THE DIRECTOR’S PSYCHE
Where the DSM-5 meets the DGA
1.FOCUS OR FUGUE STATE
No one wants to talk to the director while he’s shooting. Anxiety surrounds him like a toxic cloud. He appears possessed as he acts along with the actors on the monitor. Don’t even try having a human moment. Just pat his shoulder and move on.
2.LONELY AT THE TOP
The crew harkens to your every word. The actors take your direction. But nobody really cares how the authority figure is feeling. If she got a good night’s sleep. If her marriage is okay. Alienation comes with the gig. In dreams begin responsibilities
3.ON THE OTHER HAND
The great privilege of directing movies is finding yourself surrounded by brilliant, talented, fabulous, funny-as-fuck artists whom you’ve admired for years, who inexplicably treat you like a peer and actually seem interested in your ideas. Heaven.
4.THE LAST TO KNOW
Sleep is essential. If you can get to bed early, you’ll live to face another day. But it means missing out on drinks with the crew or fabulous dinners with the actors. Years later you’ll learn who was sleeping with who (whom)?Probably best not to have known.
5.CRAFT SERVICE
Occasionally, you must escape the penumbral sound stage. Snacking is necessary. But can you eat your m&m’s and avoid the day player who wants to bond, or the grip who’s written a screenplay? Nope. Pretend to listen and get back to work.
6.PODIATRY FOR POETS
Stress congregates in your lower back. You’re on your feet all day and those personalized canvas ‘directors’ chairs may look cool but are hell on the spine. Wear sturdy shoes. Change your socks at lunch. Sit down whenever possible. In a real chair.
7.THE MONITOR
Something intimate was lost when they invented the video-tap. Proximity to the actors kept their work three-dimensional. The monitor turns it into a performance. Don’t become passive as if you’re watching TV. It’s still a process. Intercede when necessary.
8.THE MONITOR, PT II
Some sets now have “courtesy” monitors. This nightmare originated on commercial sets to serve brand managers and non-combatants. Scorsese retaliated against looky-loos by hanging giant rearview mirrors at video village. Because…Marty.
9.THE MONITOR, PT III
The video-tap is invaluable when it comes to stunts. No need for reshoots if you’re sure the crash was in frame or the explosion worked. But for god sakes don’t record anything else. That way, the actors can’t ask to watch their performance.
10.DIRECTOR PALS
When Milos Forman first came to America he had terrible nightmares but no time to go to therapy. Instead, he told his bad dreams to Ivan Passer and sent him to a therapist for interpretation. Forman became a star, Passer stayed in therapy for twenty years.
P.S. THE HACK'S ADAGE
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target

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More from @EdwardZwick1

14 Sep
A DIRECTOR’S CAREER
Contradictions, calamities & compromises
1. IT NEVER STOPS
Fred Zinneman, winner of 4 Oscars, director of 50 films, was in a meeting with a young development executive. To break the ice, she politely asked, “So tell me what you’ve been up to...” To which he politely responded, “You first.”
2. IT NEVER STOPS, PT.II
Following his first Oscar, Mike Nichols was cutting the big, problematic “Catch 22” when he heard about a little indy called M*A*S*H and took a peek. He was so depressed by its irreverent genius he went home and couldn’t get out of bed for a week.
Read 12 tweets
8 Sep
10 THINGS ABOUT DIRECTING ACTORS
Technique, Tips & Trauma
1.RESULT DIRECTION
Don’t ever tell an actor you want him to cry. If an actor is thinking about a result, it blocks the internal process that allows him to reach the emotion in an authentic way. Besides, the goal isn’t to make the actor cry, it’s to make the audience cry.
2.INTERPRETATION
Actors and directors talk about “choices.” Predictable choices are boring, but arbitrary ones can be awful. Any choice is better than being “on the word.” If the dialogue’s good, it will take care of itself, but only if there'ssomething going on underneath it.
Read 11 tweets
8 Sep
10 THINGS ABOUT DIRECTING ACTORS
Technique, Tips & Trauma
1.RESULT DIRECTION
Don’t ever tell an actor you want him to cry. If an actor is thinking about a result, it blocks the internal process that allows him to reach the emotion in an authentic way. Besides, the goal isn’t to make the actor cry, it’s to make the audience cry.
2.INTERPRETATION
Actors and directors talk about “choices.” Predictable choices are boring, but arbitrary ones can be awful. Any choice is better than being “on the word.” If the dialogue’s good, it will take care of itself, but only if there's something going on underneath it.
Read 10 tweets
31 Aug
A SCREENWRITER’S OMNIBUS
Tips, tricks, & tirades
1.PRIMING THE PUMP
Always leave something undone at the end of your writing day. You’ll have a running start in the morning. Think about your script in the moments between waking and rising. There’s an image in your head, you don’t know why. The elves were working overtime.
2.HOMEWORK
Study great scripts not to imitate, but to learn the architecture. Internalize the beats and tropes of genre to understand the audience’s expectations and subvert them. Picasso could paint beautiful portraits before he rearranged the faces.
Read 11 tweets
9 Aug
THE DIRECTOR IN PREP
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
1. WHY MAKE IT?
Making any movie is ungodly hard. Ask yourself if it’s worth it and what you are making. And don’t say ‘money’ because there are easier ways. Only if your answer can sustain you for two years do you have a chance of holding an audience’s interest for two hours.
2. ASSEMBLING YOUR TEAM
Has the Line Producer worked with different size budgets? Has the DP shot big night exteriors, the AD repeated with the same director? Casting them is as important as the actors. If in doubt, call a director on their resume. There’s honor among thieves.
Read 12 tweets
3 Aug
A DIRECTOR'S CONFESSIONS
Technique, tricks & trauma
1. HOW DO YOU CAST A MOVIE STAR?
They don’t audition and a polite meeting might be their best performance. Try watching their interviews on YouTube for those moments the presentational mask slips and something authentic is revealed. That’s who’ll show up on set.
2. MEDITATION
Get to the set before everybody else – before the chaos of production begins. Close your eyes. Breathe. In the stillness of an empty sound stage you can do the entire day’s work in a few minutes. Makes the rest of the day feel like post-production.
Read 11 tweets

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