The Director's Six Senses

by Simone Bartesaghi

  Figures 2.16 to 2.21: It’s all about Jimmy Stewart’s job. The fact that he is a photographer is very important, but not as important as the details — that he loves takes pictures in dangerous situations and now he is stuck on a wheelchair. Do you think he likes it? By the way, he can take pictures for fashion magazines, too. Maybe this is the way he met his current girlfriend.

  Figures 2.15 and 2.16 tell us how he broke his leg: Is he crazy or what? He didn’t move in order to take that crazy shot at the car race.

  So much in so little.

  Try to apply the same logic to the following scene from Back to the Future.

  Back to the Future

  What kind of person lives in this place? (Figures 2.23 to 2.24)

  What’s his dog’s name? (Figure 2.25)

  Who has stolen the plutonium? (Figures 2.22 and 2.28)

  Which one of these three words best describes the character that enters the room: fearful, loaded, fearless? (Figures 2.26 and 2.36)

  All this information has been provided by the director in a very visual way — no line of dialogue needed. He only had to place the camera in front of the things that these characters would have in those environments, and show them to us.

  Figure 2.22

  Figure 2.23

  Figure 2.24

  Figure 2.25

  Figure 2.26

  Figure 2.27

  Figure 2.28

  Figure 2.29

  Figure 2.30

  Figure 2.31

  Figure 2.32

  Figure 2.33

  Figure 2.34

  Figure 2.35

  Figure 2.36

  Figure 2.37

  Real Space to Touch

  Touch will give you one more dimension to the reality you want to portray. Texture, consistency, and weight are all important information that we should remember. Have you ever seen situations where a very heavy piece of luggage is moved around as if it were empty? Well, it probably was empty while they were shooting and nobody (not the actor, not the prop master, not the director) paid attention to what was happening in front of them.

  Most of the first projects you are going to direct will be shot in the real world, in places that we call locations. Places that do really exist and, with just small alterations, if any, are going to be right for the story.

  The first time I worked on a set that was built in a soundstage, I realized that I was underestimating the importance of what was around me.

  The production designer who created the set was the creative and supportive (and lovely) Barbara Dunphy. It was a porch and the back of a house in the style of the South.

  But we started with an empty space. A very tall, very wide, very deep, very overwhelming empty space in which everything and anything could have been built.

  When you start from scratch, the amount of questions and answers could seem overwhelming, almost an impossible task. And even if someone thinks that the director’s job is only to give random answers (have you ever seen Nine with Judi Dench belittling a Felliniesque Daniel Day-Lewis?), of course there is much more to it.

  When finally the set was built we arranged a rehearsal with the actors. I still remember vividly when one of them said, “Okay, let’s see what’s real. Can I touch this?” I realized then that of course, everything could have been fake: Were the chairs able to support their weight? Was the door designed to be opened or was it just there to pretend to be a door but nobody was supposed to go through it? How much did the table weigh? And the soup — were the actors supposed to eat it? Was it even edible?

  I gave the actors fifteen minutes to get acquainted with the set and all they did was touch things, open doors, windows, and cabinets. Feeling the fabric that covered the seats and the couch. Even the paint on the walls and the leaves of the greenery.

  It was important to know what was real and what wasn’t and also to feel the objects so that they knew how the set and the props would react to their behavior.

  This is why, even when we are shooting with green screen, it is always important to give the actors enough props and objects to play with.

  Another anecdote (not mine, this time). When James Cameron was prepping Avatar, he discovered that for the actors it was difficult to really imagine being immersed in a lavish forest. After all, they were spending all their time in a clean, aseptic environment playing only with a few sticks that would become real props only after the CGI wizards did their work. So they made the decision to spend some time in Hawaii, going around the forest half naked in order to feel the ground, the branches, the leaves touching their skin and seeing how they would react.

  Touch is the perception of the environment. Well, in our world we create the environment. It’s important to remember that we are trying to portray on the screen the truth about our reality and it’s important that we pay attention to how, in real life, we react, perceive, and use things.

  Assignment

  In order to understand the importance of patterns, let’s do a little test.

  Go on Google and and click on the Images tab.

  Look for these words:

  Anger

  Sadness

  Happiness

  Conflict

  While you’re studying the images that come up, pay attention to the repetition and try to notice which colors and images are most often associated with these words.

