Chapter 13

Running the Set

We all know that directors say, “Action!” and “Cut!” We’ve heard that in cartoons, in movies about movies, and in just the everyday vernacular of American lives. But there are also many other things that directors say as part of the logistics of running the set. Someone has to say the things that indicate to both cast and crew, “What are we all doing now?” Just as there is a vocabulary for actors, there is a vocabulary for directors. And the purpose of it is to keep things on the set running smoothly.

After Bethany’s first directing job, an episode of the 1980s NBC show St. Elsewhere, her boss called her into his office. His name was Bruce Paltrow (Gwyneth’s father) and he had created the show and was the executive producer. He closed the door and proceeded to pace as he angrily dressed her down. He told her she’d done a bad job, and that just because he told her that she was the captain of the ship, it wasn’t so until she actually steered the boat around.

Though she was devastated by his criticism, she understood later, when the sting had diminished and he had assigned her another episode to direct, that he had two underlying purposes for this reaction to her initial directing efforts. The first one was, in effect, to say, “Hey, this is a tough business. If you’re going to stay in it, you’d better get tough too.” (More on this in Section Four, when we talk about stress and mental health!) The other reason was to emphasize this concept of not just saying you’re a director, but being one—doing all it takes to inhabit the job. You have to actually steer that ship and make the cast and crew go where you want them to go. And the director’s vocabulary provides a shorthand that everyone understands.

So let’s go back to action and cut. “Action” means begin and “cut” means stop. It’s what directors say to actors to start and end a shot (or take). Simple. And yet … not. The director should be sensitive to the actors’ emotional point of view when beginning the scene and fit the starting command to suit that mood. In other words, don’t shout “ACTION!” when the actors are in a fragile place, and don’t whisper it when they’re about to do some action sequence. Ideally, you, the director, are standing right behind the camera, in the same space as the actors, and therefore the command to begin is appropriate to the physical space and the scene timbre.

Though the word “action” is nigh onto Pavlovian for actors in the sense that hearing the word definitely shoots them out of the starting gate, there are other options—especially when rehearsing. As Clint Eastwood does, you could just say, “Go ahead.”

HOW DO YOU START?

Before you can say “action” to begin shooting a shot, you and the actors have to figure out what that action is by rehearsing. Holding sides, which are the script pages for only that day in hand, you ask the actors to just read through the scene, then you get it on its feet by physically moving around the set, and then you continue until you and the actors think the physical blocking is correct. It often helps for you, the director, to stand where the camera is planned to be because the actors will naturally orient themselves toward you. It also helps to put obstacles (like furniture) in their path or put props where you want them to be, in order to facilitate your planned blocking. That way, you don’t have to discuss or validate your prepped blocking as much—a lot of the physicality is done for you without using any words. (The set dresser and the prop assistants will put things where you want them before the actors are invited to set for rehearsal.) The crew (except for the DP, your AD, and the script supervisor) has been taking a coffee break nearby but away from the set, so you can conduct this time with your actors in a private (or closed) rehearsal.

When you confirm with your actors that they are comfortable with the blocking (and you are too) you say, “Let’s mark it,” and your 1st AD calls it out over the walkie-talkie. He will say, “Marking rehearsal!” and the crew gathers. You and the actors run through the scene again, and the 2nd assistant cameraperson puts color-coded tape marks on the floor at each stopping place for each actor. When that is over, you say, “Thank you, second team please.” The actors are the first team and their stand-ins are the second team. The actors scatter back to their dressing rooms to finish wardrobe, hair, and. makeup, and the stand-ins take their places on the marks that have been set. Now is your opportunity to confer with your DP and talk about the overall approach to the scene. You discuss lighting (as a general topic, like whether it’s a bright morning or a moonless night) and you agree on the angle, movement, and lenses of the first shot. (You’ll use the terminology we discussed in Chapter 9.) The DP may have conferred with you during prep, especially if you’ve predetermined that you wanted to use a special piece of equipment or if the scene requires extraordinary lighting (Figure 13.1). But now is the time to nail down the particulars. You’ve probably seen footage in DVD extra features of directors, walking backwards, holding their index and middle finger in a “V” shape. That is the director describing the movement of the dolly and what the camera will “see.” Another option is to hold your hands in such a way that indicates the “wedge” of what will ultimately be in the shot.

