All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 127 - Frost Nixon Staging Review

[Music]

the first approach that I took was uh

you know similar to what I'd done with

the movie I mean I I I thought about it

I didn't go back and look at my notes or

or review that scene but I remember how

we staged it more or less and what the

energy was and the and the sort of the

stylistic contention of that scene um

and um so I thought we'd just approach

it that way um and and uh and I'd take a

moment here or there to explain sort of

what the coverage might be the way in

which a handheld scene can come together

what can be sort of discovered by the

camera operators versus what needs to be

staged for and more um um designed by

the by the director um but you know

that's meant to have a kind of a a

fluidity uh as much movement as possible

um you know the the during the whatever

it is two and a half page scene or so

you know the actors are in three or four

different places um and uh and so you

know I wanted to to to show that kind of

staging um fall into place utilizing the

instincts of the actors the preparation

of the director the point of view of the

director um and then uh um you know and

then what could be done with the camera

as I was going through all of that I was

just

reminded that in each and every scene

there are so many

undeniably valid ways to approach it um

in photographically and in terms of the

staging I mean the today I I thought of

four or five other approaches that you

know might well have worked um and again

this is the challenge for a director is

to make some sort of uh overarching

holistic decisions about um the story

and the way they'd like it to unfold so

that it begins to narrow some of those

some of those options but when you see

movies you that you love television

shows that that you you know you connect

with

it's it's it's good to understand not

only the writing not only the characters

not only the themes but also what is

there about the presentation that is

working for you and the more you

understand it just on that basic level

of a relationship again the director is

is the first audience member so um if

you make yourself um an audience member

and start to understand what it is that

you like about it you can carry that

sort of focus focus into your work when

you begin to make a film you begin to

see frames and falling into place acting

moments you're you're watching the

monitor or looking through the camera or

however you're shooting it and you can

begin to relate it to your experience as

a viewer and keeps it immediate and also

keeps it very exciting Salvador Totino

who's the cinematographer I've worked

with a half a dozen times um also

operates he was one of the key he was

one of the operators on uh on Frost

Nixon and there are times when we'll

finish a take and he'll lower the camera

and he's got tears in his eyes because

he's not just worried about the

framelines he's an artist he cares about

the story and the actor has um you know

has has created something in that moment

and s's been able to capture it with the

light with the lind's choice that we've

discussed in a way that um you know that

reaches him uh in a very spontaneous

[Music]

way

business is often an actor's best friend

it's uh you know it's what we naturally

do in life is we we touch things we hold

them we we you know we have a sip of

coffee

we interrupt a sentence with that we

don't necessarily put the coffee down

right away because we might want another

setp at some point or or we might

suddenly be surprised by what somebody

says and we're starting to drink and it

and now you're not interested in

drinking anymore now you put that down

it's it's a it's a um something to do

with your hands other than wave them

around like I do a lot uh it's uh and

it's life it's lifelike and um so Props

are incredibly value valuable and so is

business so that um as a scene

unfolds if there's something else for

the character the actor as that

character has to think about in addition

to um you know the the conflict that's

rising or the secret that's being held

or the the idea that um that uh you know

that character is trying to frame so

that he or her can uh you know can can

try to try to achieve something in the

scene if while that's happening there's

there's life going on there's something

that they have to do there's something

they have to to be responsible for put

something away pick something up fold it

it it just helps bring a kind of a um

you know an informality to it and a

spontaneity to it and it's also very

valuable at times when a characters is

supposed to sit there and listen longer

than they normally would necessarily to

somebody talking um you

know screenwriting is a remarkable art

form form it never really unfolds like

life you know we always use a lot more

words than you would ever want to put

into a scene we take longer to get to

the point or we're unwilling to

articulate um the way the character must

very often I think that

scenes probably embody what what would

in real life take three or four

encounters to to get around to you know

unless it's a

you know a a courtroom or you know a

boardroom or situation or something you

know that's really presentational like

that but the the screenwriter has to

find a way to to cover a lot of ground

emotionally in ways that feel natural

that feel um realistic and the actor too

has to make a lot of adjustments and and

yet if they constantly stay focused on

the other actors it you know it loses

its sense of um of of honesty it's just

not it's not the way human beings behave

so sometimes it can be very helpful for

directors when you're watching an actor

kind of struggle with a moment um maybe

they're too focused on the dialogue too

focused on the other actor there's

something about it that feels false a

simple thing to try is business business

to distract them from that moment to

fill in a gap so that they're not

necessarily looking at the other actor

for every moment that the other actor

talking talking they're they're involved

with something else so as a as an ex

actor um um a reformed

actor uh the uh um you know I'm I'm I'm

very tuned into to the value of those

kinds of things and to win movement can

help you know make something feel a

little more fluid and a little more

[Music]

