On Directing
My favorite quote about the definition of drama was taught to me by Alexander Mackendrick, the Brilliant film director and my teacher at Cal/Arts. I was one of his first students in 1970, when the school first opened. The definition was from a book written by William Archer over a hundred years ago called PLAYMAKING. “Drama is anticipation mixed with uncertainty” in case in point, you have an anticipation of how a story will unfold but you are ultimately not sure of the outcome. This is a crucial and important idea that is incredibly helpful to the director as he or she goes about telling their story. You learn how to dramatize with an eye towards suspense. I mean suspense in dramatic terms. What is the drama of a particular scene? And how does one physicalize that drama?
The director has to wear two hats. He or she has to wear the objective hat, and then switch on a dime to the subjective hat. The subjective director gets inside the scene, and gets inside the characters and gets emotionally connected. And then the objective director becomes an objective viewer – not the audience, but the critic to make sure the story is told.
If directing a movie is like working in Oils as a painter, then directing an episode of television is like making a pencil drawing. There is an art to both. Directing a movie takes a long time, but the episode is done quickly. It is an intuitive process and it can be at its very best a remarkable expression of emotion and thought. And there is very little time for reflection. One has to make quick decisions and be completely in tune with the story one is trying to tell. At its best, it is a remarkable expression of emotion and thought. One must view the time limitation as a plus, and as a challenge to test your own skills to work quickly and decisively.
The director of a movie or a television show is the story teller. The story is told through his or her eyes. It is their point of view. The director sees the movie in one’s head first. Then the process of directing is about putting the movie that you’ve imagined into reality. That is the excitement and challenge of the journey.