Hi started writing the working with actors stuff and realised that I had four pages and had only covered read throughs. so I'll break this down into segments. Here's the first one.
Working with Actors for Film (the issues and running a sucessful read though)
The first thing any director intending work with actors on a film needs to understand is that acting for film is the most technically demanding and often least rewarding work an actor will do (Not financially, but in terms of satisfaction with the actual process).
To understand it helps to compare the work with an actor’s job in theatre. On stage an actor will take between two to six weeks rehearsing a play, get familiar with the character, the plot, the set and then perform the piece from beginning to end in one uninterrupted flow. So, when in scene four the actor is telling his friend that he’s just been told that his sister is really his mother, the actor has just experienced that scene immediately before hand. To get to this performance the actor will have been guided by a director who is primary training has been in literature and acting (And will probably be an actor themselves)
In comparison when working on a film, the actor is usually given a day’s rehearsal (if that), no time to prepare or get familiar with the character; is required to do the same scene over and over again (identically) and this is all done in wrong order – which means that on the first day the actor is supposed to bring forth a believable emotional response at the climax of the film but hasn’t acted in any of the scenes leading up to this moment, yet. On top of that the vast majority of the day isn’t spend performing, but sitting around waiting for technicians to do stuff that seems to take forever; during which time the actor may well be learning lines for their next production. To get through this complex procedure the actor is likely to be directed by someone who can tell you the compression rate of every current video codec and who’s current reading is “Advanced FCP editing techniques” but is unlikely to ever have read anything in their life about either acting or acting technique.
It’s no wonder that often both film directors and actors complain about how unpleasant the process is.
To break down some of the problems I’m writing out a workflow, for dealing with actors, which gives them a framework to work within and also helps the director and actor communicate in way that make things better, rather than making things worse.
Stage One
The Read Through (Goal to get the actors familiar with the story and each of their journeys through it)
Like all of these stages, the more you put into them the more you get out. For a read through you assemble your entire cast with copies of the script, and sit them round a huge table with lots of coffee, water and pens. (Actors always forget to bring pens)
The cast then sits and reads the script. On a practical level it helps to have an assistant read in the directions. Sometimes the director wants to set the scene by explaining what the film is about, sometimes not. There are bonuses either way, if you explain the actors get an immediate understanding of your take on the film; if you don’t, they come to the script fresh and with their own perspective.
On the surface it doesn’t seem like a lot is happening, but actually the read through sets the tone for the whole film and defines the working relationship between the actors and the director. This one of the few times that the cast and director are together without any demands from either the crew or the production. So this is when the quality work gets done on the film.
During the read through the director should take script notes, noting down lines that just didn’t work, sequences that could be tightened and any areas where the actors seemed to not understand what they were saying.
Having read the script through once, the director should go round each of their actors and ask them to give the rest of the group their initial take on the character they are playing and also identify any scenes where they don’t understand why the story unfolds the way it does. Before anything else happens give the actors a fifteen-minute break. You do this so that individual actors can come and talk to you. As this one on one time is the key to directing it’s vital that you do talk to them and listen to their questions/observations and even more importantly that you respond to what they are saying. The most likely topic of conversation is going to be questions about “motivation.” Motivation is a key word in acting technique, but in real terms all the actor is asking, is “Why does my character say that or do that?” When responding to these kinds of questions the answers you need to give have to about why the character does it, not why it’s important to the plot. If Jim is going to blow up the Unitarian Church in scene seven it needs to be because he: a) Hates the sound of hymms, b) Was molested by a preacher or c) Because he’s dyslexic and thought it was the home of the Unabomber. What you can’t tell the actor is: he does it because you thought it would look cool to blow up a church.
Having done all of this you go back to the start and begin again, taking the film scene by scene. In other words: read though a scene, get the cast to talk about it and also feed in any observations that you have.
At the very least I would expect this process to take one day; however, like I said the more time you put in the better the work you get out. If you can I’d take at least two day to do this process over and over, and if you can even longer. In ideal world I’d expect the actors to be at the point where they are ninety percent “off book” (this means not referring to the script, or working from memory).
It also helps to have a clear space at the end of the room where the actors can “stand the script up” (actors terminology for the process of actually physically acting the scene out as opposed to just reading). Lots of actors can’t even start to get the sense of a script until it’s stood up and others need to get it intellectually before they do. You have to give space for both kinds. It’s also important to get a sense during this process of how each individual actor works. They are all different and require different input. It’s during the read through that you start to get this understanding. So, for instance, if you’ve got a method actor they may need to talk to you about the “back story” (This is the character’s personal history that extends right back to their childhood). If, however, you’ve got an actor whose training is primarily Laban they will want to talk about the body language of the character; how they hold themselves, how they walk. And, if you’ve got someone who has just read David Mammet’s “Truth and Lies” they may not want to talk to you at all, and if they do it will probably about how you want a particular line read. Where this gets tricky is in understanding that in any room of twenty actors there are twenty ways of working and a good director understands that what works for one person doesn’t work for another. The good news is that the one thing that almost all actors seem to need is a closer working relationship with the director and the only way to establish this is to give good quality one-on-one time with them during the whole process.
At the end of the read through process the actors should leave knowing the following:
1) The entire story
2) Their character's journey through the story
3) Why their character does any action they do in the film..
4) Why their character says every single word they utter in the film.
