8. Scene Workshop: Part 1: SECOND REHEARSAL

Although production of Queen of Katwe wrapped in 2015, Mira has recreated a scene workshop exclusively for MasterClass. Young actress Madina Nalwanga reprises her role as chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, and veteran Ugandan actor Philip Luswata plays the role of chess coach Robert Katende (originally played by David Oyelowo). In cinema, rehearsals often involve not only the actors, but the cinematographer as well. So Miles Goodall, an additional photographer for Queen of Katwe, is also participating with his camera.

The scene takes place in Russia, following Phiona’s defeat at an international chess championship. Devastated, Phiona has fled the arena and her coach finds her outside, weeping. As you watch each stage of this scene workshop, take note of Mira’s directorial approach and think about how you envision your own style for working with actors.

Before rehearsals begin, make sure that you have spent quality time getting to know your actors, engaging in exercises with them, and building a relationship of trust. This is especially true for young, first-time performers. Begin by talking together about each character’s motivations and feelings (although you should save the real emotional work for later). Next, work out the movement of the performers through space, and concurrently experiment with the placement and framing of the camera in relation to the performers. This process of ‘blocking’ is essentially an act of choreography, where every action is motivated by something the characters think, feel, want, or need. It is simultaneously an act of composition, where appropriate frames and camera angles are chosen so as to accentuate the emotional themes of the story.

For your first scene rehearsal, your actors should have their lines memorized. Work with them to discover what motivates each moment. There are a number of individual ‘beats’ in any given scene where one emotion shifts to another, and the dramatic action shifts in response. Find those beats, and work with your actors to understand their progression. Inexperienced actors may need to be reminded to say the lines as if they are grappling with their feelings, and don’t know what they’re going to say next.

The underlying emotions of the character are what should motivate each line of dialogue, not the simple fact that “this is what the script says next.” Achieving that authenticity requires an exploration of internal feelings and processes, and it isthe director’s task to facilitate the discovery of those emotions.

7. Directing Gestures

A sure sign of an inexperienced actor is that they don’t know what to do with their hands. A character’s emotions and motivations are often revealed through their gestures. But new performers are often unaware of how to translate these elements into bodily-kinesthetic actions. To help non-actors create organic, physical motions that serve the story, Mira closely observes, with a documentarian’s eye, their real-life behaviors— their unique movements and ‘tics.’ She then works with them to devise gestures for their character that feel natural, not awkward, and distinctive.

Two examples of devising gestures from real behaviors come from Salaam Bombay! Shafiq Syed, the street kid who played the role of Chaipau, the tea boy, had a habit of holding a hand behind his ear when confused or lost in thought. Mira loved that gesture and what his calloused palms revealed about his rough life.

She asked him to make that same gesture in scenes where his character gets in trouble with his boss. It was a small, subtle way to underline those moments, and completely organic to Shafiq’s natural proclivities. Similarly, the young actress who played Manju had an endearing habit of winking saucily. Mira asked her to pull this expression out during a dance scene, to lend that same sauciness to her character during the dancing scene.

Gestures should ideally help the audience to distinguish one character from another. But sometimes, shared gestures can create a feeling of group cohesion. The perfect example of this is the finger snap from Queen of Katwe. This was a Ugandan gesture that all the children on set were already in the habit of making, and so

Mira embraced and channeled that motion into a meaningful motif. The finger snap served as a way to say “touché” during a chess match. Mira used it as a cutting point for editing as well, and despite the producer cautioning her that she was calling for the gesture too often, the finger snap became a memorable and catchy aspect of the final film. In fact the publicity of the film shows

Lupita teaching the finger snap as it became a rage. To retain the spontaneous, organic nature of gestures during filming, Mira will often call out for certain actions in the moment, even if it means that her voice needs to be removed during the sound mix. In Monsoon Wedding, for instance, there is a tense scene when the characters all pose for a group photograph, following a startling and public revelation of incest. Seeking always to balance dark moments with lightness,

Mira called out for one of the young actors to make his trademark, wide-eyed eyebrow raise— an expression that Mira knew he liked to make in real life, but that would serve to subtly break the tension in the scene.