  While I am writing this chapter a new teaser trailer from Pixar has just gone viral. It’s their new project, Inside Out. They ask a very simple question: Where do emotions come from? Of course, they have their very unique and funny answer. In this new animation, emotions are not only characters but are also… color-coded. Look at the trailer and see if you find any similarity with what you’ve discovered before.

  Red is the predominant color when you search for anger. What does this mean? It means that around the world someone tagged that image with that word.

  Sadness is blue, mostly; happiness is bright and green and yellow; conflict is different examples of how people confront each other.

  Why this concern about colors and patterns? Because, as we have found, this is how the world portrays those words. Again, we shouldn’t reinvent the wheel and mostly, if a common cultural knowledge exists, use it to make your storytelling more effective.

  * * *

  1 The Matrix (1999). Neo (Keanu Reeves) believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), an elusive figure considered to be the most dangerous man alive, can answer his question: What is the Matrix? Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), a beautiful stranger who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a cadre of viciously intelligent secret agents. It is a truth that could cost Neo something more precious than his life.

  2 Rear Window (1954). In this action-thriller masterpiece directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart is a photojournalist bound to a wheelchair because his left leg is in a cast. The boredom of the situation and his innate curiosity bring him to spy on his courtyard neighbors and witness a murder.

  3 Back to the Future (1985). In this sci-fi classic, small-town California teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is thrown back into the ’50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) goes awry. Traveling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty encounters young versions of his parents (Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson), and must make sure that they fall in love or he’ll cease to exist. Even more dauntingly, Marty has to return to his own time and save the life of Doc Brown.

  3.

  Hearing

  Sound and Music

  Hearing:

  or audition (adjectival form: auditory), is the sense of sound perception. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding medium t
hrough time, through an organ such as the ear.

  (Source: Wikipedia)

  Sound Awareness

  I’m pretty sure that it won’t come as a surprise that in this chapter we are going to talk predominately about sound design and music. You’ve probably heard it said that sound is 50% or 80% of the experience of watching a movie. Whatever the exact right percentage, the important thing to know is that sound and music are fundamental to how the audience experiences the story.

  How can you sharpen your hearing sense in order to become a better storyteller?

  First of all, we must start with sound awareness.

  Sound is a big part of how we orient ourselves during the day. Certain kinds of sound alert us; others help us by directing our attention or calming our mind.

  The work I want you to do about sound awareness is pretty

  simple.

  Take a seat at a coffee shop nearby, close your eyes, and listen for a few seconds. Now open your eyes. Immediately write down the sounds that you are able to identify. The goal is to be as specific and detailed as possible. This list won’t aid you in your next project — hopefully the sound designer will be able to do a better job than you — but this exercise will help you understand how much work needs to be done to re-create a real world, and that sound is a very powerful tool for storytelling.

  The next step is to be able to recognize the difference in people’s gender, age, and attitude by their footsteps. Place yourself near a door or on stairs or in the middle of a corridor. Try to avoid places with too many people passing by; otherwise it might be too confusing. Close your eyes, listen for a few seconds, and identify the sound of someone’s steps. Try to imagine the person who is making those noises. Open your eyes again and look at that person. How close were you? Write down notes about successes and failures. Learn how to identify the next person based on the previous results. Again, our sounds are part of us as human beings, and sound design will help tell your story.

  Repeat this exercise in a different environment, perhaps a stairwell in your school or office, and appreciate how the soundscape that surrounds us can tell stories about who we are and how we deal with our lives.

  Music

  Music is a language. Both music and verbal languages serve the same purpose. Both are forms of expression and communication that can be read and written. But music works better because it doesn’t need to be consciously understood to be effective.

  In film, music is words that cannot be spoken.

  We are surrounded so much by music that explicitly wants to elicit emotion and tell us specific stories (think about all the songs we hear in a day) that sometimes it’s hard to let our brain and emotions react to the simple element of the music itself.

  The main assignment that I have for you about music is the following:

  Randomly select a piece of classical music (or another piece without any lyrics or sound effects), making sure that you don’t know anything about it (even the title sometimes can be too much information).

  Then listen to it, as many times as you want. When you feel good about it, start drawing the images that the music is evoking. You don’t need to be a painter to do this exercise, but you must let your creativity flow with the music. Whether clear images or more abstract symbols appear in your mind, there is no right or wrong; there is only the ability to translate auditory emotional input into an image.

  This exercise, repeated with at least three different pieces of music, will show you how your visual imagination (fed so frequently each day) can also be stimulated by the music.