Then, while the crew works, you have a little free time—you can go over your script, take care of details and decisions for upcoming scenes, or simply take a coffee break yourself!

FIGURE 13.1 Bethany communicates to DP Billy Webb on the set of NCIS.
Photo by Paul Snider, NCIS

During the lighting process, the set or location is manipulated to create the frame you want. Very often, this is a cheat, meaning an adaptation of the reality. Your on-set dresser may move a chair a foot from where it started. Your key grip may gimbal a mirror in order to not see an unwanted reflection. (Most mirrors on set are created to move slightly up-and-down and side-to-side to facilitate this. If not, you wad up a ball of tape and stick it between the back of the mirror and the wall to achieve the same effect.) These cheats happen regularly and go unnoticed by the audience; they make it possible to design a great shot!

After the lighting is complete, the camera crews will rehearse the shot with the stand-ins. This is your opportunity to watch the monitor to make sure that the shot will be executed as you had planned. Now you can make adjustments to the shot, freeing you up to be next to the camera during shooting. You will probably be checking the shots of two cameras, rather than one, as that is the norm now in order to facilitate the amount of coverage that is required in a day.

After a few of these rehearsals, the DP will indicate to the AD that the crew is prepared to begin shooting. The actors come to set and you will conduct what is called a stop-and-go rehearsal. You stop when some issue needs addressing, whether it’s a question from an actor or from the dolly grip, the camera operator, or the boom man. Everyone works out the kinks of the execution of the scene and then you’re ready to shoot. You say, “Picture up!” Upon hearing that from you, your AD will call out, “Last looks!” which means the actors will get their final touches. The hair, makeup, and wardrobe assistants will step onto the set to make sure the actors look perfect. When the beauty team departs the set, the AD will say, “Let’s go on a bell.” A bell is really a buzzer controlled by the sound mixer, and it echoes throughout the stage, and everyone quiets. The AD says, “Roll it, please,” and the sound mixer will turn on his recorder. When the recorder has reached the appropriate speed, the boom operator will announce it by saying “Speeding,” and then the 1st assistant camera operator turns on the camera and says, “Rolling.” At that point, the 2nd assistant camera operator steps in front of the camera and hits the slate. Everyone has seen one—the film business has been using them since the first talkie movie was made. The slate is filmed at the top of each take, giving the editor the pertinent information: scene number, take number, director’s name, and DP’s name. When the slate is “hit,” a sound is made, and the film element and the separately recorded sound element can be synced, or put together. If you are shooting digital, rather than film, the process is the same—there is still a slate, and the sound is still recorded separately. The assistant returns to behind the camera, the operator’s eye is on the eyepiece, the microphone is held overhead by the boom operator. The actors are on their starting marks. The camera operator says, “Set.” And everyone waits, in silent anticipation, for you to say, “Action.”

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNING

The main point here is that it is only the director—no one else—who says when it’s time to begin. And therefore, ipso facto, you are in control. It’s a pretty great feeling when you say that one little word and everyone jumps to do his job. But don’t let it swell your head: just as the actors are being judged while they perform, so is the director. After you say “Cut,” will you then say “Print it”? Or will you ask for “One more, please”? You are not the only one observing the take and deciding whether it’s worthy. Though it is up to the director to decide when the intent of the scene and the shot has been achieved, everyone around you will also have an opinion. The writer, the producers, the cast, and the crew will be judging you on your judgment. Do you know when to say, “Cut. Print it. And check the gate,” or do you keep filming and do a lot of unnecessary takes that may inflict an emotional toll on your actors? Or do you say, “Check the gate,” and everyone around you thinks you didn’t pull the best out of your actors or your crew? (When a film camera is used, each frame of film is exposed separately as it is held in the camera gate. You “check the gate,” because sometimes a sliver of film is shaved off, creating a hair in the gate. Checking the gate used to be a way of making sure what you just shot is acceptable.) Now there’s no literal gate, it’s just a way of saying, “We’re finished with this shot.” A current (and somewhat tongue-in-cheek) alternative is “check the chip.”

A large part of the director’s job is the judgment required to know when to check that gate. As you watch the scene, you are simultaneously tallying mentally whether the actors are achieving the intent of the scene and whether the shot is both visually telling the story and being executed perfectly by the crew. And you are expected to render that judgment right after you say “cut,” all the while knowing that everyone else around you also has an opinion.

