directing yourself

[minor muppetz]

If a person acts and directs in the same production, is it normally hard to do both or is it often easy? If you were directing yourself in a movie or tv production, would it be very difficult to make sure that everything went the way you wanted it to go?

Having asked this, I think that it is probably easy for a puppeteer (like Jim Henson) to direct him or herself in a TV or film production, since most puppeteers watch their performances on monitors ayway.

 

[luvtosr]

I think you would probably have to be very clear about what you wanted to happen in each scene and check all the shots very carefully before they were made.

Difficulty would also depend on the size of the part you played and the complexity of the shots.

For example in Kevin Smith's 'Clerks' It would probably be very easy as his scenes are very short and simple however as the series progressed it must have been a lot more difficult for him to shoot 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' as his character has been promoted to a main position and there are a lot more complex action scenes.

I guess it helps that he knows most of his cast very well - Jay is played by one of his best friends, one of the girls is his wife, Ben Affleck has appeared in three of his previous films, Matt Damon appeared in Dogma too etc... So I would expect it to be much easier to direct them than it would have been if they had all been relative strangers prior to shooting.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

I'm sure it was hard for Tom Hanks to direct and star in "That Thing You Do." He was in a lot of the movie. he not only had to direct himself and everybody else, but also had to memorize his lines and direct the assistant director, which was filming everything when Hanks was acting in the movie, on what kind of camera shots he wanted, etc.

ryan

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I always prefer an assistant director to keep an eye on me! When we're out on the street shooting video of Muley I will block the scene and set the marks and give a general idea what we're about to do, and then I go into it all. Other folks have ideas and I take those ideas and run with 'em (fast, too, before they take their ideas back)!

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Hey, that's what you should do, become a big time movie director. You have your choice of going to Hollywood California or Bombay India to get famous.

ryan

 

[Fozzie Bear]

"No, thanks. I'm on my way to New York City to try and break into Public Broadcasting!"

"Oh, I'm on my way to Hollywood!" "Big-time showbusiness! That's always been my dream!"

 

[minor muppetz]

I have read that an episode of Welcome back, Kotter, tiled Close Encounters of the carvelli Kind, was directed by Robert Heyges, who also played Epstein, but since the show was video taped instead of filmed, he had to spend the entire episode in a controll room and couldn't act in that episode. Is it common for directors of video taped shows to stay in the controll room the whole time?