Directing Tips

DIRECTING TIPS

“ The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” -William Shakespeare

How you tell the story is more important than the story itself.

PREPRODUCTION

Plan Everything in Preproduction!

7 Elements of Visual Style

7 Elements of Visual Style
Contrast & Affinity
Space
Line & Shape
Tone
Colour
Movement
Rhythm

“ Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” -Albert Einstein

Picture One Shot

Breakdown the Script

50% Photocopy

Line the Script
Page count
Colour Coding

Breakdown the Script Colour Coding
INT. DAY = Highlight Yellow
INT. NIGHT = Highlight Pink
EXT. DAY = White (no highlight)
EXT. NIGHT = Highlight Purple
DAWN/DUSK = Highlight Orange.
Characters = Underline Red
Props = Underline Purple
Stunts = Underline Orange
Vehicle/Animals = Underline Blue
Special Equipment = Draw a box
Extras = Highlight Green
Wardrobe = Circle
Special Effects = Highlight Blue
Make-up/Hair = Mark with an asterisk
Sound Effects/Music = Underline in brown

Breakdown the shots

Director's Binder

Director's Binder
Script with Breakdowns
Notes
Cheatsheets
Storyboards
Shotlists
Schedules
Contracts
Extra Graph Paper

PRODUCTION

Don't Fix it in Post!

It's the Actor's Job is to Act, Not Yours!

Directing Actors

Directing Actors
Action Verbs
Adjustments
Images
Facts
Events
Physical Tasks
Do It Wrong
Listening
Play with the actors expectations

The Director's Vision is Blurry

Get Good Sound

Shooting Tips

Shooting Tips
Create dynamic blocking
The Eyeline
Coverage
The 180 rule
The 30 degree rule
Always shoot the characters entering and leaving
Capture the emotion, not images
90% perfect is perfect enough

Don't Fix it in Post!

POST PRODUCTION

Fix it in Post!

Editing Tips

Editing Tips
Lay your master track, then your close ups and finally your cutaways
Cut on motion
Avoid the ping-pong cut
Show reactions
Action cuts get shorter and shorter until the climax of the scene followed by one long shot for resolution

The Post Process

The Post Process
Review
Cut
Picture lock
Music and sound spotting
ADR/looping
Scoring
Color correction
Pre-lay/pre-dub
Titling and legends
Mix/dub
Answer print

Backup Everything!

Backup Everything! TWICE!

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Directing Tips

by dannyfsantos on May 10, 2010

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