Directions Unit: Steve Finn L1



Today was our first Lecturre with Steve Finn. We were introduced with a clip "Moons Fire" from Eastender; a complex scene he directed.  Throughout the lesson we watched several clips:

"Le deuxième souffle" Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966 (Master shot)
"How Alfred Hitchcock Blocks A Scene" YouTube: Nerdwriter1 (Blocking)
"Pickpocket" Dir: Robert Bresson, 1959 (Choreographed movement)
"A Man Escaped" Dir: Robert Bresson, 1956 (What's not shot?)
  • Preparation is key for directing to make a shoot work. Steve explained that he will have 4 weeks of prep before a shoot. The director works through all the departments and work through each department working up to the block of the scenes and shoot and then on the forth week, the entire crew meet together and the director will talk through the schedule and what he is going to shoot and how. 
  • Directing is about being able to see the entire production/scene in your head as it will be shown on screen. (Usually looking for potential issues etc.)
  • Need to listen to others ideas. They're the experts in their fields and they will have ideas and input you don't - they're still creatives. That doesn't mean to say you should always listen, but if you have time its good to the note and not dismiss ideas straight away. 
  • Directors are like composers, ensuring everybody is playing together and doing the right thing at the right time.
  • Your 1st assistant director is the most important person to a Director.
  • You rarely have the final say. You're always answering to the person(s) with the money.
  • You learn as much from bad directors as you do good directors. Steve himself had learned how not to direct with bad directors and how to with good ones
  • COMMUNICATION is key
  • If you're going to be a director, make sure everybody knows who's in charge-direct
  • The best scripts have the story in the action. 
  • If you don't know how to make a scene work, act it out and visualise it.
  • Think about a character's journey in a scene. 
  • Good master shots develop. Less shots and coverage are needed by this. 
  • Different shots allow pace when editing. Its difficult to speed up a scene with one shot. Its also more interesting and aesthetically appeasing to the audience. 
  • Silent movies are great for visualisation 
  • Style should come from the script, not be imposed.

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