Directors with huge egos may not recognize or care that they are being judged as well. And perhaps it’s not relevant, in the sense that the director’s word is law and the set will fit itself to the director’s instructions. However, it does become relevant when the faction supplying the money questions the director’s judgment. Even if the studio head (or financier, or network executive) isn’t physically present on the set, he will hear about it.

Every set is its own little world, with factions and politics and tempers and alliances. Because it is a large group effort, that is natural, human interaction. And the buyer, whoever it is, will hear of and/or observe the director’s ability. We’ve all heard of directors being fired. It happens. The director is not the final authority unless she is supplying the money as well.

But it is a trap for a director to take the opinions of others into consideration. How many times have you discussed a movie with friends and you all have a different opinion? The same thing happens when you are watching a scene unfold in front of you. Everyone has an opinion, but it is you, as the director, who says “Cut, print, check the gate.” And the only way for you to do that is to follow your own creative vision—20 people (either on the set or viewing the finished product) will have 20 different opinions. And the fundamental reason that you were hired as the director is for your creative vision with the integrity to see it through. That means you have to listen to your own intuition, your own “gut feeling.” If you start thinking, “Oh, the producer won’t like that,” or “The network executive said they want the show to be edgy/soft/action/character-driven, so I better do this a different way,” you are lost. You are lost as the artist you were hired to be.

HARNESSING THE MAGIC

Let’s say that you are following your instinct and you don’t want to say “Cut … print” on one take. What you want to do instead—because you’ve noticed that your actor is just warming up at the end of a take—is go through the whole scene twice (or more) without cutting. You want to capture the magic that the actor is bringing to the material by allowing the actor to maintain his emotional point of view. (When you say “Cut,” it’s like the guillotine coming down. Suddenly, it’s not about the actor’s emotional state, but about the 1st assistant cameraperson’s worry that the shot wasn’t in focus, or the wardrobe assistant dashing onto set to fix an errant collar.) Your main job is to tell the story through the perfection of performance.

A big part of your job is to get a great shot. But if you’re shooting a middling performance with a great shot, you still have only middling film. So you want to keep rolling and allow your actors to stay focused on their point of view. What do you do? You instruct the 1st assistant cameraperson to make sure that he has a full mag, that is, as much film as possible in the magazine, which is generally 1,000 feet. (Or, if you’re shooting digital, you ask, “Do we have enough (memory) for two?”) You tell the actors you’re going to keep rolling. And when they’ve finished the scene for the first time, you say quietly to all, “Still rolling … reset.” And when everyone on both cast and crew sort of “rewind” back to their original positions, you repeat, “Action” and start again, without having cut between takes. This is a terrific tactic when you’re trying to build performance because you’ve sensed that the actors are just getting into the right emotional place just as you’re about to call “cut” on a take. That is smart directing. But continuing to roll through multiple takes (more than two) without cutting is problematic for several reasons: (1) It causes the director to shout acting adjustments to the actors, which we know is detrimental; (2) It prohibits other department heads from getting on set and correcting things, like the vanities, prop master, or script supervisor; and (3) It is non-communicative, causing everyone to think, “Why are we going again? What does the director want?” It is part of the director’s job to be clear about what he is looking for that necessitates an additional take. If you’re not seeking any improvement, you should check the gate and move on.

Take 1 is generally to get the kinks out of the scene; by take 2, all aspects of the scene should be accomplished beautifully. Your actors are in the groove, and the shot is playing exactly as you designed it. So print it. Give the actors some feedback by approaching them in person (not shouting from the monitor) and having a short and intimate conversation, using the vocabulary we discussed in Chapter 10 to give them an adjustment. Then go one more time (or two) for editing choices and move on. You have a limited amount of time in which to shoot a lot of material, and you need to know what you’re looking for and be decisive when you see it. To review: in current episodic drama, a script is generally around 52 pages, and you have 7, 8, or 9 days to shoot it, depending on the budget. Most shows do about 25 to 30 setups a day, that is, separate shots. The call time, or beginning of the day, is usually 7:00 a.m. If the production takes an hour lunch, you are expected to wrap (finish) in 12 hours, or by 8:00 p.m. If the production caters lunch and the break is for half an hour, you’re expected to wrap by 7:30 p.m.

