"Dream on Set" SCW's first short film!
Director's Chronicle. Lesson 2
2. Report to the actors/dancers after EVERY take.
The crew looks at every detail of the actor and her surroundings: blocking, sweat or no sweat, atmosphere, light levels, shadows, set decoration, costumes, makeup, props, continuity. Its tedious, collaborative, and team-oriented.
The actor is alone, on the other side of all that teamwork. She is staring into glaring, hot lights, or on “stand by” in freezing conditions in a mini skirt. She wonders, over and over again, if her performance is the reason that the director needs another take. Actors pay attention to the internal mechanisms of their tasks, emotional believability. Yet, they have as many technical details to perform as they do emotional ones. As the director, my role is to report to them, “that was a great performance, but are shooting again because we lost some light”. And “this is the focus puller, she and you are working together”. It’s important to know that the crew is not traditionally allowed to talk to actors, unless they go through you. You are the bridge to their success and comfort. The director’s job is to help actors connect to the process behind the camera.
At the end of the day, we shot the first shot of the storyboard. It was a long dolly-in that ended with a dolly zoom, the Jaws scene, as Theo the DP mentor called it. It took several takes to line up the focus and the lighting. I stopped paying attention to the monitor and didn’t notice the glazed look on the actors faces. oops. Don’t do that! My actor with set experience calls it “refreshing”. They need a reminder to recharge, or refresh. After fifty takes —often 90 seconds of waiting before each “action”, or 75 minutes of waiting in a day on set—they deserve a reminder to wipe the boredom from their face.
I am so glad that my mentor explained that I am the actor’s advocate and performance support. We met at Golden Gardens and walked on the beach a few days before the shoot. Without her advice from that day, I would have completely abandoned my actor/dancers on set! It was so comforting to have her on set as well. Mentors sometimes feel like they are doing “nothing”, but to new crew members they are a gem, even when silent.