When you’re first starting out as a director, it can be easy to hold tight to your vision as if it were some kind of North Star that can do you no wrong. It’s good to have that passion and confidence, but when it comes to actually executing most productions, time can’t be wasted trying to explain the minutiae of your inner thoughts. In fact, as explained by TV director Jennifer Getzinger, more often than not conciseness and clarity is more appreciated from actors than trying to dissect every element of a scene.
During the latest episode of “What No One Tells You,” Getzinger told IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking that when she was training to become a director, she tended to be “a little bit afraid” of working with actors. To overcome this fear, she took a workshop with Adrienne Weiss, an acting coach and instructor who came out of the Yale School of Drama. It was here that she started to understand what performers really needed out of a director.
“You would rehearse the scenes and then you would put them up in front of the class,” Getzinger said. “And then at the end, the director would sit up on stage and everyone would critique what you did as a director.”
This was unusual as typically it’s the director commenting on the work of the actor, but in creating this even playing field, Getzinger began noticing patterns within the notes that spoke to a persistent problem amongst many first-time directors.
“It’s unlike anything you’ll ever ever have in real life as a director because no actor is going to tell you like, ‘Oh, this was terrible. That note you gave me was awful,’” she told IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking. “And the thing I learned the most was just stop talking so much. Stop giving so many notes.”
In pursuit of their own objectives, Getzinger realized many directors were treating actors as devices rather than human beings. This didn’t ultimately help the performer, but instead just overcomplicated whatever perspective they were trying to bring to the scene.
“You can’t give someone 5 things to play in between every take,” said Getzinger. “I think every new director just keeps talking and talking and talking and is hoping they’re saying something that has some wisdom in it and you really need to stop.”
Getzinger went on to direct for “Mad Men,” “Westworld,” and most recently on HBO’s hit series “The Penguin,” starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti. Watch a clip from her episode of “What No One Tells You” below.
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