Directing a Film: a Confidence Trick

Directing a Film: a Confidence Trick

This week we shot episode 4 of Silent Eye: The Museum of Me. We decided to shoot a little differently, for this one. There were 2 reasons for this – 1) we decided to create the museum mostly with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and 2) the whole episode takes place in one location.

After I called “cut” on the final shot of the final scheduled scene, everybody cheered and hugged each other. Although filming is exciting, it’s also pretty stressful, intense work. Filming requires a lot of concentration, with so many variables which can cause headaches – do we have the right shots? Is the sound ok? Is everything consistent – lighting, performance, set design etc? And a seemingly infinite number issues.

This can be really overwhelming. Especially if you are new to filmmaking. I think one of my jobs as director is to know what we need to worry about and what we can let go. If you are truly a perfectionist when filmmaking, your 2 day shoot might take 100 days or maybe never reach the end.

It’s a balancing act

As a director, I have to balance things as well. In other words, I must judge when it is right to move on to the next scene or angle. For example, cast and crew get tired (and directors too!). When you are trying to get a specific shot and it’s not quite coming out as you imagined, how long do you keep pushing everyone for another take.

Of course, there are famous examples of directors who keep going for 40 or more takes. Stanley Kubrick is one. If you can afford the time in your shooting schedule and you think it will benefit the production, then go for it.

But when you have 2 days to shoot 10 pages of script, you can’t shoot 40 takes for every angle. You can also see that things aren’t getting any better (or even getting worse) because of tiredness.

One thing to consider – some actors are best in their first or early takes, while others need to warm up and require 5 or more (or 40) takes. So if these 2 actors are performing a scene together, they can be “out of sync” – while one hits the mark in take 1, the other is only getting going at take 10. Meanwhile, the quick off the mark actor has gone off the boil.

Of course, editing can help you out here, especially with close ups: use the early takes for one actor, and the later takes for the other.

As a director, one of your most important roles is to understand where to spend your limited time. As they say, time is money, so spend your allocation wisely. This is something you learn with experience. Also, different directors will have different priorities. So knowing what you care about most allows you to discover your voice and your style.

Because – especially with a bigger crew – each crew or cast member believes their department is the most important. Each cast member believes their character needs more screen time or attention. The art director believes the design of the set should be your focus and so on…

It’s all part of the plan

If you are not confident, you can quickly find yourself a fragile leaf, blowing in the wind of cast and crew opinion. And once you appear uncertain of how to approach shooting, the cast and crew can quickly lose confidence in you.

This is one thing I learned from directing a few disastrous short film shoots when I was starting out: however uncertain you feel inside, never reveal that to cast and crew.

There will be times when you make mistakes (you are human after all). There will be times when you feel doubts in your own ability and understanding. But I find it counterproductive to voice or display these (except to a trusted crew member). Simply because it doesn’t help the production.

Once your cast and crew start doubting your judgement, then they start to question things: “does this guy know what he’s doing?” If your every decision is being questioned, chaos will soon take over your production. Suddenly, everyone thinks they know how to direct your film better than you do. Arguments break out. Key cast and crew storm off the project…

I’ve been there. And not just in films I’ve directed. I’ve seen it happen to others.

So I find the best thing is to portray a general aura of “everything is going to plan”. I would guess this applies to any leadership role. Not to be dishonest – but for the simple fact the shoot runs far better this way.

It’s a confidence trick

Film directing is in some ways a confidence trick – using a literal sense of that phrase.

Confidence is infectious. And so is a lack of confidence.

As a director, your doubts if voiced, might just become a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. Thing is, as a new director, cast and crew are more likely to question your judgement. So you have to work even harder to keep everyone going in the same direction.

Having said that, if you’ve worked on a few film shoots already, you might have encountered a director who while seemingly confident still loses the trust of cast and crew. In my experience, this occurs when cast and crew find their concerns dismissed out of hand.

It’s about being consistent in your vision

So while it’s good to have a confident aura, I find it also helps to listen as well.

If someone has a concern, then having a good (and consistent) explanation as to why that concern is unfounded (or will be dealt with at some point) helps everyone to understand the process. If everyone understands why a decision is being made, then they are more likely to get on board with it.

Inconsistent explanations are where you can start to lose trust again. This is an example scenario:

After 2 takes, the director is about to move on to the next take. But the actor says they aren’t happy with their performance and asks for more takes. The director says no, because he wants that raw performance you get from the first few 2 takes in this movie. The actor is satisfied with the answer because it sounds like the director has a method here. also, every actor will be treated the same – so ok…

But… a few scenes later, the director is working with another actor and they are up to take 10. Now, of course, the first actor thinks the director is full of shit. What happened to the “2 takes only” rule?

And that kind of inconsistency can really get under people’s skin.

Where does this inconsistency come from?

Well, either the director knows what he or she is doing and decides to lie to move things along quicker. Or he or she hasn’t done their homework – in other words understood themselves how they want to make the film before they started – and so they’re making it up as they go along.

This inconsistency can really come back to bite you as the shoot progresses.

Of course, we know plenty of directors (and leaders in general) who act like this. But still, many get away with it and sometimes earn huge salaries doings so – how does it happen?

That’s certainly an interesting question for humanity. Coincedently, this topic is a central theme of this episode: the Museum of Me.

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