Directing Course Overview

This is a sample of a Course Overview document provided to directing students on the first day of the course:
 

 

Course Aims

 

The aim of this one-year, full-time course is two-fold; to train you to become a versatile and efficient director for employment in the industry, and to develop your individual voice as a creative artist.

 

The course offers an intensive variety of directing formats for you to master, with a combination of formal teaching, practical exercises, site visits, and actual productions.

 

Rather than being taught directing in isolation, you will also be exposed to the challenges of screenwriting, producing, assistant directing, crewing and acting – including a trip to New York City to explore both well established and innovative approaches to performance and directing.

 

You will work throughout with a large number of industry professionals, who will challenge you with key concepts, analysis, examples of their own work, and practical workshops. A core component, working with actors, runs continuously across the year, to develop your confidence in directing performance, and experiment with different approaches to rehearsal, preparation, improvisation and on-set practice.

 

You will accumulate a body of directing work across the year, in a range of

complimentary formats, which will help you to develop their skills and preferences for the final graduation project.

 

You will have to pass a number of rigorous, industry-based tests before embarking on your final production, and keep a journal throughout the entire process, which will be part of your final assessment.

 

Every finished film will be presented to an audience of industry directors and members of the teaching staff, who will question you as the director about the project’s aims, influences, successes and failings, in order to assess not only the finished product, but also the awareness and objectivity of its creator.

 

During the course you will receive foundation-level training in technical skills such as 16mm and HD cameras, sound recording, and editing, but the nature of the course means that these, and other disciplines will be predominantly related to what a director needs to know, in order to work effectively with every department. For example, your camera training will include framing and composition.

 

You will receive individual tutorials with the Course Leader on a monthly basis, in order to monitor your progress and tailor the course to meet individual needs as they emerge.

 

 

Term One: Visual Storytelling

 

The primary focus of the first term is the devising and production of one of two types of short form narrative, that have often helped launch a director’s career. By eliminating synchronized sound but retaining the requirement of narrative and performance, you will be encouraged to explore cinema as a visual medium, and you will be trained in advance with technical, conceptual and practical skills.

 

 

Taught Components:

 

a). Introduction to Directing: Theory and Practice

b). Storytelling: Visual Narratives

c). Directing Actors: With and Without Dialogue

d). Practical Producing: How to Make Your Film Different

e). 16mm Camera Operating and Framing

f). Lighting and Composition

g). Sound Recording and Mixing

h). On-set Protocol

i). Production Guidelines and Planning

j). Casting and Rehearsing

k). Presentations of Work by a Commercials Director, Music Video director,

Composer, and First Assistant Director, with Practical Workshops

l). Monthly Tutorials with the Course Leader

 

 

Projects:

 

1. Mini-DV non-dialogue film exercise

2. Scripting and storyboarding of a visual narrative

3. Directing and editing of either a Music Video (3 mins max) or Commercial (1 min maximum) featuring narrative and performance

4. Team planning of a Documentary subject, based on a personality, featuring a narrative

 

 

A residential trip to New York City provides a unique opportunity to engage with actors and directors who use a range of Method-based techniques to intensify screen performance.

 

 

Term Two: Strategy And Staging

 

The second term broadens awareness of directing by offering a range of assignments with specific briefs, challenging you to adapt to working in a team, shaping material in a limited time-frame, and working to industry standards of efficiency and effectiveness.

 

The documentary project emphasizes the importance of strategy in devising ways to portray real lives in a narrative format, and shaping the material to make it an accessible and compelling experience.

 

You will also cast, rehearse, direct and edit a scene from a TV drama in a studio set. No changes can be made to the assigned script, and the director has very limited rehearsal and shoot time to develop a mode of staging that fully exploits the potential of the material.

 

 

Taught Components:

 

a). Directing Documentary Workshop: How to Find and Organize Material

b). HD Camera Training and Composition

c). Sound Recording and Sound Design

d). Directing and Performance for Screen (New York)

e). Directing TV Drama Workshop: Working to a Brief and House Style

f). Rehearsal Technique for TV Drama

g). Presentation and Practical Workshops by a Director of Photography, Designer,

Editor, Sound Mixer and Visual Effects Supervisor

h). Monthly tutorials with the Course Leader

 

Projects:

 

1. Production of two Documentaries as group practice, 10 mins max

2. Directors’ Acting Class – directing each other as actors

3. Direction and Editing of a single-camera TV drama scene, from assigned script

4. Workshops with Heads of Department

 

 

Term Three: Making Cinema

 

Although it includes greater experience of industrial practices (including multi- camera directing), the final term is devised to stimulate and support you in the development and production of their graduation film, a short narrative for cinema.

 

You will be encouraged to invent a project that will demonstrate your accumulated skills as a director, and also convey your individuality as creative artists.

 

You are not required to also write their screenplay, but have to supervise its development and take full responsibility for all aspects of the production.

 

All directors will workshop scenes with actors throughout the development process, as well as attending a number of sessions dealing with challenges specific to narrative cinema, ranging from directing sex scenes to working with stars.

 

You must keep a journal throughout the process of development and production (which will form part of their final assessment), and present the project to a jury of directors before production, and also on completion, when you will be expected to justify your decisions and be able to objectively analyse the finished film.

 

 

Taught Components:

 

a). Making a Short Film: Production, Distribution, Exhibition

b). Performance and Camera: Blocking, Framing and Audience

c). Working with Children, Animals and Amateurs

d). Directing Actors As Collaborators

e). Screen Grammar Workshop: Developing Vision and Efficiency

f). Directing Sex Scenes and Intimate Material

g). Presentation and Workshop by an Established Actor

h). Work on Performance: Using Actors in the Development Process

i). Script Meetings: Shaping Your Material

j). Supervision of Work in Progress Workshops

k) Crewing and Preproduction Supervision

l). Careers Guidance

m). Monthly tutorials with the Course Leader

 

Projects:

 

1. Directing a Multi-Camera Soap Opera scene

2. Development of graduation film as screenplay

3. Workshops with actors of work in progress

4. Pre-production of graduation film (crewing, casting, locations)

5. Production of graduation film (10 minutes maximum)

6.  A written journal of the project’s progress, from concept to delivery

7. Presentation to jury of project, and of finished film for analysis and discussion

 

 

 

Important Note

 

Whilst there are plenty of opportunities to direct within the course schedule, you must always remember that there is no reason not to develop additional projects privately during your time at Central.  Good actors are generally happy to work on extra-curricular projects but this is down to you to initiate.

 

Successful directors show great initiative. They understand that success will not be handed to them, but rather that they have to pursue it with their whole being.

 

Be proactive!