Actors and director create characters together. David K. Irving explains how to work with actors on set, from blocking to notes, for real performances.
Actors, in tandem with the director, create characters that people, propel, and tell the story. The director uses the script and skill to interact with the actors and guide them to a satisfying performance.
In a good screenplay the path to fulfilling a role is embedded in the text. The actor and director base the arc of the character on this blueprint. The expertise of the actor combined with the savvy of the director form a dance to the tune of the script. This choreography includes everything from finding the tempo of a specific beat, the handling of a key prop, the choice of wardrobe, the blocking in a scene, to the emotional balance between two characters.
Just as each shot is a single mosaic tile in the final picture, so too is an actor’s performance composed of a series of beats, which, when assembled in continuity, create a credible character. Shaping these beats is the micro, the final performance the macro. The actor is engulfed in each moment during a performance, whether big or small, whereas the director is required to be both subjective and objective. This is particularly important because the picture will more than likely be shot out of continuity. Therefore a director’s key responsibility is guiding any performance to an emotional intensity consistent with the arc of the character as indicated by the screenplay.
Much of the staging of the scene may have been preplanned; either through indications in the storyboards, floor plans and/or walk-through’s with the actor and cinematographer. However, in the moment just prior to shooting a scene is when everything jells. The lines, business, props, set dressing, camera movement, lighting and interaction between actors and their environment are primed to congeal into a shot. Though there has been a great plan that organizes these elements to be prepared for this moment, a director should take a deep breath and allow the moment to materialize organically.
This unadulterated juncture requires time. The actors go through their rehearsal paces at half speed, saving their motor for when the camera rolls. Here the coordination of the above mentioned elements would converge into what the director deems primed for photography. The blocking rehearsal maps out the action in a final pattern, which may or may not resemble the master plan. Things happen in this rehearsal that bring the scene to life. A director should be flexible and open to creativity inherent in this eleventh-hour process.
After blocking the scene, the actors are sent back to make-up and hair for final touch ups. Meanwhile, the crew finalizes and practices the lighting and camera plan. When both cast and crew are ready, the director calls for a final dress rehearsal. When all is prepared, the shot can be called.
It is a challenge to bring all the technical elements to bear on a creative instant. A director shouldn’t rehearse too much on set for fear of stale performances. Nor should the director wing it, as the technical elements must be in complete harmony.
Actors must hit marks to be in focus and in the proper light. They must remember their lines. Business has to be executed at specified moments. Actors pick up their cues from other actors or a prearranged signal. While performing these technical duties, actors realize a performance. And all the above must be repeated exactly for each different camera angle.
There are a myriad acting styles and schools. The director has to discern which methods work best for which actors. A Stanislavsky trained actor may take several takes to warm up to the character. An improv-trained actor may be most fresh on the first and second takes thus motivating the director to shoot multiple cameras. A nose putty actor works from the tip of his or her fake nose towards the center of the character, which may take time, while other actors find their moments through props and set dressing. Rehearsals are usually played at half speed, a take at full speed. The director’s challenge is to arrange so all the actors in a scene complement the overall tempo of the sequence.
Magic occurs just before the director calls for “action” and just before the director calls “cut.” Since the actor will stay in character until the director says action or cut, behavior may slip out and onto the film or tape during these unscripted moments. In the editing room, the director often looks for moments of action, eye and/or facial movements that intensify and thus propel a scene.
A scene is shot or covered from several angles. Even if the plan is for the scene to be photographed in a single take, inserts and pickups should be taken for safety in the editing room. In a long take, a director may like 75% of the shot but feels that some portion of it unusable. This is often the case should an actor nail a scene but blow the last line. Rather than re-shoot the entire shot, the director may call for a pick up on the tag of the sequence, just to cover the last line. In this manner the director can cut from the usable material to the pick-up and maintain an emotional continuity.
