DIRECTING 101 - GIVE DIRECTION

Excerpt from my book "Long Night's Journey Into Daybreak":

So what you really want to do is direct… Well, good luck and God bless! First off, I think it takes a lot of guts to want to direct. It can be demanding, pressure filled, and ego deflating. Like that old Army jingle, you’ll do more before 9 am than most people will do all day. Your reward may also include looming ulcers, mood swings and panic attacks. But your most important reward is that it’s the best damn job in the world. Period.

You’ve got to communicate your vision. What is so great about being the director is that it is your vision that drives the film. You get to make it your way. That’s a wonderful opportunity. But to take full advantage of it, you’ve got to be able to inspire your cast and crew. Make them believe in your dream. Keep them excited and involved. Make them look forward to the next day’s shoot.

Preparation. Know what you’re doing. Know why you’re doing it. If it’s not a script you wrote yourself, then you’d better read it again and again until you know it inside and out. You’ve got to know the value of every scene, every character and each line of dialogue. Some have great weight or value; others do not. Know which is which, because if you spend hours of time and reams of film just to get one shot right, it had better be for a purpose. Know the difference. Know when to move on. Not all of the scenes or shot compositions will be perfect. Make sure the ones that need to be are.

The most important thing that you do is make decisions. Underline that. Highlight that. You make decisions, lots of them. Some will be brilliant, some will not be. Some will be downright stupid. Make them anyway. The trick to keeping your film moving is not that you make the RIGHT decision; it's that you make A decision. The worst thing that you can do is to appear like you can't make the call. Dammit, it's your job to make the call.

There are moments when you know it all comes down to how you handle a particular crisis. The real joke is that some of these crises will be real make-or-break stuff, while others will only be your imagination telling you that it's make-or-break! Yes, directors hallucinate this way. you've got to fight hard to see things as they really are. Perspective is a hard thing to keep, but that's also part of your job.

Finally, look good. You are the leader. Be clean and neat. Men, shave everyday. The rigors of a shooting schedule will wear you down, but by shaving you avoid the appearance that you are worn out. You cannot be worn out. No one wants to bust his ass for a leader who looks like hell. My days began at 5 am and usually ended around midnight. Day after day after day… The cast and crew feed off your energy. They look to you for inspiration, motivation and a sense of purpose. Do everything you can to be worthy of it.

I'm just saying...