With my thoughts turning to the idea of directing SToA, I suddenly realised that my limited experience of stage directing (a long time ago) would serve no useful purpose whatsoever. I understand cinematography, I understand basic composition and blocking. But until now I’ve yet to give direction to a proper actor on a set with cameras and lights pointing at them.
“Panic!” I cry and then pace about for twenty minutes. I know, I’ll buy a book!
So off to Amazon I go and track down, Judith Weston’s Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television.
Duly it arrives, and barely am I twenty pages in when I realise that as a writer I’ve overlooked a fundamental part of the equation. Some poor sod has to stand there and say these damned words! And I don’t have a clue (or at least I didn’t) about what is going through these peoples minds while they are trying to ‘be in the moment’.
Yes, I’ve laughed heartily at each retelling of Harrison Ford’s quip to George Lucas about his hokey dialogue, and I’ve even commented myself on the fact that good written dialogue that reads well often comes out a garbled mess when spoken (especially when done with a fake cockney accent). But it had never occurred to me why that might be. Judith Weston, thankfully, has the answer and a whole lot more besides.
I’ve read some useful books in my time, but nothing as perfectly pertinent as Judith’s book has been to me in the past few days. I’ll get her other book, The Film Director’s Intuition: Script Analysis and Rehearsal Techniques, as soon as I’m nearing the end of this one, which at the present rate will be, um, thursday…