|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Juggling Act of a Director
The greatest burden for any one individual on a movie set rests on the shoulders of the director. The director is the composer of the orchestra. He or she stands on the dais, head and shoulders above the rank and file, and guides the numerous, disparate pieces into one cohesive shape.
If the music sucks, even if the most tuned ear can pinpoint that it was the horn section that really blew the whole thing, the composer bears the brunt of the criticism. The thinking being that the composer is responsible for every instrument and perhaps spent too much time working with the string section to the detriment of the horn section. That is the blessing and the curse of the director: your vision drives the production, whether it is into the ground or into critical acclaim. At the end of the day, the director will have put his or her stamp on every facet of a film, from the musical score to the costumes to the lighting.
This is the juggling act that a director performs. Find the best people who know their craft in a way you never could, and empower them to deliver their goods in a manner that suits your vision. Problem is, this is much easier said than done.
Essentially, a director must keep three essential things in mind when assembling a picture: the visual interpretation of the script, the performance of the actors, and finally, how those two things ultimately translate into the act of storytelling. This simplifies the job unfairly, but the entire filmmaking process, from pre-production to picture lock, is rooted in these three key elements.
Every director has his or her own sensibility and style. Not every director evaluates these three things with equal weight.
Some directors are more visual in style, like Tim Burton. "Beetlejuice," "Nightmare Before Christmas," and "Sleepy Hollow," to name a few, all have the indelible Burton stamp, an edgy and angular noir that is now unmistakable to even the lay moviegoer. George Lucas is another example of a director whose vision is rooted in the spectacle. Critics and audiences will forever talk about the ahead-of-its-time effects of "Star Wars" before they remember the glowing performance of Mark Austen as "Boba Fett." Lucas has long talked about the potential obsolescence of the human actor, exploring instead the use of digitally inserted actors to play his leads.
Visual minded directors are not disinterested in their actors' performances. But perhaps directors like Burton and Lucas spend the bulk of their energy on building the sets, the costume design, and the art direction, and leave the acting to the professionals. In their films, the world of the movie is as important as those who live in it.
And then there are the actors' directors, those directors that seem to give themselves up to the actor and the performance. Woody Allen and Robert Altman are two guys who tell stories through their characters, often with ensemble casts.
These entities are not mutually exclusive. It is unfair to say that Allen's movies are not beautifully shot, or that "Star Wars" is not a great story, with great characters. They are. But over a long career, it is impossible to ignore a director's personal style.
Indeed, the very best of the best can breathe life into both aspects of filmmaking. Spielberg is that rare director who can perform this juggling act to near perfection ("The Lost World" being a forgettable exception). It is too early to tell, but Quentin Tarantino has shown glimpses of finding the balance of performance, look, and story.
Directing is about sensibility and knowing where your strengths lie. A director's strongest relationships during production are with his editor and his cinematographer. It is these individuals who most guide the director's vision for the look and pace of the film. A director will work with his DP during pre-production and principal photography to get the footage a director needs. When that has happened, the director will team up with his or her editor to manipulate the footage into a rhythm that does justice to the narrative.
Time will tell where Pete Jones will fall in the directing landscape. In the latest episode, we listen in on a conversation between Pete and his editor, Gregg Featherman, where Gregg expresses his concern that scenes are not being properly covered. Cut to the set, where a frustrated cast and crew are learning that four hour shot set-ups are becoming the norm.
The Dilemma: Pete Jones is the first one to admit that he had all but handed the visual reigns over to DP Pete Biagi. Day after day, Biagi and his crew are taking far too long to light certain scenes, leaving less and less time for rehearsal and actual shooting. As a result, Pete has less time to spend with his actors, and he fears the performances may be suffering. Shooting can be rushed at times, and certain angles and extra takes are sacrificed as a result. Enter Gregg the Editor, whose concerns around properly cutting certain scenes together are very real, as it is in the editing room where pace and story can best be manipulated.
A good example of this on the "Stolen Summer" set comes in shooting a scene in the bedroom with Bonnie Hunt and Aidan Quinn. On a particular take, Biagi decides that he does not like how he framed the shot, and physically shakes the camera, thus making the take unusable in the editing suite. Forget that Pete may have loved the take, or that Gregg may have needed it to make the scene work, or that the performances are outstanding. The take is sabotaged, and the DP made that decision on his own. When a DP or an editor takes over, the director's authorship of the film gets lost and the balance is disrupted.
Not Pete's fault, but you begin to see how the visuals, the performance, and the story are not independent entities, but that each directly affects the others.
Another responsibility of the director is to take the resources, particularly time and money, allotted to the production by the producers, and work within those limitations. More time on the visual necessarily meant less time to work on performances.
To be fair, critics and those on set will tell you that Pete Jones was a remarkable first time director, and actually performed the juggling act quite well, getting great performances from his actors and a good-looking film. Mistakes made were no doubt lessons learned. But in the end, Pete found a balance that worked for him.
Time will tell what this director's stamp will look like.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
