Pace Your Actors

There’s a joke that if you cast your film right the only thing you need to tell the actors is “Great! Let’s do it faster.”

It’s basically true in my experience.

Even great actors rarely consider the pacing of the film. This is a good thing. They need to be focused solely on keeping each moment real and truthful.

It’s up to you (the director) to imagine that performance playing to a packed movie theater. It it going to play too slow? Will the audience start shifting in their seats as our hero wistfully looks out to the ocean for 8 seconds before his big line?

I don’t expect the actor to know (or care). I just need him to trust that I’ll always ask for a “quicker one” when needed…

And it’s needed often. This is probably the most common direction I give.

Don’t Be Fancy

Like in the above example, good directing doesn’t need to be complicated. And if your cast is experienced, it’s best if you don’t try to be too fancy.

When I first started reading directing books and absorbing any behind-the-scenes footage I could find of my favorite directors – working with actors seemed like a mystical art. I thought it was the director’s job to extract a great performance out of the actors, as if actors were helpless on their own.

It turns out this can be true. If the actors don’t have much experience, it may fall on your shoulders to extract good performances out of them. You might need a whole bag of directing tricks – using leading questions, giving them active verbs, loosening them up with acting exercises, throwing a surprise at them while rolling… or when all else fails – get a shit-load of coverage and hope it works out in the editing room 😂

But the more skill your actors have, the less you need to and should use these kinds of fancy tricks. Instead, communicate directly what you need, or the problem you’re seeing, in plain language:

• I need your lines not to overlap each other.
• Can you find a way to land in the light for that line?
• It feels like you’re too calm in this moment. What would it look like if you were seething here?
• I’m not buying your reaction to this part. Can you think of another approach?
• Can you bring it down to a whisper by the end of the scene?
• I’m framed real tight on you, can you give me like 50% of that look? It’ll come through.
• Etc etc

Always Be Doing

If the performances are flat and boring – you may just need your actors to be doing something. Anything!

Ex: A scene with 2 kids riding the bus to school, talking about a big test they’re worried about. What are they doing? Talking may not be enough, especially if the scene is falling flat.

But what if you had them trading items from their lunches as they talk?

Suddenly, there’s something else happening in the scene, even without adding any new dialogue.

The trick is to make sure the actors are truly focused on whatever it is they’re doing.

If the kids don’t actually care about their lunches, it’s not going to be fun to watch. But if they’re truly trying to make the best trades they can, it will automatically improve their performances because they’re no longer just focused on the lines.

For most actors, having an activity – something they’re doing – gets them out of their heads and leads to a more natural performance.

Give it a shot!

Favorites this week:

Seems like I’ve only consumed disappointing movies and books lately, so just a quote for this week 😢

💬 Quote: Artists don’t talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it’s stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work. — Paddy Chayefsky

That’s it for this week.

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent