Being Directed - part 1

Someone emailed me and asked me to talk about being directed. A good topic. I guess there are alot of things you could say about this. It always starts with clear communication. When you get a bunch of scenes given to you, you need to take good notes about what the director wants. What is the point of the scene, where is the potential entertainment value etc etc... Afer you get the shots, the next thing you need to do is present the director with clean shots. Clear blocking will close the gap quicker. The last thing you want to do is show bad blocking. The director will not know how to comment on the scenes. They may direct you in a totally different direction. If you show to much animation, you risk having to tear it up if you get big changes. I guess the key is to hit it somewhere in the middle. Every director has his or her own style. Some directors let the animator search for the idea and other directors know exactly what they want. You need to be able to accomodate both. Some problems may arise when either the director or the animator does not have a clear idea of what they want. Another problem is when the shot is directed by commitee. I can't really answer how to get past this because I have not experienced this for quite some time. All I can say, is try to really have a clear idea, before you get directed.

Hope that helps.


Andrew

part two - dealing with big changes...