directing Archives

The Great Acting Blog: “The Good Director”

25.02.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

The good director understands that his idea of the way a certain moment in a scene should be played, is only one person's view, and that it may not even be the strongest. He knows instinctively when to back off an actor's performance. If an actor...

The Great Acting Blog: “How Much Creative Freedom Should Actors Have?”

07.11.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 18 Comments

Actors cannot go through their career hoping to encounter the perfect director who will provide them with the perfect working conditions they desire. In fact, part of the art of the actor is coping with the demands thrown at him by a myriad of different...

The Great Acting Blog: “A Lack Of Confidence?”

03.10.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 35 Comments

The debate about how much space a director should give to an actor within a production rages on. Some say that the actor should do whatever the hell the director tells them to do while others think that manipulation is direction. One thing is certain...

The Great Acting Blog: “Powerful Storytelling”

29.09.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

Mauro Bolognini's 1963 film La Curruzione is the fabulous story about Stefano Mattoli, played by Jacques Perrin. At the start of the film, we see Stefano graduate from college before journeying back to his family home in order to get permission from his father to start...

The Great Acting Blog: “How The Director Sets The Actor Free”

26.09.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

To follow on from yesterday's post, I wanted to expand a little bit on the notion of giving the actor space to create. As a general rule, I believe the primary task of the director is to assist the actors in expressing the writer's intentions*, and...

The Great Acting Blog: “Actors Not Puppets”

25.09.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

For the actor to do his best work, the optimum conditions for him to do so need to be created within the production. If the director is all over the actor, if he wants to control him, then the actor will not do his best...

The Great Acting Blog: “Actors’ Craft, Not Directors’ Tricks”

17.09.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 5 Comments

A piece in the Guardian caught my eye recently when it brought into focus once again the actor-director relationship. The broad gist of it questioned whether some of the lengths directors go to in order to get performances from their actors go too far,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Commit To The Conversation Or Remain Silent”

13.09.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

I was in a shop recently when I caught the tail end of a conversation between the manager and a sales assistant. I say conversation but this was more of a monologue by the manager. It appears that he was telling the girl to fix...

The Great Acting Blog: “Exploration And Discovery”

23.08.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 32 Comments

Sometimes it seems, a role is too well cast. The actor fits the character too perfectly. After doing a thorough analysis, the director has a very specific and precisely articulated idea about what he wants the character to be. So he searches for an actor...

The Great Acting Blog: “The Director’s Culture”

27.07.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

So often the director sets the tone for a production. His approach to the work becomes the approach of the company. If he shows seriousness, commitment and focus for example, then that becomes the dominant culture of the group. Other directors prefer to create a...

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