From my journal during the three-month shoot of Non-Stop, referring to a
direction the 1st Assistant Director gave me my first day on the set:
Favorite randomly
specific direction for a quick non-speaking shot ever: "You're so sick
of listening to the guy in front of you try to sell vacuum cleaners. And
he smells."
I vividly remember loving that direction, because it was so
specific and communicated precisely what he wanted. I thought of it
recently when I was on a set with a director who gave the actors line
readings -- multiple times. For one line, I witnessed him give the
actor five readings in a row of the four-word line. Every time the
actor said it back, to my ear (and clearly to the actor's) it sounded
identical to the director's delivery, but the director was evidently
hearing a difference. There was no conversation or communication
beyond the line reading, and when someone on set smilingly said to the
director, "Wow, you really know what you want," he responded, seemingly
dead-serious, "Yeah, I'm a good actor." That might be, but what the
person hired as the actor in that scene clearly needed (if the director
wasn't happy with the way he was saying his line) was communication and
direction that went beyond a "parrot me" directive. But hey, if the
whole directing thing doesn't work out for this director, at least he'd
probably
be happy just playing every role himself.... Or maybe he could get the
performance he wants from the actor by playing a smelly vacuum-cleaner
salesman....
No comments:
Post a Comment