Topics in Directing (390-0-20)
Topic
Blocking & Staging
Instructors
Spencer W Parsons
Meeting Info
Louis Hall 106: Tues 3:00PM - 4:50PM
Louis Hall 118: Thurs 3:00PM - 5:50PM
Overview of class
This course will be a workshop in techniques for dramatizing themes, emotional shifts, ideas, and visual composition through the performers' movements in relationship to camera, environment, and to one other onscreen. Staging, or the arrangement and movement of performers on camera, is the key area of collaboration between directors, actors and cinematographers and perhaps is the most essential element of visual design in cinema (necessary even before lighting and editing can do their expressive work). This course will develop basic skills in designing dramatic and dynamic relationships between performers and camera through hands-on exercises in class and shooting in the field. We will introduce and practice different styles of coverage and editing as well as camera technique (dolly vs. handheld vs. tripod). This class develops skills necessary for actors, directors, cinematographers, but is also highly recommended for students focused on editing and soundrecording.
Learning Objectives
This course aims to develop scene work skills to control pacing and dramatic emphasis, as well as to guide audience attention through placement and movement of actors and camera. Actors will more closely focus on the technical concerns of how to behave in relationship to the camera than in other acting classes, but ideally, the chief concern remains compelling and grounded performance of a character in motion. For the director and cinematographer, this course will give some experience in front of the camera, with an understanding of the problems faced by actors when planning and executing the best means for capturing performance with the camera.
Teaching Method
Through in-class exercises and shooting projectsoutside class, students will apply basic dramatic principles of scene analysis to developing strategies for camera placement, movement, and editing in relation to performance. Screenings of features and shorts by fiction filmmakers will illustrate concepts, and students will practice at evaluating finished work to understand cinematic storytelling strategies that they can deploy as filmmakers.
Evaluation Method
Completion of short film assignments, class-participation, oral reports on filmmaking techniques used in films screened.
Class Materials (Required)
Textbook: FILM DIRECTING CINEMATIC MOTION by Stephen D. Katz, Additional course readings will be provided via PDF on Canvas.