Don’t hesitate to simply ask your actors to make specific gestures, as long as they come from within. Try not to impose a gesture that you have devised on to your actor who might feel the gesture is not truthful to his or her character.

As Mira explains, you are simply asking for something that a person would normally do, but with your own timing. In other situations, you may actually want to hold back from specifying a gesture, and see what the actor does spontaneously give a description of their character’s motivations. For one scene involving prostitution in Salaam Bombay! , the content was too mature to explain to the girl playing Manju. Instead,

Mira simply told the young actress that “you want to play with your mother, and she’s not there.” The young girl’s luminous eyes, and the shadows in the hallway, did the necessary mood setting.

Mira shares several examples of scenes in Monsoon Wedding where she planned and choreographed gestures far in advance of the shoot, largely because they were crucial to planting certain seeds in the plot that would pay off later. What’s more, these gestures needed to be paired with specific camera movements to reveal something subtle but important to the audience.

For instance, panning from a man’s hand touching a woman’s fingers up to the woman’s face reveals a budding flirtation. Or a woman freezes rigidly in reaction to a man’s offer to pay for her education, but nobody else notices her negative response. These are gestures that reveal character, and trigger questions and expectations for the audience as the story develops.

 

ASSIGNMENTS

Mira describes how her experience in documentary film taught her to become a keen observer of real-life behaviors. Practice your own observation skills, and begin developing your eye for spotting interesting gestures, body movements, and expressions. Set aside some time—a half-hour or so—to observe people in a public gathering spot. This could be a café, a park, a city square, or a busy intersection. Find a place to sit, unfold a newspaper, and pretend to be absent-mindedly enjoying the day. (But in today’s digital age people spend more time looking at their phones than with each other. Put the phone away and engage with life.) Study the people who walk past or who are engaged in conversation nearby. Take note of their non-verbal behaviors, including their facial expressions, their body posture when they walk or sit, what they do with their hands, how they listen and react, and other wordless signals that they use. Are they making eye contact? What is their face showing? Are their shoulders stiff or relaxed? Do they look confident, stressed, or interested? Journal about your observations, and take special note of gestures that were especially memorable, and that seemed to have significance or meaning. If you were casting extras for a scene in your film, which of the people that you observed would you hire? Which of their gestures would you like them to make again, and for what purpose? Train your mind to think in gestures—and transfer this process of observation and application to rehearsals with your actors.

LEARN MORE

For inspiration about how to use gesture in your films, page through Speaking With Hands, by Jennifer Blessing, Kirsten Hoving, and Ralph Rugoff (Guggenheim Museum, 2004). This beautiful coffee table book shares thephotographs of art collector Henry M. Buhl,

who became obsessed with hands. His private collection of more than 1,000 photos contains beautiful, poetic, and striking imagery of fingers, hands, and gestures. The best are included in this catalog, and should get your creative gears turning for how to think about gesture in your own cinematic explorations.

6. Directing Actors

All actors, whether professional or not, need a safe space for risk-taking. There is no such thing as failure. . First-time actors especially need what Mira calls a “cocoon of safety,” in which they can listen to what’s going on inside of their character, and contemplate how best to access and produce those emotions. Sometimes a more experienced actor can facilitate the creation of that safe space. For instance, David Owelelo as Coach Robert Katende in Queen of Katwe acted as a loving and protective father figure to the ensemble of children, both in the film and on set.

During the making of Salaam Bombay! The children affectionately called Mira “Kasku Didi” (Sister Tough Love). She is firm, but shows affection and concern for each child. She also knows that every child is different and responds to direction and instruction in a particular way. Because her films often involve sensitive and challenging issues, Mira often has to find ways to lead child actors to difficult emotional places. This involves an indirect path, where the situation represented in the scene is not confronted head on, but rather the child is asked to think about a memory or experience from their own life that gets them to a similar emotional space.