honest when I say that I stage SC and

shoot them with the editing room in

mind I don't just mean the mechanics of

the editing I don't just mean the visual

uh exchange of shots and sequencing of

shots um I actually uh um am very

interested in finding ways to capture

the the the the the best performance

moments and so one of the challenges of

creating a scene in just uh in limitting

coverage or you know one two or three

shots where you you don't really leave

yourself editorial options you don't

have those cutaways you don't have the

matching coverage that allows you to to

sort of control the Rhythm later on is

that you sometimes get boxed into um um

using um u a line reading or a moment in

the performance that's not as strong as

it might be in other takes

so that's a very important decision and

if you do decide that you're you're

you're going to play this as a Warner

well then you have to be far more

rigorous about

protecting the in uh uh and attending to

the

performances um because you're going to

take that idea to the editing room and

you know it really has to work so

generally when you choose a Warner like

that takes many many more takes for you

to feel like you know it's it's it's

really working and and that you feel you

can feel safe moving on and that's a

tremendous challenge for actors because

when they feel that the stakes are high

this is the

take um you know they're they're they're

um you know it's going to it's it

creates a level of tension um and if you

have to do a lot of takes to make it all

come together

that also creates an added pressure that

has nothing to do with the reality that

you're trying to create around the scene

so it takes very experienced actors to

make those kinds of um choices from the

director really really work uh and I

think it's one of the reasons why

audiences sometimes really connect with

those kinds of choices those long takes

that hold and build because you sort of

in a way understand that um this is

unfolding this is not being manipulated

by a director in in the editing room

it's you know it's really happening um

and so that's that's one of the major

choices that a director has to make but

it's a very dangerous one because if you

guess

wrong um and the performance does

disappoint you or you guess wrong and

you need to shorten that scene or you

you you you guess wrong and you find out

that um you know that there's a a story

point

that um that you know should be added

into that scene that you know you have

that you have no way of of gaining any

flexibility so it's definitely a a

Highwire Act and the directors who can

execute that have to have a tremendous

amount of patience I love to stage with

a point of view have a cinematic set of

ideas so it's not just shooting to

capture lines dialogue you know there is

a sort of an idea as to why the camera

is where it is and what it might mean to

the audience but I also like to leave

myself um exit points and ways to

tighten the scene up or to be able to

engineer around a moment because I've

discovered in the editing room that

there's something else that I never

really planned for that is so strong an

actor's reaction um you know something

that was either an accidental ad lib or

or uh or or something like that that I

really want to be able to benefit from

Robert Alman was famous for shooting

with three cameras a lot and um you know

creating the opportunity to exploit

happy accidents and uh to build scenes

around um sometimes things that were you

know mistakes and if it had been a

Warner you wouldn't have been able to

utilize that that little mistake uh and

uh so those are the kinds of choices

again it was so interesting today for me

to do this exercise because you know

there's a version of that scene that we

staged in the garage that would be just

a series of slow

push-ins pressure on to frost reactions

and you could have I mean it would have

taken a long time to shoot it that way

but it would have been very interesting

to have uh not steady cam not movement

but just a kind of locked off camera and

suddenly it just starts moving in and

then you cut to the other side and it's

a strong composition you know and it

starts pressing in on the actors another

way and then you know you'd find a place

to break and you'd go wide again and

then you'd press in again and you know

that was something that came to mind

that you know might have been might have

been very interesting there are so many

ways and that's a director's job is to

try to anticipate that as much as as

possible and then I think still stay

flexible enough so that when you walk on

the set you see what it really looks

like you see the actors on that set you

get ideas from your cinematographer or

your production designer or the actors

or wherever those ideas may come that

you can have the flexibility to to um

modify your plan and and not be rigid

and dug in

[Music]

