Directing ~Get a Goddamn Job~
(Disclaimer: The following article is for an assessed university unit.)
I had chosen this directing unit in order to gather a better understanding of how the role of the director functions within a film production. While I may not be interested in pursuing directing as a career path; I took the opportunity in both hands to get as much from the experience as possible.
To give a better idea of how I worked through this unit I have put together a little ‘Production Log’ which should indicate my learning journey. Please note that I have used a week-by-week structure as specific dates are unknown. Except filming dates.
WEEK ONE: [Lecture] I met my actors; Fiona (Fee) and Troy for the first time. As a group, we spent the session getting to know each other along with learning about the Stanislavski method of acting. A big part of this session was getting up in front of the class and directing a scene with only a few minutes preparation. I found this incredibly daunting from a confidence point of view however by the end of it I had a better understanding on how to control a set.
WEEK TWO: [Lecture] From the previous week, we had been given an extract from Hollywood film Hidden Figures (2016) which we then had to direct the scene with our own creative vision. I have not seen the original text so when it was my turn to direct I used a lot of inspiration from “The pirate council” scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007). In the scene Elizabeth is oppressed by the male pirates. A similar thing happens in Hidden Figures however it is racism focused.
WEEK THREE: [Independent] I still wasn’t grasping the concepts of direction; I couldn’t see the relation between the actors and the director in the same way as was being taught. To better understand some other director’s vision, I went to YouTube and looked at a number of different interviews with some of my favourite directors. The likes of Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, James Gunn and Peter Jackson to name a few. These interviews gave me a better understanding of what makes the directors communication with the actors so important; it’s not just about what looks good on camera.
WEEK FOUR: [Independent] This week was a guest lecture which I was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances out of my control however I spoke to my peers about what the lecture entailed and feel I got a fairly good understanding of what was covered.
WEEK FIVE: [Lecture] This week was all about casting, I learnt about the importance of casting the right actor in the right role. An example we looked at was Michael Douglas and his portrayal of Liberace (Behind the Candelabra, 2013) vs. his portrayal of Gordon Gekko (Wall Street, 1987). In both roles he was perfect from; we looked at images of both characters and compared his body language. You didn’t see Michael Douglas, you saw the respective character. I related it to Johnny Depp and his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean, 2001-2017) vs. his portrayal of Whitey Bulger (Black Mass, 2015).
WEEK SIX: [Independent] This week was an individual working week. I focused mainly on brainstorming ideas. I found it difficult to get an idea that would work for a two-page script (as per the brief’s requirements) I kept envisioning ideas that were to grand in their scale, eventually I decided to work out an idea putting the characters first.
WEEK SEVEN:
[Lecture] After a week of planning an idea, I had a rough idea of what story I wanted to tell and direct. I fleshed out the story after fleshing out who the characters where. I based the story of real people to make the scene as realistic as possible. I pitched the idea to Fee, whom helped me to enhance the story further. She seemed to like the character I had planned for her. Troy wasn’t in the session unfortunately, so my male character was lacking his interpretation. I was finally put into a production group! Work on the logistics of filming our scenes were worked out.
WEEK EIGHT: [Lecture] We had a planned rehearsal in this week’s session however, Troy has pulled out of being our actor. Michael was to be his replacement. I could not rehearse with just Fiona, so we discussed my scene further, I had a finished draft of the script which we read together briefly.
WEEK NINE: [Independent] During Easter break, my production group had all decided that all of our paperwork needed to be together and sent to our producer to send on to our actors. This proved a challenge as because it was the Easter break, I was away from university so a lot of my paperwork and finished script was completed on my phone! (Thank you, Microsoft Office! Absolute life saver!)
WEEK TEN: [Production] On Tuesday 10th April we were on location ready to shoot two of the five scenes. We arrived a few hours before the actors in order to collect the equipment and set up the location. We had two locations to use that were relatively close together which made transporting the equipment easy. It was my shoot that went second, my location was outside so the weather and light was a big factor in how we proceeded. On the whole the shoots went well, both my scene and the scene before me took under our two-hour time slot to shoot. I was glad to have a shot list to refer to (even if I did ignore it a lot).
