of such classic TV series as The Bob Newhart Show, The Good Wife, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, The Practice, Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls, and Lost. He is a longtime member of the Western Directors Council of the Directors Guild of America.
Using This Second Edition
Directing is part art, part craft. Like architects and writers, the practitioners of two other classic hybrids, directors are proud of their work and glad to share their knowledge with those eager to learn. The part of the hybrid we call “art” falls into that inchoate ability known as talent: virtually impossible to teach, difficult to describe, and unmistakable when observed.
The “craft” part is easier, although there’s always more to learn. When writing I’ll Be in My Trailer, my book with Craig Modderno on how to effectively work with actors and elicit their best performances, I talked to many skilled and talented directors and actors who shared their personal insights, tips, and stories on the complicated and challenging relationship between actors and directors. In that way, I am still as much of an apprentice as a craftsman. The art will be left to others to assay.
Steven Soderbergh: I imagine you’d agree that we can teach the practical stuff about directing. If we could inject people with the soul of an artist, then we’d all be Stanley Kubrick. That’s a personal thing — whether they have a point of view that’s interesting and specific or not, you can’t inject somebody with that. They grew up with it. You know? But you can teach them the craft, and it’s a fun craft to teach and to learn.
In the time since that book came out, many more talented directors and actors have contributed their additions and responses to the ideas expressed in the first book. A wonderful addition to this second edition of On Directing is a “cybernetic colloquium” of sorts, or group discussion about many of the finer points of working with actors. Some of our best directors of actors have generously allowed their thoughts via email, texts, and interviews to be compiled in this way and placed in conversation with their peers.
PART ONE of this book deals more specifically with the issue of trust (or lack thereof) between actor and director. It looks at solutions and techniques for overcoming this nasty problem. In particular, it addresses some of the real differences between directing film and directing episodic television. Though most of the basic techniques of directing film and television are the same, there is a substantial difference in protocol between the two as far as a director is concerned.
PART TWO deals with techniques I’ve learned by directing stories with elements of action and suspense in them (every type of film can contain both action and suspense) using examples from my films Blue Thunder, WarGames, and Nick of Time. This section asks: What are the elements that make a successful action or suspense sequence? How important is point of view? How critical is jeopardy? How are actors best directed in action sequences? How can we keep safety the main priority on an action set? How much coverage is enough?
PART THREE is the Director’s Checklist. Before you start rehearsals — any rehearsals — what questions have to be asked? Whether you’ve directed no films or a hundred, these are the basic tools that help you deconstruct a script or a scene.
The checklist contains the tools that keep the director and actor on the right path to creating a good scene. You’ll not only be better prepared to answer any questions on set, you’ll also know how to approach guiding your actors in their performances.
PART FOUR, new to this second edition, is the director’s survival guide to episodic television. With the inception of so many new venues for streaming television and media, there are hundreds more shows being created and hundreds more opportunities for directors. Many directors who would not have thought of working in television now see that the opportunities are too numerous to resist. No longer your four stodgy, commercial-driven networks, what we’ve got isn’t really television anymore. It’s streaming media everywhere. Two-year-old kids are swiping right on their smartphones to stream SpongeBob and more. (What’s next? WombTV?)
I want you to come away from this book with a better appreciation of bonding with your actors and a deeper understanding of the politics of episodic television, whether network, cable, or streaming media. May it protect you in a world where diplomacy and collaboration are must-have skills.
I’ve included photos of posters from the international versions of some of my films. They’re often very different from the U.S. posters, sometimes even featuring a different title, and are fun to compare with the originals.
John Badham
December 1, 2019
PART I
A LACK OF TRUST:
The Five Mistakes
A Nasty Bit of Laundry
If you’ve spent much time around actors, you’ve probably heard something scurrilous whispered between them. That’s in public. What actors say in private among themselves is often worse — and here it is. You ready?
Japanese edition of I’ll Be in My Trailer.
Many… most… let’s say lots of actors don’t trust directors. Not a bit, not a whit, not a crumb. They have been flogged, flayed, and betrayed by directors ever since they were told in acting class to pretend they were a fried egg that had been beaten by their rooster father. Misled, misrepresented, and flat-out ignored, they have been treated like robotic pieces of meat, if you’ll pardon the metaphoric succotash. Viewed as misbehaving children who live in a fantasy world of explosive egos and DUIs, actors often find themselves demeaned, devalued, and depressed.
Taylor Hackford: Well, the whole idea of trust between actors and directors is so critical, and I think it’s why many actors distrust directors: because they never take the time to gain their trust and to let them feel that somebody smart is working with them. Some directors are afraid of actors. Some directors don’t want to talk to them.
It’s easy to understand how an actor can store up resentments over time and begin to see all directors as louche or suspect. Polite directors, talented directors, and helpful directors all get lumped in with the mediocre ones, the abusive ones, the screamers, the idiots, and the invisible directors who only shoot the same sequence — master, two shot, over shoulder, close-up, close-up — time and again, no matter what they’re shooting.
Delia Salvi: The best-kept secret in the entertainment industry is how much actors, including award-winning performers, distrust directors, and how directors often fear or dislike actors.1
Exaggeration, you say? Maybe. You have to look at it from the point of view of the actor who has been tortured and ignored their whole career. Their resentment has built up a volcanic pressure inside that wants to explode when a director comes around with their snotty little “notes.” Even the famously talented directors — the Scorseses, Spielbergs, and P.T. Andersons who are great communicators — often have to rehabilitate the battle-scarred, shell-shocked, PTSD-ridden