another approach that I wanted to

experiment with was uh a a sort of a

Warner approach I turned out not to be

able to Stage IT successfully as a

Warner but I I wound up with two shots

um and uh and it was something that I'd

actually thought about when I was when I

was uh staging it as a movie and it was

fun to experiment with that today but

that demanded a different kind of

staging um simply couldn't make the

camera fit well uh into the the spaces

that I was taking the actors you know in

the original staging so they had to

shift they also had to be more aware of

the camera they had to find the lens

they had to find natural ways to shift

their Mark and be more aware of it they

had to change the way in which they

moved so that we could get you know a

side of their face or some eye contact

on a on a line of dialogue there are a

lot of adjustments that kind of staging

requires a much more

technical approach to the acting uh and

uh and yet there's something very

Dynamic about it then and interesting

and I was I I enjoyed it I combined with

that um uh a point of view approach

which I I really like to use in films uh

a lot and rarely does it carry a whole

scene but it's great when sections of it

can work in a character's point of view

because suddenly that puts the audience

in you The Mind's Eye of that particular

character it makes it you know all all

the more relatable so that was a scene

about David Frost being you know under

um you know an intense degree of

pressure from his his team his peers and

uh so uh you know I thought that was an

interesting thing to experiment with

that I I did not use U the first time

around uh on on the movie but I enjoyed

that today that's another thing that is

a challenge for the actors because when

you go into that point of view approach

suddenly they're not really looking at

the other actor they're looking into the

lens if you know they're looking right

at the camera lens because that's that's

the actor and um it's a pretty

interesting for the audience because it

really engages them suddenly it's like

you know the those characters are

staring at you the audience and uh you

know I think that has uh an interesting

uh impact on on on scenes But It's

Tricky for the actor because they're no

longer talking to a person they're

they're talking to a camera and it's you

know it's it's and very often they can

even see themselves reflected in the mbx

uh and the in the glass so you know that

that

requires experience that requires um

confidence to be able to do that and not

freeze up um and so that was something

that was it was fun to experiment with

today

[Music]

I wanted to to show

people a little bit of of what a

compromise looks like and so some you

know when you're doing liveaction movie

making uh you know unless you just have

a cart blanch on your on your on your

budget uh which is very very rare uh

you're there are times when you have to

throw out your plan and go to something

you know extremely efficient and that's

a tough decision if you're really making

the movie that way that's a moment where

you want to turn to your your producing

partners and and say look I can get this

scene done this way um you know I I

let's try it but if it if it if it

really doesn't work I hope we can find a

way to come back and shoot it properly

um and you know hopefully you have at

least that much uh comfort zone but

it I wanted to uh a you know after

staging it more ambitiously I wanted to

just show that show that um you know a

scene can really work in a very simple

way um and might not be quite everything

you dreamed it would be but it can be

effective and keep in mind always that

you know the audience doesn't know what

you were dreaming of when you were

making your shot list they only know

what you cut together and if that's

effective scene will be effective it it

may not may not live up to your your

your you know your wildest hopes and

dreams but um you know it can be very

effective and there are some simple

tricks to moving very very quickly stage

the actors in a place that's uh easy to

light and um in a place that that uh

naturally has some depth and so visually

it will hold

[Music]

I really feel that that staging the

actors um is is really one of the most

important aspects of of uh of of the job

of directing um it doesn't have to

always be very complicated but if it

works in ways that help strengthen the

story um for example you know putting

characters you know far apart from one

another suggests

one thing space distance um yearning um

putting them together letting them move

closer together well that can be

something that's terrifying or it can be

something that's that's sensual um and

or emotional healing and so

understanding the way characters relate

to one another and the various ways in

which you can then photograph them um is

uh is so Elemental it's important to to

to work on it however the staging

doesn't have to always be

complicated uh and and there have been

projects that I've worked on where I

rehearsed for two weeks and only staged

two or three scenes because those are

the only ones that were complicated and

threatened to take an inordinate amount

of time on the set with the crew

standing around the everything else was

so simple I actually didn't want the

actors to go so far as to knowing

exactly what the staging was going to be

I wanted to kind of find it in the

moment and then shoot it you um as a

director begin to come to terms with

your your own preferences in terms of

the way you discover what the staging uh

will be uh but uh you know I think that

between looking at images doing some

storyboarding doing some shot listing

going through your rehearsal process

it's really important to not just take

it for granted and assume it's going to

fall um into place by the same

token uh George Lucas who's always a

mentor to me I acted for him in American

Graffiti and then um and then he

produced uh Willow uh which I directed

and we've remained friends uh over the

years and he loves movies loves Cinema

but he said something once to me that um

you know that I've always St with and I

always tell my actor friends whenever

they're getting ready to direct and if

they're anxious about U camera work and

and those kinds of things I I I quote

George Lucas he said no no well-written

scene has ever gone bad because the

director staged it and shot it with a

wide shot a medium and two close-ups if

the scene's well written you can just

always fall back on that form

and you'll have the material you'll need

to go to the editing room now if you

have an idea a visual notion um you know

that that is more sophisticated than

that that involves camera moves so be it

but you're not going to ruin the scene

because you shot it in a very simple way

if the scene is good and the actors are

well cast so I think that's I think

that's great advice