A Quick Guide to Film Directing Page 5

  Some directors keep the original (or final) screenwriter on the set with them to make these changes. Others don’t want the writer on the set (because they don’t want the writer questioning what they are doing). These directors will work with the writer over the phone or by email. Or they may bring in a completely different writer. Or make the required changes themselves. Or wing it by improvising solutions with the cast or crew.

  •At some point during the workday, the director will screen dailies—footage shot on the previous day by the main unit, as well as material shot by the second and other units. This is done to check the quality of the work, to select the takes the director wants to use in the final movie, and to determine if there’s anything that needs to be reshot or any additional material that needs to be filmed.

  Tone

  The director sets the tone on the set—some prefer a crisp, efficient, no-nonsense work environment, while others encourage a more loose and informal atmosphere. Some helmers take a dictatorial approach to their work—barking out commands and rebuffing all outside input—while others are more inclusive and collaborative. Some directors yell and scream; others are quiet and soft-spoken. Is one of these approaches better than the others? It’s hard to say—certainly cast and crews prefer helmers who are more easy-going, but great films have been made by directors working in all of these styles.

  Continuity

  As filming continues on all the shots that will ultimately be joined together to create a single scene, the director must pay close attention to the continuity—the matching of components—between shots.

  For a scene to cut together smoothly, all of the components—lighting, action, dialogue, costumes, prop placement, and so on—in all of the shots must be consistent. If they are not (e.g., if the light is coming from above in one shot and from the side in the next; if an actor is wearing a blue tie in one shot and a brown tie in another; if a shot of the actor holding a gun in his right hand is followed by one of him holding it in his left; etc.), then the discrepancies will be immediately apparent when the shots are put together, and the illusion that they are all pieces of the same whole will be lost. The audience will be distracted by this and pulled instantly out of the story.

  One very important element of continuity is the “180-degree rule”—the notion that there is an imaginary line that divides the set and connects the characters in a scene. When filming all the shots in a scene, the camera must be consistently positioned on the same side of the line. This ensures that when the shots are intercut, a character on the right side of the frame in the first shot will remain on the right side of the frame throughout the entire scene and a character on the left side of the frame will remain on the left. This will create a consistent on-screen spatial relationship between the characters and between the characters and the setting. If the camera is placed on the opposite side of the line (a gaffe known as “crossing the line” or “jumping the line”) for any shot in the sequence, when the shots are cut together the characters will bounce from one side of the frame to the next. Their spatial relationships with the other characters and with the setting will be destroyed and, once again, the illusion that all of the shots are pieces of the same whole will be lost. This inconsistency can confuse and disorient the audience.

  The 180-degree rule also applies to movement within the frame. Characters, vehicles, and objects must always move in the same direction (from the left side of the frame to the right, and so on) in every shot in a sequence so that when they are all put together, the characters, vehicles, and objects will always appear to be heading the same way on-screen. If the 180-degree rule is not observed, then the characters, vehicles, or objects will switch directions with every cut and the scene’s visual coherence will be destroyed.

  Eyelines are another key element of continuity—actors must look in the exact same direction in every shot, so that when the scene is put together, the actors will always appear to be looking toward the same place or at the same thing for the duration of the sequence.

  Some directors will deliberately shatter continuity for creative reasons (e.g., to create a sense of dislocation and disorientation), but in most cases, it is the director’s goal to create visually coherent scenes and sequences, and so he must make continuity a factor when creating and executing shots. He is assisted in this task by a crew member called the script supervisor, whose primary responsibility is to maintain a scene’s continuity from shot to shot and the film’s continuity from scene to scene.

  The script supervisor does this by taking detailed notes (often supplemented with photographs) concerning every element in every shot in a scene or sequence, including: the length of the shot; the action that occurs in the shot; the positioning of the actors and of key props and set dressing (such as the furniture); the clothes and hairstyles the actors are wearing, as well as their condition (neat, messy, etc.); the screen direction of any movement of people, vehicles, and objects; the exact dialogue each actor speaks in each take (including flubs); the way the shot is lit and the lens used to film it; and so on. The script supervisor shares these notes with all the key teams (camera, lighting, sound, costumes, makeup, props, and special effects) working on set so they can make sure all of the elements remain consistent from shot to shot as the scene is filmed. If the script supervisor is capable, then the director can be assured that continuity will be maintained and so can direct the bulk of his attention elsewhere.

