Class 2, FIPR 433

1. FIPR 533

2. 1. SCENE READING & CRIT
2.WESTON REVIEW
3. ASSIGNMENT REVIEW
4. FILM

3. FEAR
FAILURE
INTUITION
TRUTH

4. JudithWeston,
Chapters 1-3
■ Result-Oriented Direction
■ Simple Objectives
■ Intention
■ Experiential direction

5. Result-Oriented Direction
“Shaping actors performance by describing the result you are after, i.e., how you want it
to end up looking or sounding.”(14)
Examples:
■ Telling the actor the effect you want;
■ Being vague or general;
■ Giving line readings;
■ Telling the actor what feeling they should have;
■ Telling the actor what emotion they should have;
■ Giving the actor and emotional map;
■ Gossiping about characters’;
■ Telling actors ‘what the character is like’

6. Remedies
■ Give an imaginative adjustment
■ What is the character’s obstacle?
■ What is the character’s objective, or simple intention?
■ Use direction that is experiential – what the character needs or wants
■ Create atmosphere of creative trust where actors can play off each other and listen to
each other

7. Beware of Adjective & Explanations
■ Adjectives are modifiers of nouns: i.e. happy sad, angry, sweet, sexy, abrasively etc.
■ Adjectives are static & subjective, generalizations
■ Explanations (emotional maps, psychologizing), also are simplifying, static, subjective,
and categorizing

8. QUICK FIXES
TO SHAPE
PERFORMANCES

9. Quick Fixes
■ ActionVerbs (actions): accuse, convince, beg, complain, punish, (Appendix C short list)
■ Facts: in the script, and not in the script
■ Images: using the senses; images of the text, and those the actor brings
■ Events: dynamic, alive, emotional
■ Physical tasks: do something rather than be something

10. Questions
Questions
Questions
“I don’t know” can be the smartest
thing a director can say.

11. FEAR & CONTROL
RISK
HONESTY

12. MOMENTTO MOMENT
■ Be strict about following your whims
■ Feel your feelings;
■ Don’t move or speak unless you feel like it;
■ Forgive yourself for mistakes;

13. LISTENING
■ Listening best tool actor has
■ Sidney Lumet working on
“Network” – Holden look into
Dunaway’s eyes for whole
scene

14. GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES
OBJECTIVES
SUBTEXT
BEATS

15. SUBTEXT
“Subtext or undertone is any content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly
by the characters or author, but is implicit or becomes something understood by the
observer of the work as the production unfolds. ”

16. SUBTEXT
■ Candy wrapper in opening scene

17. 1. Director Portfolio
■ Research
■ Character Sketches/Biographies
■ Photos / inspiration
■ ‘Look Book’ / mood board
■ Synopsis,
■ Verbs x 3
■ Schematics

18. 2. Project Pitch
■ Logline
■ 4 page project treatment
■ Verbal pitch*
*Can include your look book or mood board from Director Portfolio

19. 3. Dialogue scene
■ Direct, shoot and edit dialogue scene in 2 styles
Final submission includes SCRIPT & LINKS to final pieces

20. 4. Choosing a SCENE
■ Chose a scene(s) from a film with a style / form you would like to learn more about
■ Look at elements such as shot selection, composition, acting, editing choices,
technical elements
■ Do some background research and scene analysis and present to the group