  There are two absolute must-sees for learning about and appreciating music in cinema: Disney’s Fantasia (1940) and Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

  Fantasia consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski. An absolute masterpiece, the perfect introduction to the power of music as a storytelling tool.

  Peter and the Wolf is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children’s story spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra where each character of the story is portrayed by a specific instrument. Look at and listen to this version on the YouTube CBC Music Channel performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, directed by the legendary and captivating Bramwell Tovey (http://youtu.be/MfM7Y9Pcdzw).

  Notice how the instruments perfectly portray each character. You don’t need images to understand the story and imagine their behavior and their mood.

  Then watch the Disney version (1946) and notice how the images actually add very little to the entertainment (http://youtu.be/Ot7m9i70JDg).

  Examples of excellent use of music and sound design can be found in the following movies.

  Music

  Jaws1 (Figure 3.1)

  Figure 3.1

  The primal Jaws theme is set up from the title credits as the “signature” of the shark. A rule that filmmaker Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams decided to follow literally: the theme is played only when the shark is there. For instance, in the scene when the two boys play a trick with a fake fin, the ominous shark music is absent.

  Star Wars2 (Figure 3.2)

  (Minus Williams) — Throne Room

  Figure 3.2

  Recently I’ve stumbled upon an interesting experiment on the Internet. Search for “Star Wars minus John Williams” and you’ll find a very clever and illuminating version posted on YouTube by Aurlnauts. It’s the Throne Room scene from Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, without the well-known soundtrack. A must see.

  The Big Chill3 (Figure 3.3)

  Music that bonds (diegetic sound)

  Figure 3.3

  In this great comedy-drama directed by Lawrence Kasdan the music from the ’60s is used to reinvigorate the bond of a lasting friendship.

  The Abyss4 (Figure 3.4)

  Music that bonds (diegetic sound)

  Figure 3.4

  The music as a metaphor of a crew that works well in sync is used in this underrated James Cameron endeavor. The scene where the crew sings together is a perfect use of a little montage that establishes, more than with dialogue, the true nature of the special bond that unites this group of people.

  Music and Sound Design

  Atonement5 (Figure 3.5)

  Figure 3.5

  The original score written by Dario Marianelli is an amazing use of both orchestra and sound design, featuring a typewriter as a music instrument. (On a more personal note, storytelling-wise, I find the tone of the opening misleading with respect to the rest of the story.)

  City of God6 (Figures 3.6 to 3.9)

  Figure 3.6

  Figure 3.7

  Figure 3.8

  Figure 3.9

  How not to mention the great juxtaposition of the sound design and the music that sets the tone for this masterpiece from Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles.

  Sound Design

  Saving Private Ryan7 (Figures 3.10 to 3.13 )

  Figure 3.10

  Figure 3.11

  Figure 3.12

  Figure 3.13

  The sound design of this movie was awarded with both Best Sound and Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing by the Academy. The initial sequence will take your breath away, literally, when the soldiers fall into the ice-cold water of Normandy.

  Blade Runner8 (Figures 3.14 to 3.16)

  Figure 3.14

  Figure 3.15

  Figure 3.16

  In this sci-fi classic, Sir Ridley Scott produced one of cinema’s most venerated visions of the future. One of his brilliant ideas was that lights should constantly move and a sound design should be associated with that movement.

  * * *

  1 Jaws (1975). When a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody
(Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) overrules him, fearing that the loss of tourist revenue will cripple the town. Ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and grizzled ship captain Quint (Robert Shaw) offer to help Brody capture the killer beast, and the trio engage in an epic battle of man vs. nature.

  2 Star Wars (1977). The Imperial Forces — under orders from cruel Darth Vader (David Prowse) — hold Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), captain of the Millennium Falcon, work together with the companionable droid duo R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) to rescue the beautiful princess, help the Rebel Alliance, and restore freedom and justice to the Galaxy.

  3 The Big Chill (1983). A once close-knit gang of friends — including an actor (JoBeth Williams), a doctor (Glenn Close) and her husband (Kevin Kline), a Vietnam veteran (William Hurt), and a journalist (Tom Berenger) — meets for a weekend after the funeral of their much-envied friend Alex, who committed suicide. The friends spend the weekend confronting the personal truths, sacrifices, and betrayals that have left them disenchanted. Each must contend with unresolved issues they have with Alex, and with one another.

  4 The Abyss (1989). Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some issues to work out. They are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on Earth.