No fresh or honest performances can be achieved if you have not first established a trusting bond with the children in your film. Other directors, impressed by the young actors in Salaam Bombay!, have cast the same children and yet failed to coax equally powerful performances from them. They ask her, “What was the magic?” Mira explains is years of her work in her documentary work where she enters the lives of people to create an atmosphere of gaining their trust and mutual respect. You must invest real time, attention, and affection in earning their trust. Only then will your subjects be willing to share with you the boundless purity of emotion that only a child can give.

One of the most memorable scenes in Salaam Bombay! is when Chaipau, the tea boy, asks his young female friend, Manju to deliver a small package of biscuits to Sola Saal, the girl he loves—not knowing that Manju loves Chaipau. Manju does not deliver the biscuits, and instead she eats them herself, burning with jealousy. The scene is so unforgettable because in a single take, the girl devours all of the biscuits in the package, methodically chewing and swallowing them one by one. Mira gave the young actress a simple direction: “Eat the biscuits like you are eating Sola Saal.” This simple prompt got through to her, and it got Mira exactly what she wanted—an act of jealousy and intentional sabotage. Think about similar tactics you can take for directing child actors in your own film. What prompt gets through to them will depend on their personality and proclivities, and so you must know, understand, and create a bond with each performer.

Mira uses a variety of techniques to encourage trust and warmth between actors, no matter their experience level. For films like Salaam Bombay! and Queen of Katwe that mix actors of all ages, she relies on her remarkable collaborator Dinaz Stafford who holds extended workshops with her casts, beginning with a read-through of the script, and then continuing with trust exercises, theater games, and voice work. She finds that such group’s activities help to calm anxieties, lessen the ego, and bring everyone together as equals with a shared purpose.

Once a comfortable atmosphere has been established, the next step is to help children give honest and natural performances. Take care not to over-rehearse actual dialogue from the script, as children may lose freshness to their execution if they have to repeat their lines over and over again. Strive for spontaneity in front of the camera.

Additionally, give children training in any specialized skills they may need for their role, so they can perform naturally and effortlessly when the time comes. For instance, during workshops for Queen of Katwe, Mira brought in the real-life coach, Robert Katende, to engage her ensemble of children in the game of chess. By the time filming began, the children were so familiar and comfortable with chess that they were actually playing the game during takes, not just pretending.

Importantly, you need to create opportunities for children to develop relationships with the adult members of the cast. Those who play a mother or a coach in the film should also form a true connection with the children on the set. Early in workshops for Queen of Katwe, Mira had the children teach Lupita Nyong’o, who played the mother, how to cook Ugandan style. By the end of this bonding activity, the children were laughing and teasing Lupita, and a true family dynamic had been established.

Whomever you are directing, there will be times when you struggle to elicit the kind of performance you want. Resist the temptation to simply demonstrate what you want an actor to do, or to have them imitate you. That can lead to an inauthentic, borrowed quality. Instead, find a way to articulate what you’re not getting. Mira made Mississippi Masala in a stupor of love, just after meeting her now-husband. The sentiment she was getting on screen, however, didn’t feel quite as accurate. Mira drummed up the courage to share her feelings with Denzel. She told him if he could approximate the same feelings, the people in the audience would swoon. Denzel listened, and audiences fell in love.

Foreground characters with dialogue are of course central to bringing a film to life, but also crucial are the extras in the background. Second unit assistant directors who handle the blocking or choreography of extras play a hugely significant role in creating realistic environments for the main characters to inhabit. In the café scene woven throughout The Reluctant Fundamentalist, for instance, unnamed characters engage in their own conversations at several other tables in the room. At one table, a group of girls are gossiping—and these extras had been given something real to talk about and do. Devise miniature scenarios for the extras in your own film, and strive to create a multifaceted tapestry of background action that reflects the variety and unpredictability of real life.