At the halfway mark of the day, at six hours, it is required by law and union agreements to give the cast and crew a meal break. If you are in the middle of a shot at that time, and you think you just need a little more time, the 1st AD can announce, “We’re going into grace,” and you continue to shoot. However, the grace period is only 12 minutes, and you cannot change anything about the shot once you’ve rolled into grace. If you need a little more time than that, and it will save time later, the production manager may authorize a meal penalty. This is a half hour of additional time, but the cast and crew are paid extra for it. An example of saving time later would be if, by going into meal penalty, you completed one direction of a scene, and would be planning to turnaround after lunch. If instead, without a meal penalty, you still had one shot remaining in the original direction to be shot after lunch, you would probably be an hour behind by the end of the day. And every minute counts. If you go past 13 hours, the crew and cast need to be fed again. It’s called second meal; generally the crew chooses to eat and keep working without actually breaking.

These are long days, and they get longer if the director is indecisive or overly ambitious. The job of the director is to tell the story brilliantly but remain on time and on budget. That bears repeating: the job of the director is to tell the story brilliantly but remain on time and on budget! That means knowing where to spend the time and where to compromise because you were hired to make the day. You have a certain number of scenes to shoot within 12 hours. If a particular shot (or performance) is crucial to your storytelling, take whatever time is necessary. That’s important, and it’s following your creative vision. But if you know your most important scene is one you’re scheduled to be filming in the afternoon (it’s listed that way on the call sheet), don’t get bogged down in a less important scene in the morning. Prioritize. Know where to spend extra time.

Everyone who works for you, both cast and crew, looks to you to not only create beautiful film but to do it efficiently as well. And the producers would add, “Don’t forget to do it on budget, too!”

Remember that every single element in the frame is your choice and requires your approval. So right before you roll, take a moment to really look at what is in the frame (because, boy, you are sure going to be looking at it endlessly in editing). See if your actress’s hair is perfect. If not, ask the hairdresser back to pat down those flyaways. Look to see whether some background object, like a lamp, appears to be protruding out of the actor’s ear. If so, ask the on-set dresser to move the object around until the framing is better. Pay attention to the set dressing: is it all logical, does it make sense and help you tell the story? Double-check: is the wardrobe for each of your characters in differing color palettes, and is it appropriate? Does the wardrobe need to be aged, rather than looking like it was purchased yesterday and has never been worn? You can do this last-second review while the 1st AC is running the tape (ascertaining that the shot will be in focus) and everyone else is making their final preparations. You don’t have to make a big deal out of it, but you do have to do it. It’s part of “the buck stops here” mentality, and even though there are departments that supervise each of those elements, approval ultimately rests with you.

Also check (during the second team and background rehearsal) the human elements of your frame aside from the actors: that is, the extras. Though the 2nd AD sets background, you should make adjustments to suit your vision. So you may have people crossing close to lens, called a foreground (fg) wipe, which helps make the audience feel like the camera is intimate and subjective and in the midst of the scene with the actors. If you have a wide shot holding multiple actors without foreground crosses, it will feel like proscenium staging, as in a theatre, where the action is happening in front of a removed audience. Observe the background artists: Are they helping you tell the story? Do they have the right attitude and point of view? Is someone overacting, or worse, walking around like a zombie? (Obviously, that’s okay if you’re shooting The Walking Dead.)

So you have the perfect frame, you do a couple of takes, and you’re pretty happy. But there’s one thing you want to fix, either in front of or behind the camera, so you may ask for a pickup, rather than going from the top, or the beginning. A pickup starts the scene somewhere in the middle to achieve the element you believe is missing, whether it’s a performance note or something that could be done better on camera. You’ll say, “Print that, please, one pickup.” Your AD will say, “From where?” And you will tell everyone the cue, or script line, that will begin the pickup. Sometimes when you make this announcement, the actor may ask for an extra take from the beginning, because they feel they can’t just jump into the performance in that spot. That’s okay too, especially if the scene requires emotional depth. But there are some actors who are never satisfied and always want another take. It is up to you to navigate the subtext of what they are requesting. It’s important to honor your actors’ creative vision as well, but remember that you are the person running the set. If you decide to begin at the top of the scene, you say “Back to one,” (everyone’s first position) the AD will repeat it for all to hear, and everyone will rewind a little more to get another complete take.

