Aug 19 2011
End of Season
I am Producing a lovely short film called “End of Season” Written and Directed by Nina Gielen. A well-written mother/daughter story set at the beach at the end of the season.
Aug 16 2010
Director’s Hour: Peggy Sue Got Married
Seems I was much more interested in posting about preparations for my Director’s Hour than the Hour itself. It went well, actually. Pushed myself to a new place, learned some things.
So, here’s how it went.
Directing Segment #1
I introduced the scene for my fellow directors then told them my goals for the Hour, which were to work in beats and get to some specifics (since we had worked on more general shape-of-the-scene work during rehearsal).
We started with Beat #1: From the beginning through “You’re giving me the creeps.”
(Read the scene here)
I gave the actors a couple of things to work with at the top of the scene. For Richard, some sort of nervous habit–perhaps something he’s not aware of that he does when he’s thinking, or some sort of stance that he believes makes him look more adult. For Peggy Sue, I suggested the subtext for the line, “What I really think is that I had a heart attack at the reunion and died,” could be, “Oh, my poor children.”
We ran through the first beat a couple of times, but something was off. I thought perhaps the extra things I threw at the actors were too much. But then I realized what was missing–we needed that opening improv that we had done in rehearsal.
I didn’t want a repeat of rehearsal (hence not starting with this improv in the first place) but this opening improv (where Peggy Sue comes to Richard in the lab and strikes up a conversation about being from the future) really helped to anchor the top of the scene.
Moving on to Beat #2, from “Am I dead or not?” through “I don’ t want to die!” we worked on different scenarios for the almost-getting-hit-by-a-truck portion of the scene.
I decided to talk to Ellen alone, so I asked Ari to step out into the hallway. I asked Ellen who would be more frightened of getting hit by a truck, 17 year old Peggy or 42 year old Peggy? Ellen said 17 year old Peggy, so we went with the idea that she reverted to a 17 year old mindset upon standing in front of the oncoming truck.
I am very appreciative of Ellen Haynes, Ari Vigoda, and my fellow DnA directors. Thank you for participating in my first Director’s Hour and for all your feedback and support!
May 28 2010
More Director’s Hour Prep
My Director’s Hour went on as scheduled on the evening of Monday, May 24th.
I’d done a lot of work on the scene on Sunday and early on Monday, trying to mine the scene for more of…something. I felt like I wasn’t quite as connected to this scene as I was with The Dead Zone (I’d previously directed a scene from The Dead Zone for a similarly-formatted special event workshop at DnA). So I took another look at my Directing Actors book and that helped me to ask myself some questions:
What is this film about?
Not getting stuck in regret. Rediscovering love. Reconnecting with who you are. Having dreams and that feeling that your whole life is ahead of you.
What is Peggy Sue fighting for?
To get back to her real life.
What is Richard fighting for?
Respect.
I wrote down the transformation that the characters go through. It’s the transformations that interest me.
I wrote down a question I had about the scene: Does running away from the truck prove that Peggy Sue’s not dead?
I wrote down what Judith Weston calls the emotional event, even though I had already written it down a few days before, but this time I worded it differently. I’m noticing how valuable it is to rethink or restate character objectives, throughlines, etc. because as I work on it my interpretations can change.
As I was writing, something sparked my interest: Richard becoming Peggy Sue’s savior. I already knew that she went to him for help and that he wanted to help her, but emotionally speaking, I hadn’t fully considered what it might mean for him. Richard was striving for respect and found it by becoming the one who Peggy Sue depended on to save her.
The fact that he doesn’t ultimately save her (in the movie version anyway…the screenplay I found had a different ending) doesn’t matter to this scene.
It’s easy to focus on the main character, but taking a deeper look at the supporting characters’ point of view is incredibly helpful when analyzing a scene.
Took another look at my 3 beats and decided that I would lengthen the first beat for the purposes or the workshop. I wrote down ideas for how to approach each beat, and felt the scene becoming fuller, more engaging, more dynamic. That feeling/vision for the scene is what I was looking for, so I kept it with me as I wrote down my Plan of Attack and later in the workshop.