WEEK ELEVEN: [Production/Post-production] This week we had three scenes to film which meant allowing more time to film. For me the day started at 10am on Tuesday 17th April with a progress tutorial with our lecturer to make sure we were all progressing properly. Our location for the day’s shoot was the other side of the city so we had factored in the time it would take to get there and set up before the actors arrived. We had about two and a half hours which worked out plenty of time. I was a mere crew member for the day, I learnt a lot from watching the others direct. One observation I made was their use of the camera; I thought they used it in a much more interesting and creative ways. Shame I had already filmed!
Get a Goddamn Job started from a real-life experience which I have over exaggerated for dramatic effect. When I was growing up I remember that my parents (like a lot of peoples) were concerned that when I left school I wouldn’t get a job and just lock myself in my room on the internet. I remember being nagged and nagged to get a job before I left for university. I was adamant that I’d get one eventually. This memory served as the catalyst for the rest of the story to develop. Because we had been given two actors, that limited my idea slightly as I couldn’t have two parents and a child/teenager. This revelation made me rethink the structure of the story; I began to change how the scene would play out. I changed the situation from a family issue to an issue of friendship; a best friend trying to help the other get their life sorted. I used myself as the inspiration for each of the characters, I based each character off two parts of my personality. My idealist side; my individualism, free-spirited nature, rebellious nature and my morals. And my professional side; formal, realistic, organised and work-oriented. The character of Jane became the personification of my idealist self while Graham became the personification of me professionalism.
The actors were a great help, particularly Fee as she helped flesh out the character of Jane more than I would have originally though possible. In the initial meetings when we discussed her character I didn’t give her much to go off from, I mentioned that I wanted Jane to be the free-spirited idealist, but Fee enabled me to understand more about how her costume would reflect her character without any acting or direction. We settled on a loose-fitting dress and funky earrings; in the future I will definitely consider the costume more, in terms of an actor’s performance.
Michael was a great help as well, hats off to him as he joined the production a lot later than Fee. He had to learn all of our scripts in much less time. On set he was great at helping with the performance side of directing. When I was blocking a scene, he was vocal in his ideas and improvements. Some I took on board and some I went with what I had planned; he was great at following my directions and between him and Fee they both seemed to improve the directions given to them.
Not long into shooting the first camera angle Michael and Fee made me aware of a contradiction in the script. In the original script Graham mentions his boss trying to contact Jane about an interview which she didn’t go to; but later in the scene there is mention of a new interview at the same place. The two actors advised me to improvise the beginning of the scene by allowing them to change the circumstance. We changed it from being Graham's boss to being Graham's friend. Watching the final scene back, it makes the narrative run a lot smoother for the audience to follow. I’m glad that I didn’t ignore their suggestions.
I wouldn’t say too much of my original ‘director’s vision’ was changed, I was pretty confident with what I wanted to achieve with my shots and camera movements. One aspect that did change was location based; due to the location of another group members’ scene we moved my scene to a closer location (still in the park just not the same part). There was a large tree in the location which was blossoming with bright pink flowers which I just HAD to use. I added a scene using the tree as much as possible, Jane ended up dancing around it and is looking at the petals. I wanted to do this as I thought it would add to her innocent nature.
From working on Get a Goddamn Job I found that I had several different strengths and weaknesses, namely my direction. I feel that my direction of my material was a strength as I stuck to my original idea and didn’t add anything “fancy” just to make something look good. I wanted my scene to be as full of emotion as possible and I think that I managed to get an emotional reaction from the actors. A weakness of this production process would definitely be my forward planning. A lot of my script was completed rather last minute so the actors only had two weeks to learn the script, it would have been good if I had given them a little longer, so they could fill out their respective characters a little more. Despite this, they were very professional and worked hard on set to help me to achieve the very best outcome.
To improve the final scene? I could list hundreds of reasons or ideas that could have improved my scene. I wish I had the opportunity to film for longer, have a longer scene. It would have been great to see where the story went; how the relationship between the characters advanced. Answer the question, did she get a job?
PRODUCTION PAPERWORK:
