Directing Actors! (Implementation)

Context

Sooo, in my previous blogs, I researched how to direct onset efficiently and effectively communicate to the actors about me and my partner's shared vision. 

Directing Tips! (Research) - Here, I went over tips for directing onset, especially for directing actors and how every details in the acting mattered.

Casting Actors (Planning) - In this blog, I discussed the actors chosen.

Filming Day! (Yay!)

One thing I gathered from researching was to give short and clear notes at first take then go into more details about the shot at each additional take. This was to not overwhelm the actors with directions and also work based on the first take, not before. 

So, what does this look like?

Here in this first shot, my direction was very simple: Just get up, hold hands and leave. 

Taking this into account. The first area of concern was when to get up, so I told Landon to basically follow after Alexis but to move quicker so they met at the middle at the same time. We also noticed it felt rushed and a bit to silent, so I directed both of them to tale their time. In the final product, the music would go here but we decided to make Alexis improv a line. 

Now here is the last take of this shot!

Body Language

While directing and researching, I also noticed body language played a huge part in the visual storytelling. This included, how they sat, eye contact, and how they acted together. For this part, my team partner helped significantly, given how he is way more expressive than I am, allowing him to act and be the example. Basically visually show how they should act.

 Using Alexis as an example... 

In this shot, it is a dialogue from Lucille. I originally told Alexis to act interested. But afterwards, we decided it did not really fit the character in this moment so...

Tatlie offered suggestions and gave a brief demonstration which led to this, which felt more natural and true to the character!