The Director's Six Senses

by Simone Bartesaghi

  The Godfather; The Godfather: Part II (drama) — power

  ET (sci-fi) friendship

  Groundhog Day (comedy) — second chances

  WarGames (thriller) — men vs. machines

  When Harry Met Sally (comedy) — true love

  Ordinary People (drama) — forgiveness

  8 1/2 (drama) — inspiration

  Now divide your list by genre. In my case the result is:

  drama: 5

  sci-fi: 2

  comedy: 2

  thriller: 1

  While looking at your list see if you spot any similarities. Which is the genre that got most of your attention? Is there a recurrent theme? If you’re not sure about the theme, read the synopsis of the movie and you’ll quickly discover what it is really about.

  One more step.

  Go to your personal movie collection (your tapes, DVDs, or your Netflix account) and divide the ones on that list by genre.

  Which is the genre you have the most of? Which is the genre you have the least of or none?

  Make sure you don’t count the same movie twice. If you own a DVD of a movie or it’s on your preferred list on Netflix it’s the same. It counts as one.

  Once you have divided the group, compare this result with the previous list about your favorite movies.

  The reason we do this kind of analysis is because we need both sets of information. If we relied only on the collection of movies, we might be affected by marketing, gifts, and spousal taste. But now that we can compare this list with our favorite movies, we will discover two things: the genre we like most and the themes we like most.

  Don’t be worried if you realize that something you cared about ten years ago has now changed. The trick with taste is that it varies with time and experience.

  The opposite is actually also true. There are movies that affected us in important moments of our lives and, even if they aren’t perfect, they can still bring back powerful memories.

  It happens to me with my all-time favorites:

  Star Wars: This is the first movie I ever saw. Even today, if I found myself lost on a deserted island, this would be the movie I’d bring. Be sincere: if there is a movie that you’d be willing to watch hundreds of times and eventually inspire important value into a new civilization, would you bring The Godfather? Citizen Kane or A Clockwork Orange?

  Dead Poets Society: I saw this movie when I was in high school, exactly at the right time and right age. “Seize the day” never gets old.

  American Beauty: Again, I saw it in a moment of my life when I was kind of lost, and for me it meant simply: “It’s never too late to seize your day”!

  Now let’s get more technical.

  Visual Taste

  In the first chapter I invited you to do a little exercise: collecting

  pictures.

  It’s time to go back to that collection and bring it to fruition. By now I hope you have collected at least ten to twenty pictures. You should have more but this is a starting point.

  Put all the pictures on a table or up on the screen and look at them. This time don’t think about the story — pay attention to the esthetic. I want you to focus on finding differences and similarities.

  Divide the pictures into three groups based on whether the main subject is a person, place, or event/situation.

  For each one of these three groups analyze the following elements:

  Lenses: How many times is the picture shot with a long lens? How many of these pictures were shot with a wide lens?

  Composition and Framing: What are the different types of compositions? How many times did you choose a low angle shot?

  Colors: Are there one or more colors that repeat themselves? Are the colors mostly saturated or desaturated? Is there hue contrast or affinity?

  Lighting: Are there more pictures with high or low contrast? Chiaroscuro? Silhouettes or flat lighting?

  Now that you have analyzed these images you should be able to draw some conclusions. Ask yourself what kinds of pictures do you like the most. Which kinds of lenses, composition, and lighting did your photos use most? You just made your first conscious step into acknowledging your taste. Make it a powerful tool for your filmmaking approach.

  Now let’s move on to moving pictures. The same methods apply. This time the goal is not to figure out why certain kinds of combinations of writing, framing, lighting, colors, camera movement, and performance affect you. The goal is to see which styles are more effective for you while not being distracted by other elements like sound, music, and movie genre.

  This time I chose the movies you need to watch. It doesn’t matter if you like them, if you don’t like them, if you’ve seen them, or if you’ve never heard of them. It’s time to watch them while paying attention to specific aspects.

  Here is the list and what to look for:

  Friday Night Lights (TV series), Episode 1: handheld camera, documentary style

  West Wing (TV series), Episode 1: steady cam and dolly

  The King’s Speech: unbalanced framing

  The Matrix: balanced frame and camera movement

  Munich: camera movement merged with use of zoom

  Now you should find yourself in one of these two positions:

  Your taste is evident and you are more drawn to certain kinds of camera movements, composition, and style. Every time you saw it in a movie, it gave you a clear sense of direction in the telling of the story. Any other style was a distraction. Now you can say that you’ve found, defined, and embraced your own taste. This is your comfort zone. Every time you are going to look through the viewfinder and see something that includes these esthetics, you’ll feel that everything is right — the world is spinning and the birds are chirping.

