often than not, respect tends to take you much further than sheer talent and experience, so when you work with your actors, be sure to always come correct with respect, patience, and a willingness to collaborate.A big part of trusting your actors is trusting their desire and ability to try new things. In other words, allow you actors to experiment. Some of the most memorable performances in cinema have come from improvised scenes. When I started transitioning from theater into film, I saw this firsthand. Filmmakers would work so hard to get everything together for their films, and then it would come to the moment when they had to direct the actor on set, and it wouldn’t work out. There was a serious problem there. As a director, it’s your job to first and foremost, get performances out of your actors that are truthful and real. If you can accomplish that by directing them, great! But if you can accomplish that without directing them, even better!