DID YOU KNOW?

Just as actors have acting coaches, there is actually such a thing as a directing coach. Instructor Judith Weston has taught workshops and classes for directors for three decades. You may have heard of some of her students, such as Ava DuVernay (director of Selma), Steve McQueen (director of 12 Years a Slave) and Alejandro Iñárritu (director of Birdman and The Revenant). Although her studio is now closed, she still guest teaches and consults oneon-one. A more affordable way to mine her wisdom is to read one or both of her books on the subject: Directing Actors (Michael Wiese Productions, 1999) and The Film Director’s Intuition (Michael Wiese Productions, 2003). Both volumes offer in-depth advice on script analysis, rehearsal techniques, and channeling the relationship between director and actor.

 

ASSIGNMENT

The workshops that Mira conducts with her cast are filled with exercises and games. But what kinds of activities might they involve?

An interesting source for simple yet powerful ways to engage your actors in fruitful experimentation is the classic book, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, 2nd Edition, by Augusto Boal (Routledge, 2002). Framed by a revolutionary theory that the author calls “Theater of the Oppressed,” this book outlines a series of sensory techniques for attuning actors’ muscular and spatial awareness, heightening their listening skills related to rhythm and respiration, and developing their understanding of how to use gestures, facial expressions, and body positions to compose meaningful images.

 

If you are looking at games specifically geared towards children, two classics in theater education are: Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher’s Handbook by Viola Spolin (Northwestern University Press, 1986) and Theatre Games for Young Performers:Improvisations and Exercises for Developing Acting Skills by Maria C. Novelly (Meriwether Pub, 1985). Both of these have stood the test of time, and are filled with exercises exploring the basics of pantomime, voice control, rhythmic movement, monologues and dialogues. Consult any or all of these books for inspiration when planning your own rehearsals and warm-up exercises.

 

LEARN MORE

For a behind-the-scenes look at working with child actors, watch Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), a film about three Australian Aboriginal sisters who run away from a forced relocation camp, and find their way back home. All three girls who played these parts in the film began as non-actors, and went through a casting and workshop process much like what Mira describes in her own practice. The DVD contains an incredible 45-minute feature about the making of the film, called “Following the Rabbit-Proof Fence,” which serves as a helpful model for anyone working with first-time child actors.

The documentary begins with director Phillip Noyce as he searches among hundreds of candidates for three girls to act in his film. It then shifts its focus to the girls he selects, following them through rigorous acting workshops and a difficult shoot, and then culminating in the filming of a wrenching abduction scene.

Discover how the director creates a nurturing environment for these girls—and at the same time challenges them to go to difficult and dark emotional places.

The viewing experience is made more powerful if you watch the fiction film first, but if you want to skip straight to the documentary, it has been made available by the Australian Aboriginal Documentary channel on YouTube.

 

ADDITIONAL VIEWING

The World Films Special Edition DVD of Salaam Bombay! (released in 2003) contains several retrospective featurettes that explore how the street kids who played parts in the film were affected by their experience, and what they grew up to become. Especially interesting are: “One Chance in a Million,” about Shafiq Syed, who played the lead role of Chaipau and is now working as an assistant cameraperson; and “I Got Love”, it’s about the girl who played Manju, Hansa Vithal.

5. Casting

When Mira first started in film, there were no casting directors in India, and she had to find actors through the grapevine. Only later in her career would she discover the value that a casting director can bring to the process, with their wide connections and access to talent. The best casting directors will share your own sensibility, and yet also bring to the table unexpected and creative choices—options that may end up transforming your own vision for a character or scene.

Sometimes the best talent for a role will be clear as day. When Mira saw an independent film with a riveting performance by Shefali Shah, she called the actress immediately about playing the role of Ria in Monsoon Wedding.