  Your taste is still vague. You like different styles and were pulled into a good story no matter what. If you didn’t suspend your disbelief it was because the story itself or the genre or the theme wasn’t interesting for you.

  Let me tell you a secret: both positions are wrong.

  Just kidding. Actually both are right.

  If you’ve found your comfort zone, good for you. This is the style and taste you should use in your early projects. You’ll find strength and inspiration from being able to use your taste in your storytelling. Imitate the masters, feed your taste in composition and style until you start to see that there is more to explore, but your comfort zone will always be there to support you. As Alfred Hitchcock said: “Self-plagiarism is style.”

  If you liked all the movies and TV shows, you are in a little bit more trouble because you are one of those filmmakers who will enjoy finding and using a different taste for every project.

  It will be the story that will determine the style you shoot in.

  I always surprise my students when I tell them that one of my favorite directors is Steven Spielberg. They all expect Scorsese, Tarantino, Fellini, Kurosawa, Anderson, or Kubrick, but as much as I love and respect those directors, I appreciate a director who is able to develop different tastes for different movies. Schindler’s List is completely different from Munich or Saving Private Ryan and The Color Purple is entirely different from Lincoln. The early movies like Jaws and Duel or Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park are more similar to each other. For me, ET is a world apart.

  So if you’re one of those whose taste changes, don’t take it personally and don’t think that there is something wrong with you. You’ll just have a tougher job to do. You’ll have to know the story inside and out and you must be inspired by your vision (more on this in the next chapter), to really define your taste and your style for the movie.

  Now that you have defined your own taste, and you know how to explore it, there is one more “kind of taste” that we should consider.

  Ultimate Taste: The End


  Do you remember the Wikipedia definition of taste I gave you at the very beginning of this chapter? I told you to ignore it. Well, I lied. Let’s discuss why it’s actually very important.

  “Taste, gustatory perception, or gustation is the sensory impression of food or other substances on the tongue and… determines flavors of food or other substances.”

  Whether you are in a theater or watching a movie at home, there is a very special moment, a moment that we treasure. We are talking about… the ending.

  Like the taste of food in your mouth that lasts even when you have already swallowed, the same thing happens with movies. After the movie is over the sensations that we felt while watching it are all mixed together and give us a sense of the whole film.

  The ending is not an element that should be considered as an afterthought. According to Steven Spielberg:

  “The most amazing thing for me is that every single person who sees a movie, not necessarily one of my movies, brings a whole set of unique experiences. Now, through careful manipulation and good storytelling, you can get everybody to clap at the same time, to hopefully laugh at the same time, and to be afraid at the same time.”2

  Manipulation. We have already encountered this word before. In the world of film it means control of the story.

  So, ask yourself, what kind of taste do you want the audience to have in their mouth at the end of the movie? Bitter? Fulfilled? Excited? Disturbed?

  How many times has it happened to you that the movie ended and you felt satisfied or intrigued? How many times has the opposite occurred?

  Do you remember what you felt the first time you saw Neo (Keanu Reeves in his most iconic role) slowly walking out of the phone booth, putting on his cool sunglasses, and flying away from the crowded city? (Figures 5.1 to 5.6.)

  Figure 5.1

  Figure 5.2

  Figure 5.3

  Figure 5.4

  Figure 5.5

  Figure 5.6

  Or when Kay (the wonderful Diane Keaton) asked her husband if he ordered the execution of his own brother-in-law at the end of The Godfather. During the long pause before Michael’s answer (Al Pacino at his best), we hope that he would lie to spare her from the horrifying truth of the kind of person he has become. When Michael answers “no,” we feel a sense of relief. A relief that lasts just a few seconds until Kay witnesses the completion of her husband’s transformation into the new godfather. Not only does she now know that he has become a monster, she also knows that he didn’t hesitate to deceive her, too.

  Figure 5.7

  Figure 5.8

  Figure 5.9

  Figure 5.10

  Figure 5.11

  Figure 5.12

  And don’t tell me you saw it coming when “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey) walked away from the police station and slowly transformed into the furiously dangerous, violent, mythical Keyser Söze in The Usual Suspects (Figures 5.13 to 5.18).

  Figure 5.13

  Figure 5.14

  Figure 5.15

  Figure 5.16

  Figure 5.17

  Figure 5.18

  Now that you are on the other side of the camera, it’s up to you to decide the kind of taste you want the audience to experience.

  Storytelling is a specific form of art based on manipulation. If the manipulation works, the audience will have exactly the taste you want; if it doesn’t, they will be left with a mixed feeling that won’t add up to a sense of completeness.

