Cover of Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre

Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre

The approach presented in this book, honed after years of on-set experience and from teaching at UCLA, NYU, and Columbia, and endorsed by many in the industry, including director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and producer/actor Edward Asner, aims to provide a helpful reference and resource for directors and actors alike. It combines underlying theory with dozens of exercises designed to reveal the actor's craft. There is material on constructing the throughline, analyzing the script, character needs; the casting and rehearsal processes, film vs. theater procedures as well as the actor and the camera. Distilling difficult concepts and a complex task to their simplest form, the author explains how to accurately capture and portray human behavior. The author's discussion of creative problems she has encountered or anticipated after years of experience, and her suggested solutions and exercises, are immediately useful. Additionally, hear what the actors have to say in excerpts from interviews with acclaimed actors such as Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Glenn Close, Robert Redford, Christopher Walken, Julianne Moore, and Michael Douglas (to name a few) who discuss their work with directors, what inspires them, and what they really want from the director.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 193 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics Shares film, cinema, directing
  2. Directing Actors Shares film, directing, cinema
  3. Film Technique and Film Acting Shares film, cinema, directing
  4. Cinematography for Directors: A Guide for Creative Collaboration Shares film, directing, direção

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Beneath Mulholland: Thoughts on Hollywood and Its Ghosts
  2. Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style and Politics
  3. BFI Film Classics: The Big Lebowski
  4. Groundhog Day

“If it was the film that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard
  2. Kazan on Directing
  3. Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews
  4. Metropolis

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Acting for the Camera: Revised Edition
  2. The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor
  3. The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre
  4. Catching Fire: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion