Original subtitles

- As director or producer,

you need to help your talent help you

ensure the completion of your vision.

An actor I've worked with shared this.

"Good directors help me help them.

They communicate the tone, mood and style

of the piece right from the get-go.

They enroll me in helping them get the story

and the shot they want instead of just making sure

I know where my mark is."

Here are some things you should keep in mind.

If it's not absolutely required,

don't make the actors deliver their lines verbatim.

You might want to consider letting them

do some improv to increase the flow of their dialogue

and change up their interactions.

You don't want to do line readings with your actors.

Don't tell them exactly how to say their lines.

They aren't just puppets.

You need your actors to participate in the process

and own their choices.

With blocking, sometimes hitting a mark

is absolutely necessary due to technical reasons,

but sometimes it's not.

Sometimes they just need to end up near something.

Let their movement be natural,

just like you want their dialogue to be.

One way to keep performances fresh

is to suggest different actions in a scene

for your actors to achieve the same goal

or change up the stakes on them.

If they're angry, maybe they could try

physically expressing their anger

versus just showing it in their face.

It's not really helpful to have your actors

do the same thing for every take you do.

You always want to do something for safety,

but use your other takes to get new and fresh ideas

across on screen.

Don't shoot your close-ups of actors without

having their scene partner nearby

ready to deliver their lines with them.

It helps to increase their believability

if they're actually acting with a person

and not just the idea of one.

Remember that your job is to aid your talent on set

in achieving their best performances

and to remove as many obstacles as possible

that might get in their way.