Original subtitles

- There are many, many different directing

techniques and tricks out there,

and a lot of ideas on what works best in a given situation.

Here are just a few ideas to put in the mix.

When working with more than one actor,

you may want to consider having private conversations

with each one about their particular objective in a scene.

This can make the performances a little less predictable

as the actors won't know what the

other is going into a scene with.

This is probably a better technique and less risky

in rehearsal as it will let you figure out what works

and what doesn't before you get on set.

This technique forces the actors to be in the moment

with their reactions like we discussed earlier.

In that same vein, you can give actors opposing objectives

and raise the stakes in a scene.

Opposing objectives create conflict, which creates drama,

which is what people ultimately

find interesting in a performance.

Bob needs Linda to admit she is wrong, now.

Linda needs Bob to allow her to go to work.

Improvisation is the ultimate way of living in the moment

in a scene or production.

You may want to build some time in your schedule

to allow improvisation to take place on set,

but you want your talent to have clear, concise objectives

before beginning to improvise in a scene

or things will fall flat.

For a little bit of an extreme example of this technique,

here's a clip from a short film I made called Evercare.

We actually improvised the entire film.

I would establish an objective with Becky, my actor,

just before shooting each scene.

In this scene, her objective was to confide

how she escaped the zombie apocalypse

and found a new line of work.

- I was barricaded in my house.

At the start of the zombie apocalypse, the ZA,

with my husband Gerald.

And we had nice perimeter going,

and every once in awhile something would breach it,

and Gerald would have to take out a runner.

But he and I, we're doing just fine.

And one particularly long day, he kissed me off to sleep,

just like normal, and then the next morning

he woke up moaning at me something awful.

(moans)

And then he tried to eat my brains.

Before the ZA, I was a home care nurse.

So I would go into people's homes and help them,

usually elderly people, and I found that there

were not very many elderly people left after the ZA.

(chuckles) most of them just didn't make it.

And then I discovered some families

hadn't taken out some of their loved ones.

They hadn't had to do what I'd had to do to Gerald.

Like, the family with Franklin here.

They just couldn't find it in themselves

to pull out the shotgun as it were.

So, I offered my help to some of my neighbors,

and I moved on down the block,

and then, 'about a couple of miles later, there was Franklin.

Now he's one of my favorites.

Don't tell anybody, they shouldn't know that,

but Franklin's special.