As a director you should leave with the following:
1) A good working relationship with every actor on the production
2) An understanding of how they work as an actor
3) A complete understanding of each actor's journey through the story (You should ahve had that before you started, but it will ahve changes during the read though)
4) The whole script's dialogue tightened up (expect to loose a good 10% to 20% of your dialogue in the read through)
Working with Actors for Film (the issues and running a sucessful read though)
The first thing any director intending work with actors on a film needs to understand is that acting for film is the most technically demanding and often least rewarding work an actor will do (Not financially, but in terms of satisfaction with the actual process).
To understand it helps to compare the work with an actor’s job in theatre. On stage an actor will take between two to six weeks rehearsing a play, get familiar with the character, the plot, the set and then perform the piece from beginning to end in one uninterrupted flow. So, when in scene four the actor is telling his friend that he’s just been told that his sister is really his mother, the actor has just experienced that scene immediately before hand. To get to this performance the actor will have been guided by a director who is primary training has been in literature and acting (And will probably be an actor themselves)
In comparison when working on a film, the actor is usually given a day’s rehearsal (if that), no time to prepare or get familiar with the character; is required to do the same scene over and over again (identically) and this is all done in wrong order – which means that on the first day the actor is supposed to bring forth a believable emotional response at the climax of the film but hasn’t acted in any of the scenes leading up to this moment, yet. On top of that the vast majority of the day isn’t spend performing, but sitting around waiting for technicians to do stuff that seems to take forever; during which time the actor may well be learning lines for their next production. To get through this complex procedure the actor is likely to be directed by someone who can tell you the compression rate of every current video codec and who’s current reading is “Advanced FCP editing techniques” but is unlikely to ever have read anything in their life about either acting or acting technique.
It’s no wonder that often both film directors and actors complain about how unpleasant the process is.
To break down some of the problems I’m writing out a workflow, for dealing with actors, which gives them a framework to work within and also helps the director and actor communicate in way that make things better, rather than making things worse.
Stage One
The Read Through (Goal to get the actors familiar with the story and each of their journeys through it)
Like all of these stages, the more you put into them the more you get out. For a read through you assemble your entire cast with copies of the script, and sit them round a huge table with lots of coffee, water and pens. (Actors always forget to bring pens)
The cast then sits and reads the script. On a practical level it helps to have an assistant read in the directions. Sometimes the director wants to set the scene by explaining what the film is about, sometimes not. There are bonuses either way, if you explain the actors get an immediate understanding of your take on the film; if you don’t, they come to the script fresh and with their own perspective.
On the surface it doesn’t seem like a lot is happening, but actually the read through sets the tone for the whole film and defines the working relationship between the actors and the director. This one of the few times that the cast and director are together without any demands from either the crew or the production. So this is when the quality work gets done on the film.
During the read through the director should take script notes, noting down lines that just didn’t work, sequences that could be tightened and any areas where the actors seemed to not understand what they were saying.
Having read the script through once, the director should go round each of their actors and ask them to give the rest of the group their initial take on the character they are playing and also identify any scenes where they don’t understand why the story unfolds the way it does. Before anything else happens give the actors a fifteen-minute break. You do this so that individual actors can come and talk to you. As this one on one time is the key to directing it’s vital that you do talk to them and listen to their questions/observations and even more importantly that you respond to what they are saying. The most likely topic of conversation is going to be questions about “motivation.” Motivation is a key word in acting technique, but in real terms all the actor is asking, is “Why does my character say that or do that?” When responding to these kinds of questions the answers you need to give have to about why the character does it, not why it’s important to the plot. If Jim is going to blow up the Unitarian Church in scene seven it needs to be because he: a) Hates the sound of hymms, b) Was molested by a preacher or c) Because he’s dyslexic and thought it was the home of the Unabomber. What you can’t tell the actor is: he does it because you thought it would look cool to blow up a church.
Having done all of this you go back to the start and begin again, taking the film scene by scene. In other words: read though a scene, get the cast to talk about it and also feed in any observations that you have.
At the very least I would expect this process to take one day; however, like I said the more time you put in the better the work you get out. If you can I’d take at least two day to do this process over and over, and if you can even longer. In ideal world I’d expect the actors to be at the point where they are ninety percent “off book” (this means not referring to the script, or working from memory).
It also helps to have a clear space at the end of the room where the actors can “stand the script up” (actors terminology for the process of actually physically acting the scene out as opposed to just reading). Lots of actors can’t even start to get the sense of a script until it’s stood up and others need to get it intellectually before they do. You have to give space for both kinds. It’s also important to get a sense during this process of how each individual actor works. They are all different and require different input. It’s during the read through that you start to get this understanding. So, for instance, if you’ve got a method actor they may need to talk to you about the “back story” (This is the character’s personal history that extends right back to their childhood). If, however, you’ve got an actor whose training is primarily Laban they will want to talk about the body language of the character; how they hold themselves, how they walk. And, if you’ve got someone who has just read David Mammet’s “Truth and Lies” they may not want to talk to you at all, and if they do it will probably about how you want a particular line read. Where this gets tricky is in understanding that in any room of twenty actors there are twenty ways of working and a good director understands that what works for one person doesn’t work for another. The good news is that the one thing that almost all actors seem to need is a closer working relationship with the director and the only way to establish this is to give good quality one-on-one time with them during the whole process.
At the end of the read through process the actors should leave knowing the following:
1) The entire story
2) Their character's journey through the story
3) Why their character does any action they do in the film..
4) Why their character says every single word they utter in the film.
As a director you should leave with the following:
1) A good working relationship with every actor on the production
2) An understanding of how they work as an actor
3) A complete understanding of each actor's journey through the story (You should ahve had that before you started, but it will ahve changes during the read though)
4) The whole script's dialogue tightened up (expect to loose a good 10% to 20% of your dialogue in the read through)
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