Actors focus their eyes on the actors with whom they are performing in the scene. Alone, an actor will choose an object upon which to concentrate. When bouncing the camera from one set up to the next, it is the responsibility of the camera operator, script supervisor and director to keep track of the direction in which the actor is looking. This is referred to as the actor’s eye line. In a two-character scene, the actor looks left to right. When the camera turns around to shoot the lines and reactions of the other actor, he or she must be looking right to left. When cutting from one actor to the other, the perception on the part of the audience will be that the characters are speaking to one another.
If an actor has been dismissed, or is not available to stand by the camera to give the actor someone to look at, the director often takes that position. If the camera is in such a tight location that it gives no room for the other actor or the director to stand, the assistant cameraman will place a small flag or brightly colored piece of tape for the actor to look at. In this way, the actor’s eye line will be focused in the proper spot or direction. The tape or focus spot for the actor may be directly at the edge of the lens. Actors and camera operators need to be mindful the eyes do not strafe the center of the lens. Actors can look at all parts of the periphery of the lens, but when their eyes look directly down the barrel of the lens, the actor breaks the fourth wall.
In the theater, on a proscenium stage, there exist three walls, the back and two sides. The fourth wall is the invisible one between the audience and the stage. When the curtain falls, it makes this fourth wall a solid. The invisible or fourth wall makes the audience feel they are peering in upon an unfolding drama. Even in a soliloquy, and actor speaks out directly at the audience, but does not make eye contact with them. The actor speaks as if to the last row, much like the interior dialogues in a novel. So, too, in film an audience comes to a theater, takes a seat, and watches the drama unfold on the silver screen. The actors on the screen never make eye contact with the audience. If they did, it would make the audience uncomfortable, as if the magic and mystery were suddenly dispelled.
If an actor or an extra in a scene looks even for an instant at the lens, the effect is startling to the viewer. Avoid it at all cost. The only exception is in a comedy. There are moments when an actor, during a slow burn, or to include the audience in a joke, makes a point of looking at the lens. An example of this kind of “nudge, nudge, get it?” moment is when Peter Boyle, as Frankenstein’s monster in Mel Brooks’ film Young Frankenstein, sits with the little gypsy girl at the edge of the lake. They tear petals off a flower. When the little girl sees the last petal is gone, she looks up and asks the monster, “Oh, what shall we throw in the water now?” Peter Boyle reacts by looking at us, the audience, and grins. It is clear what, or in this case who, will be tossed into the water without actually seeing the girl catapulted to a watery grave.
Because humans have a wide peripheral vision, a director also needs to be aware of possible disturbances in the actor’s sight line. If a group of crew members standing behind the camera are in the eye line of the actor, it may prove distracting. Keeping the actors eye line clear assists the actor’s concentration.
During the actual shooting, the only crew members authorized to speak to an actor besides the director are the script supervisor and the director of photography. Hair and make-up artists stand by for touch ups, which take place quickly so as not to hold up the shot. The director creates an amiable atmosphere during the intense period of shooting, a calm at the eye of the storm, so the work of shaping a character and a scene can progress. This arrangement eliminates static that would distract actors.
The script supervisor, also called continuity, maintains continuity so that all material sent to the editing room will cut together without noticeable jumps or mistakes. Let’s say an actor points to one character in a wide shot, but in the medium shot mistakenly points to another character. The two shots will not cut. This is when the script supervisor reminds the actor where to point. Eye line, what hand what prop was in, wardrobe and a myriad of other matches from one camera angle to the next require diligent scrutiny to maintain continuity.
The cinematographer has access to the actor for technical matters only. The director of photography wants to have the light fall just right on an actor. Actors must hit, or stop, at certain marks taped to the floor. Therefore, a director of photography can “direct” actors to ensure they are photographed correctly. In fact, the director is the only person on set who can shout, “cut” to stop the camera from rolling. But in extreme circumstances, such as when an actor is badly out of focus, the cinematographer (or operator) can signal to cut.
David K. Irving is a film director, writer, producer, and an Associate Professor in film production at New York University. He has written and directed dozens of documentaries, and his feature directing credits include Night of the Cyclone, C.H.U.D. II, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin.
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