directing actors
My 2nd semester of film school featured a class that focused on directing actors. It served as an introduction to directing an actor into the suit of their character, giving a student the tools to communicate a role from a script. I liked the class, but for me, some context was missing. It was probably designed to only give a certain amount of information in the first semester as the bulk of it stretched over a 2 to 4 year program. Totally understandable, meanwhile, since I’m no longer studying film at the Academy of Art University, I’ve been left with questions. It’s revealing to point out that in many categories of life, I seek information. On a day to day basis I perform extensive research on whatever my interest is at the moment. Interestingly enough, during my surfing of informative online articles, I remembered an issue I had with the aforementioned class that exploded into an epiphany. The thought may have helped me comprehend what my frustrations were back then.
A film called, Dark Crimes (2016), Directed by Alexandros Avranas, and starring Jim Carrey, plays as I type this entry. It’s available for free with ads on Youtube. I discovered it looking through the lead actor’s filmography. One thing occurred to me within the first ten minutes of watching it, occasionally not watching it while only listening. Time is such an overlooked necessity. People utilize it wastefully. It is also a simple relativity. We are all experiencing it differently while working in unison with it. It’s apparent we treat it like its invisible, though the result of it isn’t.
In Dark Crimes, the main character is a police officer obsessed with an unsolved muder case. He is portrayed as an older gentlemen. Gray beard. Quiet. Boringly married with a kid. One can assume he’s been an officer for the majority of his natural life. After the opening credits roll, Tadek (Jim Carrey), goes out with a fellow officer to test a theory. Then I thought, that in any job where people are employed, workers practice. They try old and new ways to solve problems that challenges the craft. Based on the individual and their circumstances, these types of challenges will weigh on the human psyche. As the story in Dark Crimes progresses, the audience can gather this, watching Tadek’s nature slowly evolve. Regardless of his actions being bad or good, the fact remains that the actions are different from what the audience is familiar with. And this is where a lightbulb actuated in my brain. The missing concept of time from my semester at AAU. The irreversible plate on which any story must play. The tape inside VHS’ constantly rewound in order relive the moment we’ll never be able to experience for the first time again.
In the fall of 2020, I struggled communicating to actors (over Zoom) how characters were supposed to feel for many scenes we read during class. Though I finished with a passing grade, I felt unfulfilled in my endeavors. At the time, I couldn’t verbalize or even generate a thought of why I felt so empty about it. This is what I think now. A director understands the arc of a character. They know who the character is at the beginning of the story and who they’ll become at the end. The obstacles in between these two points challenge the character and as those events are building within the story, so is the character. The director must know how the result of each scene impacts them, because the collection of these instances (lessons) are needed to proceed. I believe the character must learn something to lead the story to its next event and I think knowing this enables a director to effectively translate a script to an actor.
In conclusion, my understanding of time and its itinerary is integral to my creation of a story. For example, if I look at a picture of a healthy individual next to a picture of the same individual, but only now, much heavier, severely aged, injured, and seemingly smelly, I’m compelled to ask the billion dollar question: What happened?
- raphael