Before I direct a film, like I will in two weeks, part of my ritual is to watch Charles Kiselyak’s A Constant Forge. It’s a documentary on the life and work of John Cassavetes, possibly the most influential filmmaker in my short career as a short filmmaker. Studying Cassavetes’ fil[...]
Archive for the ‘Filmmaking’ Category
March 6th, 2010 - 9:08 pm § in Filmmaking
Fight Masters and Fake Slapping
There have been fight masters on a couple of our shoots thus far. A fight master is basically a director for scenes involving violence. I talked to one of them for a while on a previous shoot, and he talked about how difficult it could be to constantly direct people to be raped and abused. [...][...]
March 1st, 2010 - 9:43 pm § in Filmmaking, UCLA Film School
Gaffing
I just finished our fourth shoot, which was a noir. I was gaffer on it, responsible for all of the lighting. It was shot on one of UCLA’s three soundstages, which gave me a lot of freedom to create some interesting lighting. A few things I learned from this shoot is that A D.P. should [...][...]
February 23rd, 2010 - 2:21 pm § in Filmmaking
Some Quotes from Sven Nykvist
Just read a beautiful interview with him in the book Cinematography Screencraft. I am going to be DP’ing next week and was looking for some practical inspiration. Here’s what Ingmar Bergman (as well as occasionally Polanski, Tarkovsky and Allen)’s cinematographer has to say: I have[...]
February 16th, 2010 - 2:22 pm § in Filmmaking, UCLA Film School
Keep Your Crew Happy
I have been out in the desert Assistant Directing a difficult shoot, and I thought I would share a few extra things you can do to keep a crew happy. This is all based on my mistakes: If outdoors, always have a sun shelter Check everyone’s dietary requirements so no one ends up hungry when [...[...]
February 3rd, 2010 - 8:58 am § in Filmmaking
How I Prepare for Callbacks
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 [...]
February 3rd, 2010 - 8:48 am § in Filmmaking
4 Casting Questions
These are the 4 basic questions you should answer through casting sessions 1st audition: 1. In broad strokes, do they physically fit the part? 2. Can they act? Callbacks 1. Can they take direction? 2. How do they fit with your other characters? (casting the relationship) Casting is so important. In [...]
January 27th, 2010 - 11:05 pm § in Filmmaking, UCLA Film School
Casting is Writing
If the writer is the author of the story, the director is the author of the performances. When casting, take great care to ask yourself: “What kind of (insert character name here) does this actor bring to the part?” For most parts there are the types and the clichés: Children are cute, [...]
January 27th, 2010 - 10:41 pm § in Filmmaking, UCLA Film School
Action Verbs
During my script breakdown, I put together a list of action verbs. Learn them, learn to use them. They are an essential building block of the actor’s language. I took this from Lenore Dekoven’s Changing Direction. She’s a Columbia Film School professor. I’m a purist with acti[...]
January 21st, 2010 - 8:53 pm § in Filmmaking
The Moment I Became A Director
Wonderful. Watch it. Not a single one of those directors went to film school, aside from Kathryn Bigelow who was a film criticism major at Columbia.[...]