All language subtitles for 127 - Frost Nixon Staging Review

the first approach that I took was you know

similar to what I done with the movie and 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 intention of that scene um and um

so I thought we just approach it that way um and and

and I 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

but you know

that's meant to have a kind of a fluidity

as much movement as possible

you know 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

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 um

you know and when

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 today

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 overarching

holistic decisions about um

their story and the way they like it to unfold

so that it begins to narrow some of those

some of those options

but when you see movies that you love

television shows that

that you you know

you connect with

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 directors 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 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

and you can begin to relate it to your experience

as a viewer

and keeps it immediate

and also keeps it very exciting

Salvatore Tortino's cinematographer

I've worked with a half a dozen times

also operates

he was one of the key

he was one of the operators on

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 frame lines

he's an artist

he cares about the story

and the actor has

um you know

has created something in that moment

and Sal's been able to capture it

with the light

with the lens choice

that we've discussed

in a way that

you know that reaches him

in a very spontaneous way

business is often an actor's best friend

it's you know

it's what we naturally do in life is 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 sip at some point or

or we might suddenly be surprised by what somebody says

and we're starting to drink

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 life like

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 conflict that's rising

or the secret that's being held or the

the idea that um

that you know

that character is trying to frame so that he or her can

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 spontane 80 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

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 would

what would in real life

take three or four encounters to

to get around to

you know unless it's a you know

a courtroom or you know

a boardroom or situation or something you know

that's really presentational like that

but 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 actors talking

they're involved with something else

so as as an ex actor

um um a reformed actor

haha um the um

you know I'm I'm

I'm very tuned into 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 honest

when I say that I stage scenes

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

exchange of shots and sequencing of shots

I actually

am very interested in finding ways to capture the

the the the best performance moments

and so one of the challenges

of creating a scene in just uh

in limited 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

um 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 gonna play this as a Warner

well then you have to be far more rigorous

about protecting the

and attending to the performances um

because you're gonna 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 there

there there

um you know

it's gonna 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 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 high wire 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

you know something that was either

an accidental ad lib or or

or or something like that

I really want to be able to benefit from

Robert Altman

was famous for shooting with three cameras a lot

and you know

creating the opportunity

to exploit happy accidents

and to build scenes around

sometimes things that were

you know mistakes

and if it had been a Warner

you wouldn't been able to utilize that

that little mistake

uh and 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 it mean

it would have taken a long time to shoot it that way

but it would have been very interesting to have

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

in other 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 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

just to modify your plan and

and not be rigid and dug in

another approach that I wanted to experiment with was a

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

and it was something that I'd actually thought about

when I was when I was 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

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 I

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 know the mind's eye of that particular character

it makes it you know

all the more relatable

so that was a scene about David Frost being

you know under

you know an intense degree of pressure from his

his team his peers

and so you know

I thought that was an interesting thing

to experiment with

that I did not use the first time around 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

those characters are staring at you

the audience

and you know

I think that has an interesting 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

you know it's it's

and very often

they can even see themselves reflected in the matbox

uh in the in the glass

so you know that

that requires experience

that requires um

a 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

I wanted to

to show people a little bit of

what a compromise looks like

and so some

you know when you're doing live action movie making

you know unless you just have a cart Blanche on your

on your on your budget

which is very

very rare your

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 wanna turn to your

your producing partners and

and say if 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 you know

after staging it more ambitiously

I wanted to just show the 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

the scene will be effective

it may not may not live up to your

your your you know

your wildest hopes and dreams

but 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 easy to light

and in a place that

that naturally has some depth

and so visually

it will hold

I really feel that

that staging the actors um

is is really one of the most important aspects of of 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 um is so elemental

it's important to to

to work on it however

the staging doesn't have to always be complicated

and there have been projects that I 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

that everything else was so simple

I actually didn't want the actors to go so far

as to knowing exactly what the staging was gonna 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

George Lucas

who's always a mentor to me

I acted for him in American Graffiti and then

and then he produced Willow

which I directed

and we've remained friends over the years

and he loves movies

love cinema

but he said something once to me that

um you know

that I've always stayed with

and I always tell my actor friends

whenever they're getting ready to direct

and if they're anxious about um

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 scenes well written

you could just always fall back on that formula

and you'll have the material

you need to go to the editing room

now if you have an idea

a visual notion um

that you know

that that is more sophisticated than that

that involves camera moves so be it

but you're not gonna 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