  The script supervisor assists the director in several other ways, including:

  •Recording information about each take of each shot in the screenplay—marking down the number of the take (which is also written on the sound and picture slates that appear at the head of every take); indicating which portion of the script each shot covers; writing down the director’s comments on each take—which are good, which are bad, which should be printed, which he wants the editor to use, and so on. The director and editor use all this information later when they are cutting the picture.

  •Keeping the script current by incorporating all rewrites; marking down any changes to the dialogue or action made during filming; and so on.

  •Preparing daily progress reports for the director, production team, and studio that include a record of the pages, scenes, and minutes that were shot that day, the amount of script that has been filmed to date, and the amount that remains to be completed.

  Making the day

  Creatively, the director’s job during production is to get the results he wants and needs from each scene to make the movie he has envisioned. Practically, his job is to “make the day”—to film every scene or portion of a scene scheduled for each day of production on that day without going into overtime (and thus exceeding the budget).

  Every movie budget anticipates some overtime and the possibility of exceeding the schedule by a few days, but if production begins to fall significantly behind schedule or go significantly over budget—either for reasons within the director’s control (the speed at which he is working, the lengths he will go to achieve perfection) or beyond it (problems with the weather, a cast member falling ill, equipment trouble)—then it is the director’s responsibility to work with the production team to find ways to catch up and get back on schedule. Doing so can involve limiting the number of takes, cutting out shots, dropping effects, or even eliminating entire scenes or sequences. The challenge is to implement such measures without hurting the quality of the finished film.

  Sometimes this isn’t possible, and then the director, producer, and studio may opt to deliberately go over budget. This is always a risky proposition—if the final film is a big financial success, then most times, all is forgiven. However, if an over-budget film only breaks even or is a failure, the director’s career may be impeded or entirely derailed, so this is a step that should be taken only when there is no other option.

  Wrapping up

  When the last take of the last shot is finished, the
day’s work is over. This process repeats itself every day until principal photography is complete.

  8

  The Film Director in Postproduction

  After principal photography has been completed, the film moves into postproduction—the completion phase of moviemaking.

  Directors may continue to shoot during postproduction—they may need to film pickups (extra shots needed to complete a scene that could not be filmed during principal photography) or inserts; live-action elements for visual effects shots; additional action sequences; and so on. They may also continue to supervise the production of visual effects (because VFX take so long to generate, work on them usually continues well into post).

  However, the director’s primary focus during postproduction is on . . .

  Editing

  During principal photography, the director will select the takes he prefers of each shot and turn them over to the editor, who will string them together into an assembly—a collection of all of the shots filmed for the movie in approximate narrative order. The editor will then start cutting the individual shots together to create proper scenes and sequences and, not long after principal photography is finished, will have readied a rough cut—a rudimentary (and usually much too long) version of the movie that follows the script as closely as possible.

  Free from the pressures of production and now able to give his full attention to the finishing process, the director then joins the editor and together they begin refining the rough cut into a new version called the director’s cut. (All directors working under a DGA contract have the right to create one version of the film that is exactly the way they want it to be. This is called the director’s cut.)

  As the director works on his cut, he needs to be as objective as possible about the footage at hand. Moviemaking is a fluid, unpredictable process, and no matter how well planned or carefully executed, things do not always turn out as originally intended—sometimes they turn out much better (an actor in a minor role gives a performance that unexpectedly lights up the screen); sometimes they turn out much worse (a comic set piece or action sequence falls disappointingly flat); sometimes they just turn out differently (a dramatic scene generates some surprising but effective laughs; a comedic scene provokes some unforeseen but quite moving emotion). So, the greatest challenge a director faces during editing is to embrace the movie he shot, rather than the one he had hoped to shoot—to see the footage for what it is rather than for what he hoped it would be. By doing so, he can then concentrate on making the film the best it can be, rather than on forcing it to be something it is not.

  As the director and the editor put the movie together, they may find that some of the scenes cut together exactly as originally conceived; that others may need to be completely rethought and reworked; that many need to be shortened; and that a few need to be dropped entirely (because they are redundant; because they slow down the movie’s pace; or because they simply don’t work). When considering the overall narrative, the director and editor may discover that it plays exactly as scripted or they may discover that the order of scenes and events need to be partially or entirely rearranged for the story to work effectively. They may decide to focus more on some characters and less on others. They may opt to cut back on exposition and to emphasize the comedy, the horror, the romance, or the thrills. Eventually, after much creative exertion and invention, the director’s cut—the helmer’s definitive vision of the movie he made—finally emerges.

  At this point, the director will screen the movie for the producer and studio executives, who will then offer their suggestions for changes, fixes, and improvements. What happens next depends on the director’s contract.