  When you approach a story, always ask yourself what do you want the audience to be left with and build around that idea.

  As masters of screenwriting tell us, usually the end of a movie is divided in two parts: climax and resolution. Sometimes these moments are very close and sometimes they’re further apart. Sometimes the resolution reinforces the same taste as the climax. Sometimes it is a total reverse.

  Here are some examples:

  Dead Poets Society: The kids are caught and Professor Keating must leave. The students stand on top of their desks. (Figures 5.19 to 5.24)

  Figure 5.19

  Figure 5.20

  Figure 5.21

  Figure 5.22

  Figure 5.23

  Figure 5.24

  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: Harry Potter and his friends defeat you-know-who. Harry Potter and his friends are adults and pass on their legacy to a new generation. (Figures 5.25 to 5.27)

  Figure 5.25

  Figure 5.26

  Figure 5.27

  Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: John Connor is safe. His destiny was to survive, not to prevent Armageddon. (Figures 5.28 to 5.33)

  Figure 5.28

  Figure 5.29

  Figure 5.30

  Figure 5.31

  Figure 5.32

  Figure 5.33

  * * *

  1 Ron Howard: On Filmmaking (BAFTA Guru YouTube Channel)

  2 Steven Spielberg: The EW Interview (Entertainment Weekly)

  6.

  Vision

  Director’s Inspiration

  Some believe that the music is 80% of making movies, others truly believe that casting is actually 80%. Neither of the above is accurate; there is another component. As Mark Travis puts it in his Directing Feature Films, “having a clear vision of the film and establishing and maintaining an environment in which those that you do cast can do their best work in alliance with the other artists, that is 80% of making a movie.” And I couldn’t agree more.

  If the vision is so important, how can you make sure you have the right one? Actually, you are never going to be sure.

  It’s Not Magic, It’s Hard Work

  Whether or not you believe that a sixth sense does actually exist in nature, trust me when I tell you that it exists in filmmaking.

  It’s not paranormal, it’s not magic or a throwback to our earlier evolutionary stages.

  It’s, in the simplest terms, your way to tell a story. Pure and simple.

  Disappointed?

  You wanted something more “artsy” or “magical”? As the previous chapter stated, directing is hard work and this, in some way, is the easy part.

  What does “your way” mean? How can I find my way? Is your way better then someone else’s, or only different?

  Questions like this can drive you crazy, but I’m sure that sooner or later you’ll ask them to yourself.

  “Why?”: The Question That Leads to All the Answers

  Here is my step-by-step solution:

  Step 1:

  Ask yourself why you want to tell this story.

  Give yourself an honest answer to Step 1. I would even suggest writing it down. Actually it’s not a suggestion, it’s an assignment. Actually it’s not even an assignment, I would consider it mandatory for every project you’ll approach from now on.

  That’s it. This, in reality, it’s a very powerful tool that will help you both in development and in production.

  Here is how it works and why:

  Writing down why you want to tell a story in a few paragraphs, maybe a page, will force you to focus on what really matters to you.

  The “honesty” factor here is vital.

  Here are some examples:

  Because it’s something close to my heart, it’s a personal matter and I have a personal message I want to say

  Because it’s a career opportunity, even if the story is not very interesting to me personally, it’s a great opportunity to practice and move forward

  Because it’s a genre I love

  Because it’s a genre I don’t like and it’s a great challenge

  Because I think it will make me lots of money

  In this way you’ll spell out the real, true motivation that sparks your passion for the story and will shape your vision.<
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  If your reason is that it’s a specific genre you love, then you’ll have to know it inside and out in order to honor it and, eventually, create a new wave of it (Italian spaghetti western, anybody?).

  If your reason is because it’s a great career opportunity, figure out what inspired the producer who hired you, what is his or her expectation. In the end if your movie is an unexpected blockbuster, you are on your way to the promised land.

  If it’s a challenge that you look for (I wouldn’t try this as your first project), then do your homework and lots of research on the genre.

  If it’s a personal story, or something that is personally close to you, it’s time to show your taste. Based on the steps we did together in the previous chapter, you should know by now your style and your taste. Whether your taste is well defined or you’ll let the story you want to tell shape it, you know what your next steps are.

  Now, as you can see, the WHY is the tool to figure out how to shape your vision. The vision that will lead everybody during development and production.

  Imagine there will be one day, one moment when you are feeling lost. You are overwhelmed by problems, with producers breathing down your neck and a 1st Assistant Director who is asking you what you want to cut because there is no time to shoot everything that was scheduled for today. And you have no idea how to answer.