I had a casting director for my six-minute film, which saved me a lot of time to focus on preparing my director’s notes/script. I think it is imperative to have the script broken down in detail before you ever see actors. For the actors you cast, the first audition is the first rehearsal, and it’s amazing how long actors can hold on to a misshapen piece of direction or faulty idea about the character. As a director it is your interpretations that the actors end up following. Have them before you see actors. You can’t direct actors to get what you want if you don’t know what that is. Writing a script is not enough to tell you how to succinctly and effectively communicate those ideas to actors. That is the essence of what a director does. A friend of mine sent me an email about this the other day, so I thought I would publish my response:

Dear xxxx,

I am attaching my script with director’s notes on it, as well as my more extensive personal director’s notes with backstory and all the questions I answered. Different directors/books have different philosophies, and I am still bouncing between them. Some books I like on the subject:

Notes on Directing by Frank Hauser is very short and sweet, a little lacking in scene analysis but great on blocking.
A Sense Of Direction is in the library. The whole thing is good but if you need something quick and effective the chapter on objectives is excellent.
Also for real down and dirty stuff look at Kazan on Directing. It has all of his director’s notes for all of his plays and films. He gets really personal about the characters, which I would like to do more over time.
Friendly enemies has one of the most extensive analysis sections of any of the books i’ve read. I think it can be a bit too much, but there is a lof of good stuff in there.
So for me the bare minimum of director’s homework is looking at every scene and determining the actions, using an action verb in the infinitive, like (to destroy). What is the character doing in that exact moment, is he pleading, bargaining, begging? I write these in parentheses in bold next to individual lines and actions. Sometimes I don’t need them, but if an actor is confused I have at least a few ideas to get things going, if not precisely what I want.

Second very important thing is objectives in a scene. What is the character trying to do or get? In my first scene Eli is trying to get attention. He uses a number of strategies to do this (action verbs). Sometimes objectives change in a scene, these happen when a character achieves a goal or receives information that renders achieving a goal impossible or uninteresting. Often times scenes end here.

I also think it is essential to have clear backstories worked out for “the scene before the scene,” so if an actor asks you what they were doing 5 minutes before the scene began, let alone 5 years, you know. Interestingly enough this is also a very strong tool for directing. If for example, if in my script in the backstory the two characters didn’t have sex because Zoe refused, or did have sex and Zoe’s feeling self conscious, the actress is going to play it somewhat differently. My auditions today were living proof.

Another big weapon is adjustments, or “as ifs.” Play the scene “as if” someone were listening in the next room. Play the scene “as if he were an adult.,” etc.

A lot of the time you don’t need these, but you must always have them on hand in case an actor misinterprets the character, or trips up. It clarifies what you want in terms that an actor can understand.

I will be reviewing tapes from my auditions today. For an example of a director’s script I recommend Delia Salvi’s Friendly Enemies. It’s a difficult process putting all the notes and interpretations, one that I actually find more difficult than writing, but it’s so important. Actors respect directors who know what they want at any given time. That can change, but waffling is a surefire way to lose a little bit of that essential trust between actor and director.