Charlie Productions : Direct A Film

How long have you got?

Obviously there is no right or wrong way. There are some things that a director can do which are pretty much guaranteed to bring you failure, humilation, penuary and the hatred of your cast and crew, though to be fair James Cameron seems to have done most of these on Titantic and that won Oscars and made a lot of people a lot of money. So, yeah, the short answer is that you're pretty much on your own although if you're searching the internet to find tips on how to do it then you're probably not quite insanely arrogant enough to pull it off.

The bottom line however is that as Director you are supposed to know how you are going to express the story you wish to tell through moving pictures and sound. Then you need to be able to explain this to a couple of hundred other people who all specialise in one aspect of the process. This is actually a numbingly vast thing to attempt which is why most Directors tend to bluff their way through with a strange mixture of shouting, flirting, drug abuse and natural charm which all stems from the kind of blind arrogance which refuses to recognise how difficult a task is until it is finished. Like Nelson putting a telescope to his blind eye and commanding his men into battle there is an horrific compulsion in most Directors which can devour the lives of those fool enough to get in its way.

For both of us being sure what we wanted has never really been a problem. What we have learnt through making short films is to allow other people to take possession of a film. The first way in which this became clear was with the actors, mainly because it became hard for us to be both in front and behind of the camera. We started off being very tight on our cast, giving very specific line readings and giving them very little room for manouver. However the more films we made and the better our casts became, the clearer it became the best way to direct actors was to work out what the most important things were, give these to the cast and then give them the space to reach that point on their own. For instance, when we made "Russell Square" we were still tending to answer the cast's questions by showing them how we had visualised the film in our hands, telling them how a line should be said, rather than explaining to them why the character was saying what they were saying and letting them find their own pronounciation. With "Free Speech" we told the cast what the mood was, we discussed the way the relationship between the two characters changes throughout the film and we talked about how the power in that relationship switches from one to the other as the script progresses. We then left Danny and Jacquie alone to interpret the script in their own way. Danny's performance in particular is very different from how the script ran in my head, and it's much better .

The same goes for every aspect of telling a story with pictures and sound. You don't need to be expert at it, that's why you're employing other people. What you need to do is be clear sighted enough to know what to tell them in order to get them to give you a result which is at least as good as what you'd thought of...

Charlie Productions believe passionately in doing things and always trying to stop in time for tea.
Brook House Design Studios, Bluebridge Road, Brookmans Park, Herts AL9 7SX
admin | sitemap | fresh look media