MY PHILOSOPHY ON DIRECTING
My main philosophy on directing is TEAMWORK!
TEAMWORK: First of all, always respect your crew and they will respect
you. Second, always preplan and have a back-up plan in case something goes
wrong! If your in production you should already know these two points, so I
won't go into them.
I do want to go into the importance of teamwork.I can't emphasize enough about
the importance of teamwork in a production! I feel that it is the core of any
type of production, whether it is in the field or in the studio. It does not
matter how good you are or how experienced your crew is, if teamwork is missing,
then your show will fall apart. Let me explain.
-Here is an example of TEAMWORK in the studio-
* 2:00
It is two minutes before air and you're directing a live two-on-four
interview with a studio audience. The show is going up on satellite to
fifty stations across the U.S. You're getting yourself ready to do mic
checks and realize that on your wide shot there is a mic cable hanging off
one of the guest chair. Also, the mic on the host is upside down. You ask
your floor director, Gus to tape up the cable on the chair and to adjust
the hosts' mic.
* 1:45
Gus rushes with the tape to fix the mic cable (remember, you still do
not have mic checks). You ask Gus for guest #1 to say a few words. Gus
does not hear you because he is distracted with taping up the cable to the
chair.
* 1:15
Teamwork takes effect. Tracey, who is the operator on camera five
notices that Gus does not hear you. Tracey says loudly, "Mr. Smith, we need
a mic check, could you look toward the host a say a few words?" Tracey
notices that Gus is still working on the cable. You ask Tracey to do the
same thing for the other guests, while remaining at her camera.
* :55 seconds
More teamwork. Gus is almost finished but the upside down mic on the
host has not been fixed yet. Karen, who is the operator for camera six
(the wide shot) realizes that Gus will not be able to fix the mic in time.
Karen asks you if she should help Gus since her camera is a locked down
shot. You tell her to go.
* 10 seconds.
The mics are all fixed and Gus and Karen run to their positions.
* LIVE
You give the command, "fade up, mic, and cue talent!" You're live and
the mic levels are perfect and the set looks neat. The teamwork took over,
not skill. Because your crew worked effectively, the show started off
great.
After reading this scenerio, you may be thinking to yourself "Well, if the floor director is distracted, of course one of the crew members will speak up. WRONG!!
One time I was with a producer friend and I went to see her show. The
exact scenario that I just discussed was happening, but the major
differnce? No Teamwork!! Here it is:
It was a one-on-four interview and the open tape was rolling and four mics
were not checked for levels. The result: when talent spoke, the VU levels
were either too high or too low. This made the production start off with
a mistake! AND MISTAKES ARE NOT ALLOWED IN TELEVISION!!!!!!!!
Also,you must realize that no single person is responsible for a
show. Even if you are a top-notch director, sometimes you just can't give
the cues fast enough. Here is an example:
You're comming back from a commercial. You have an audience in
the studio. You are rolling a tape bumper with effects and a camera 4 move.
You also want the audience clapping. Then a few seconds later, you need
camera nine to do a creep-in, mic, cue and super(lower 3rd). You might
call it like this:
-Ready to roll 12, ready applause, ready mix applause, ready four move,
ready track 12 (you have a three second roll on VT-12).
-Roll 12, applause, mix applause, move, track 12, fade up!
(I've done shows like this before, and this was the easy part)
But, in less than a couple of seconds you have to give your next set of
commands. You don't have time to give all your ready cues, so you depend
on teamwork to take over.
* The TD knows that the next event is camera nine so she gets it ready on
the switcher.
* Audio knows that mics need to be opened up next, so he gets them ready.
* Camera nine starts the creep in and you say, "Push, dissolve, mic, cue
talent, super in!" The transition looked tight! TEAMWORK!!!!
The show is up and running and it looks good. I hope you realize that
teamwork is very important. It makes everyone look out for each other and
makes the show look awesome.
TEAMWORK, TEAMWORK, TEAMWORK!!!!!
And remember, always respect your crew!!!
(Please note, the examples I have given are in a NON-UNION shop.)
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