  Some very successful or very independent helmers have the right to final cut written into their agreements. Final cut means that no changes can be made to the director’s cut without his approval. So, if the director has final cut, then he will accept whatever suggestions he finds valid, reject the others, and that will be the end of it. If the director does not have final cut, then the people who own the movie—the producer or the studio (or the backers, if it’s an independent film)—have the legal right to do with it what they please.

  When the director doesn’t have final cut and the producer or studio wants changes made that he doesn’t want to make, he has several options: he can make the changes under protest; he can try to talk the producer and studio out of making the changes; he can refuse to make the changes and hope the producer and the studio back down; he can refuse to make the changes and get fired; he can quit. If the director gets fired or quits, the producer will usually make the alterations. If the director is sufficiently unhappy with the results, he can petition the DGA to have his name taken off the finished film (if his petition is approved, then his name will be replaced in the credits by a pseudonym—for years, “Alan Smithee” was the most commonly used alias for disgruntled directors).

  The director quitting or getting fired are worst-case scenarios. Usually both sides compromise and come up with alternative changes that everyone can live with, even if they’re not thrilled with them.

  Previews

  At some point—usually when the director’s cut or the producer/studio version is complete—the movie will be test-screened for members of the general public so that the filmmakers can see how it plays. (If there is strong disagreement between the director and the producer or studio over the director’s cut, both the helmer’s version and the producer/studio iteration may be screened to see which one the audiences prefer.)

  The filmmakers will carefully observe the reactions of the viewers during the test screening. Are they laughing in the right places? Are they scared when they should be? Are they crying at the end? After the screening, the audience members will be asked to fill out survey cards indicating how much they liked or disliked certain characters and specific elements of the movie. The results will be analyzed, and changes may be made to the movie to correct elements that receive a strong negative response.

  Reshoots

  Sometimes those corrections are made by reediting the movie—by recutting scenes, rearranging them, or removing them. Sometimes the decision is made to reshoot certain scenes or to film new material (including, most frequently, a new ending, if the test audience is sufficiently unhappy with the existing one) in order to clarify, enhance, or otherwise improve the picture. In that case, the director will supervise the development, preparation, and shooting of the new material in the same way that he did for the original production (unless he has quit or been fired, at which point a new director will be brought in to do the necessary work).

  Patch-ups

  If a movie isn’t working and the producer/studio/backers can’t or don’t want to spend the money to do any additional filming, then the director and editor have to find ways to solve the problems using the footage they have. Often this can lead to the use of efficient but clumsy devices such as explanatory crawls, title cards, or voice-over narration to clarify unclear (or nonexistent) story points or patch over the holes in poorly constructed plotlines.

  More previews

  The new and hopefully improved version of the movie may be previewed again so the filmmakers can see how well the changes work. Hopefully, the audience response is positive. If not, more changes may be made.

  Ratings

  When an American movie is near completion, it is shown to the Classifications & Ratings Administration (CARA), an independent agency that assigns ratings for all films produced by the Motion Picture Association of America. The MPAA is a trade organization whose members include all of the major studios and many of the independent film companies in the United States. The purpose of the MPAA rating system is to help parents decide what movies are appropriate for their children to see. The current ratings are:

  •G: General Audiences—All Ages Admitted

  •PG: Parental Guidance Suggested—Some Material May Not Be Suit
able for Children

  •PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned—Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13

  •R: Restricted—Under 17 Required Accompanying Parent of Adult Guardian

  •NC-17: No One 17 and Under Admitted.

  The more restrictive the rating, the narrower the film’s potential audience is and the smaller its potential earnings.

  Directors of independent films usually have wide latitude when it comes to what rating their pictures earn; they’re usually made for relatively low budgets, so independent films don’t have to appeal to a mass audience to earn their costs back, therefore a relatively restricted rating is okay. However, the movies made by the major studios (especially in this blockbuster-centric era) are usually very expensive and so need to attract as wide an audience as possible to turn a profit.

  Therefore, the directors of big-budget studio movies (even those with final cut) are often contractually obligated to deliver a picture that can earn a specific rating, one that ensures the picture can attract the widest possible audience. Family-oriented films are usually required to earn a G or PG rating; medium-budget comedies, dramas, and action movies a PG, PG-13, or an R; and big-budget spectaculars a PG or a PG-13. No major studio will release a film with an NC-17 rating, primarily because no major theater chain will play NC-17 films. Independent films can be released with an NC-17 because they play mostly in smaller art-house cinemas, which generally don’t have a problem with the rating (because their patrons usually don’t).