Sometimes you think that although the scene is good, it could stand a little extra energy and some further editing choices. At that point, tell the actors “I’ve got it,” meaning the scene is complete, but “Let’s do one more for fun.” (Some directors prefer to say “for shits and giggles.” Bethany’s preferred expression is “Bonus round!”) Generally, this take gives the actors a sense of freedom and they lighten up (from the huge responsibility of getting the scene right) and are able to discover new things in their performance and literally have fun. Or, occasionally, you think the shot is complete, but when the gate is checked, there actually is a hair there, or there’s some other obstruction (like a minimal actor/prop mismatch) that forces you to go for one more take. In our experience, this is a gift. This unpredicted last take somehow captures even more of the magic. Never regret it, but embrace it. It’s always worth it.

Once you have finished shooting one angle of the scene—you’ve printed three takes, you know you have the performance and the shot exactly as you wanted it—you proceed to the next shot in which the camera is looking the same general direction in order to conserve lighting changes. The DP will be instrumental in helping you determine which shots should be done in which order. After you’ve completed every shot in one direction, you’ll call out, “turning around,” which your AD will repeat on the radio. This signals to everyone that the next setup will require more work. The set dresser will probably need to move furniture, the grips may do “wall in, wall out” to reconfigure the set by moving the wild (movable) walls while giving more room to the camera, and the electricians will get instructions from the DP and gaffer about relighting in the opposite direction.

Another “in/out” situation on set is caused when you decide to switch elements within a single take without the switch being seen by camera. This is called a “Hollywood in” or “Hollywood out.” For example, an actor is sitting in a chair, and in the midst of the scene gets up and walks across the set. You design a shot that calls for following that character across the room, but the chair is in the way. So you will confer with the DP, and plan to boom (raise) the camera as the actor stands, and now the on-set dresser can sneak in under the frame to pull the chair out of the way, and the camera may push through (Hollywood out). Or you may have a shot in which you want to substitute an actor with a stunt double, and you pan off the actor to something else (like an approaching bad guy) and meanwhile the actor steps off set and the double steps in (Hollywood in).

There is one other situation you may be asked about during a shooting day: your AD approaches, and asks if you want to shoot a scene MOS. That means, the camera will record picture, but the sound will not be recorded. This generally happens when there is neither dialogue nor significant background sound to record, like an insert or a “surveillance camera” shot. The origin of this appellation may be apocryphal, but most crew people believe that an unknown Germanic sound recordist of the 1930s would ask a director, “Mit-out-sound?” and now we just call it MOS.

ONE DOWN, FOUR TO GO

So let’s say you’ve shot your first scene of the day. You have checked the gate on all of the shots that were designed in prep, prepared in rehearsal, and executed by cast and crew during the shooting. Hooray for you! Now you say, “Moving on,” or “New deal,” or “That completes this scene.” Your AD will announce that via the radio, and everyone will mark the first scene off on the call sheet. One down! Now you probably only have four more scenes for the day! And the process repeats itself. By following this pattern, you eventually find yourself near to the end of the day. At that point, your AD may announce that the next shot is the Abby Singer, or the Abby.

The Abby Singer shot is named for a wonderful gentleman who was an assistant director at the beginning of television in the 1950s. He was known for his high energy and eagerness to complete the work, and would often announce to his crew that it was “this shot and one more.” So the second-to-last shot is called the Abby Singer, and crews all over the world know that when the AD makes that announcement, they are almost finished with their day. Both Mary Lou and Bethany worked with Abby in his production manager capacity. He was on Major Dad, which was Mary Lou’s second directing job, and Abby was also on St. Elsewhere, which was Bethany’s first. Abby seemed to know everything there was to know about production, and he cared deeply about the finished product. His was a great example of the passion that film people bring to their work.

Passion fuels a set. The actors are passionate about what they do, or else they wouldn’t do it. There’s too much rejection and too little remuneration for the vast majority of them. But your crew is passionate about what they do, too. You have to know all the technical stuff we went over in previous chapters, but your DP and your crew will know it way better than you. It is not necessary to tell them exactly how to accomplish a shot. Instead, you communicate what it is you are looking for. What do you want to see? What is your creative vision? Paint a picture for them with words and let the crewmembers contribute their expertise and help make your vision come alive.

