Working with Actors

    I've come to realize that the most challenging part of my project has been having to direct. I've never been the type to rely on others and I've never found myself in a situation where I feel comfortable giving orders to my friends. I've had to learn to do both of these things in great abundance. Now a lot of my progress in this area has been through self discovery, coming to a point where I know I need to complete things and being set on how I want them done. With that said, frustrating myself and providing myself with hair pulling stress only gets myself so far as a director. So as a solution I've looked to expereinced individuals to see how they deal with directing.
    One of the sources I looked at was an article by Randolph Sellers. Sellers has worked for some time in film, fulfilling many duties such as boom operator, camera operator, and director. His article addresses my biggest fault, in his words " feeling a little uncomfortable or inadequate as a director." Now a lot of what he speaks pertains to a situation with experienced actors but there was one particular sentiment that I took away from the article. Sellers says that when it comes down to it you're working with either artists or friends who one would assume care about you. The best tip for working with actors is to be honest with them about your vision for the project and the importance of it to you. If they've relied on others before and care at all about you or your project they'll listen.
     The second piece I looked at was a set of six filmmaking tips given by Wes Anderson. The first tip was possibly the most helpful for me. This particular tip suggested you plan ahead and plan to throw out your plans. This is very pertinent to my project as I've been forced to change plans several times despite my initial planning. It feels better to know this amount of change is not uncommon in film. The other piece that stood out to me was suggesting that you should not be deterred when other people don't understand what you're doing. This is not to say that my humor or film style is above others, far from, just that my particular humor is somewhat niche. For others to not fully get it shouldn't force me to entirely change my idea.
    In my next research oriented post I'd like to look further into help with interaction on the set but I am currently in a rush to get somewhere so I'll leave it at that for now.