Here are actor/director Dexter Fletcher's concluding top five tips from his exclusive workshop on how to direct a movie! (Picture: Dexter Fletcher as Bytes' Boy in The Elephant Man [1980]).
6. Keep your crew happy - everyone is important
“Most people on a film set do it because they are genuinely passionate about film, and on the long days you’ve got to help them remember that.”
Fletcher kept his crew happy by being inclusive, acknowledging their contributions and respecting their passion. “Even the lowly runner does a job and it’s an important one,” he said, “it’s about remembering that.”
Don’t take anyone for granted, a happy crew is a hardworking crew. It also helps to feed them well and keep the coffee flowing! Coffee is the oil that keeps the human machinery of many a crew running efficiently.
7. Take risks - just do it!
If you’re not taking risks, then you probably won’t get anywhere as a filmmaker. In many ways, choosing to be a filmmaker in the first place is a risk! “Of course take risks,” said Fletcher, “but calculated ones.”
So how can a director use this philosophy of risk taking to get the most out of their cast and crew? “It’s about pushing other people to take risks. Ask [your actors and director of photography] to do stuff that they feel out on a limb on, but ultimately gaining their trust and making them take a risk that you’re in control of. That’s the calculated risk, you’re pushing people to raise their game in a way that they’ve maybe not expected to, but when they do it they go ‘wow’ and they deliver, because it’s about your faith in what other people can do.”
8. Collaborate - be open to suggestions
One of the key features of being an effective director is knowing how to put the talent at hand to maximum use. It’s all too easy to be precious and thereby stunt productivity, so remember that ‘collaborate’ is a word used by filmmakers again and again to explain what makes a truly creative team.
Dexter Fletcher is no exception, and spoke plenty on the topic of collaborating, “Heads of department are there because they’ve achieved a lot and understand a lot about what it is that they do, and so it’s okay to defer to other people. It’s part of the collaborative nature of it. You can say ‘no’, but it’s okay to ask the question and find out what other people think.”
9. Be prepared - know your project inside out
There’s no excuse for a director, especially writer-directors not to know their story better than anybody else. On set, you always need to know the context of the scene you’re shooting at a given moment. As Fletcher put it, “You’ve got to be aware of what it is that you’re shooting, what went before it, what’s going to come after it.”
But how can you achieve such a level of preparation and intimacy with the material? “The preparation is a natural part of it, I don’t think I was really even aware of it [directing Wild Bill], I was just involved with absolutely everything all the way along the line.”
Full immersion in the script and hands on involvement with every department are core elements of the director’s job and preparation.
10. Let things go - edit brutally!
Once you’ve made your film and the stress (and thrill!) of the shoot is over, then it’s time to sit down and piece it together in the edit suite. Have you ever wondered why DVD and Blu-rays so often include ‘deleted scenes’ as a bonus feature? It doesn’t matter how much time you sweated getting the perfect light for that scene you’re in love with... if it doesn’t move the story forward then it has got to go. Said Fletcher: “You’ve got to be brutal, you’ve got to be able to [ask] is it furthering the story?”
This can be painful, and it’s usually helpful if the director and editor and not the same person, because then the editor is able to look at the film objectively and suggest cuts to the director, persuading them to wave even choice material goodbye. Fletcher is all too familiar with this, “There’s whole sections of Wild Bill that I just cut out because it wasn’t moving the story along. It doesn’t matter how you feel personally about something, you’ve got to try and be as impersonal about it as you can when it comes to the edit. It feels brutal at the time, but it’s about being practical and making the best film that you can.”
Of course it’s up to you what stays in the film and what gets left on the cutting room floor, but it might be wise to bear Fletcher’s final thoughts in mind when you’re splicing and dicing your first film: “Nobody cares what you love. What [the audience] care about is whether they go to the cinema, watch the film and are entertained.”
Ask yourself, ‘am I making this film for myself, or for the audience?’ If you’re Steven Spielberg and answered the latter, then well done! You’ve got a bright future. And if you’re Quentin Tarantino and answered the former, then well done to you too! Some director’s styles are more commercial than others, and these are just tips after all... food for thought for filmmakers.
Now go make your movie! And don’t forget the ‘kick in the nuts’ shot...
Wild Bill is out now on Blu-ray and DVD, check out the trailer!