That is why they are there. They are also creative people, and they want to be useful. They want to make the film special, too. They want to add their talents to yours; together, you’ll create something that you could not do on your own. Filmmaking is not a solo act. It is collaborative, in all the best ways. And at the end of day, you can celebrate that collaboration with the feeling of satisfaction that abounds when your AD announces, “This is the martini shot”—the last shot of the day—right before you wrap (end the day).

Your job is to provide not only the creative vision but also the environment in which everyone can do their best work. Your actors feel safe because they know you will not let them look stupid, so they give their best. Your DP is inspired by your ideas, and adds or subtracts light to create a visual tone. Your camera operator and crew, the sound crew, all the departments—they want to follow you, the leader, and give their utmost in service to making this script come alive in the most profound way. So you will pull them in and welcome their talents and contributions.

But the main responsibility of the director is to focus on performance, because the director is the only one doing that. All the other aspects of filmmaking have someone to look after them. The DP will watch the light; the camera operator will make sure that the shot is perfect. The prop assistant will make sure that each hand prop is in place. The wardrobe assistant will not allow lint on a jacket; the hairdresser will make sure that not a hair is out of place. You, the director, are the only one judging whether the performance by the actors is telling your story. And you are the only one who is nurturing them, loving them, making them feel secure. You are the only one leading them where you want them to go.

PERSONALITY IN THE PROCESS

The process will work best if you exhibit the good old-fashioned values of respect, manners, and positive thinking. Remember that everyone on the set is looking to you for signs of how the day is going and how they should feel. If you’re grumpy, they will be too. If you’re rude, you give them permission to be the same. But if you say please and thank you, if you praise and encourage your actors and your crew, and most importantly, as we talked about in Section One, if you come to set well-prepared, then the magic can happen. You can have a plan, follow it, and release yourself and everyone else from the stress of figuring things out on the fly. And you can be free to deviate from your preparation and allow the inspiration (most especially from your actors) of the moment to elevate what was previously an intellectual exercise. Although you have pictured the scene in your head, the reality will undoubtedly be different.

This work is what makes the job of the director so exciting. You get to see your vision become a reality. But there are so many variables that the end product becomes unpredictable ahead of time. Is your lead actress in a good mood or bad mood? Did the piece of equipment you ordered come in? Was there a late rewrite that affected your preparation? Are there internal feuds, or perhaps love affairs? Are the producers at war with the studio, and both at war with the network, leaving you unsure to whom you’re answering? For every scene, there are as many variables as the people involved at every level. And it is your job as director to navigate all that with grace, diplomacy, and the determination that it is your creative vision to which all must adhere. It’s challenging, and it’s fun. There is no greater creative high than being the director, if you have the temperament and multitasking skills to achieve consummate filmmaking.

We’ll give you the insight on how to be that kind of person in Section Four—right after we talk about postproduction and taking storytelling to a new level.

Section Two Review

Shoot

The week or ten days when you actually are in production and doing the principal photography is the shoot. During this time, you run the set, shape the actors’ performances, and oversee all aspects of telling the story with the camera and sound recording equipment on the sets or on location. You do all this in an orderly and efficient way to stay on time and within budget while expressing your creative vision as you interpret the script.

You use your knowledge of the how the actors prepare and work so that you can speak to them in their language. You provide a closed set so that they can do that work in a protected and safe environment. You have the bigger picture in mind so that you are mindful of pacing and tone, and you pay special attention to their rhythm and timing if you are doing a comedy.

During the shoot, you work closely with your key trio on the set: your AD, the DP, and the script supervisor. These three are there for every rehearsal. The AD is your lieutenant who sees that all your instructions are communicated. The DP is your captain who oversees the crew and the actual execution of how you tell the story with the camera and sound recording equipment. Your script supervisor oversees continuity and can be your backup person to make sure you haven’t missed any critical coverage.

When you shoot with animals and kids, quiet spontaneity is your friend; when you shoot special effects, stunts, CGI, blue screen, and choreography, careful planning is key to efficient and safe shooting. The shoot is the time when all the troops rally together to create the director’s vision. It is the time you show how well you lead and how well you capture the elements you need to tell a story.