Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre

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The Actor and the Camera

Since I do believe that the process of directing actors in both theatre and film is basically the same, I haven’t made much of a distinction between the two disciplines. But now we come to a step in the process of making a film that includes a special demand on actors and director: the translation of the work to the camera.

The introduction of the camera to the process places a huge demand on the director’s attention and can become a compelling distraction. There is so much detail to consider in terms of both technical and aesthetic aspects of the camera’s contribution to the total result that often at this point the director is forced to abandon the actors and focus attention on the ...