Course Description
A course that builds on Directing I, focusing on broadening the understanding and execution of the aesthetic and technical tools available to the director to create, develop, and analyze content; refining the techniques of staging shots, directing the actor, and developing voice and directorial style.
Athena Title
Directing II
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in FILM 6011
Prerequisite
EMST 6010
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This is an intensive, advanced-level course that focuses on strengthening the student’s mastery of the essential elements of directing. The course is designed to train students to analyze and visually showcase character, physical action, conflict, and atmosphere, and determine the visual treatment of a scene before shooting. Students will shoot exercises inside and outside of class for the purpose of putting what they learn into practice and to prepare for their final film.
Topical Outline
I. Three Act Structure: A deep dive into the anatomy of a screenplay and the fundamental mechanics of dramatic narrative. II. Dialogue: Analysis of dialogue as subtext, intention, pursuing an objective, and the literal language of conflict (spoken and unspoken). III. Visualization: An analysis of the interaction between immediacy and reflection in the formation of images, shots, sequences, and complete visual narratives. IV. Directing the Actor: Concentration, objectives, beats, given circumstances, private moments, physical action, and obstacles. V. Imagery: An exploration of how to express dramatic and thematic ideas with images, as well as how great images reveal what lurks beneath the surface of things (subtext). VI. Script Analysis: An analysis of the story arc (the narrative as a whole) and the cycle of action (moment-to-moment action and reaction). Special emphasis on the importance of rigorous script analysis to guard against the director’s tendency to impose their narrow and somewhat limited views of life and humanity on the story and the characters. VII. Casting and Rehearsal: Analyzing the audition as an opportunity for the actor to showcase their ability to become the representations of human nature that a role requires them to be. Special emphasis on trust, choosing “sides,” improvisation, scene partners, rehearsal, and “protecting” the actor at all cost.