Other times, a role will call for non-traditional casting, and a search for new talent begins. The best way to ensure that your casting process will result in fruitful discoveries is to make sure actors feel comfortable and relaxed during their auditions. Actors who feel pressured and judged will be less willing to take risks, and thus less likely to reveal something exciting. Your goal, then, should be to help them breathe easy, by creating an affectionate and warm atmosphere where experimentation and play is welcome. Look for performances that bring something fresh and unexpected to the table, and then respond and encourage further exploration.

An important quality to look for in new talent is a lack of vanity. Mira looks to cast actors who are honest, unassuming, and pure in their performance. The spirit that someone radiates is just as important as their acting skill. For The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mira spent a year searching for someone to play the film’s lead,

Changez—A worldly young man who would be equally at home in Lahore and New York’s Wall Street. She finally discovered Riz Ahmed, a relatively unknown stage and television actor in London. Many other candidates had the right look and the right voice, but only Riz was able to instill the role with the proper intelligence and worldlyness. Similarly, the main character of Queen of Katwe was a chess champion, and had to be played by someone whose expressions evoke in the viewer the feeling that the character is strategizing her next move on the chess board. Filming someone who is merely thinking required many takes and a transporting of emotional intelligence.

When working to identify and develop actors for your film, establishing trust is essential. Mira gained valuable practice in building trust as a documentary filmmaker, entering worlds as an outside observer and gradually earning her subjects’ confidence. This experience informs her fiction, especially when working with non-actors who haven’t yet learned the tricks of the trade. They often need a nurturing and feel safe enough to play the fool.

There is often a fascinating fusion that occurs when non-actors are paired with experienced actors. Non-actors are challenged to rise to professional standards, and professional actors are delighted and energized by the fresh, pure, and unprocessed performances of amateur talent. Children are the best examples of this, and a wonderful alchemy can often result from such mixed-ability casting.

Before casting for a non-actor to play an important role in your film, it is wise to test how well they cope with the pressures of production. When a camera, lights, crew, and other actors are added to the mix, can they still perform their lines well? Look for a casualness, comic timing, and lack of self-consciousness—even when surrounded by all the distractions of a busy set. When a film includes numerous roles for children, as was the case in Salaam Bombay!, Mira will hold several weeks of workshops with candidates. She conducts acting games and exercises in the early weeks, and then brings in the cameras. Participants learn about continuity, watch rehearsal footage of their performances, and strive for consistency while also avoiding posturing and artificiality. By the end of those intensive workshops, it will become clear who can rise to the challenge.

In some ways, finding and molding new talent can be easier for a first-time director than attracting big-name talent. Few things earn a professional actor’s trust more than being able to see concrete evidence that you know what you are doing. Having a successful first film under your belt can prove to actors that you will do right by them, and they can entrust their performance to you. But if this is your first time helming a production, chances are the big name actors you approach will say no. Don’t give up hope, though. As Mira herself found, the actors in your first film may be unknown—but you could be making them into stars.

DID YOU KNOW

Mira mentions there were few casting directors in India when her career first started, but she found her collaborators in Uma Da Cunha, Dinaz Stafford, and Dilip Shankar, who share her discerning enthusiasm for discovering non-actors who have the mettle to share the screen with legendary actors.

ASSIGNMENT

Part 1: Prepare your casting call

Review your screenplay, pull out the names of each and every character (as well as unnamed roles and extras), and create a cast list. Identify your main characters, and think about the bigname stars who you imagine playing those roles.

Who would be in your dream cast, if you had an unlimited budget and the influence of Spielberg?

Now, come back down to earth and translate the qualities of your dream cast into a description of the type of person you are looking for to inhabit each role. Brainstorm the personality traits, facial features, body type, mannerisms, and voice that you imagine for each character as they are written in the script. If it helps, skip forward to the lookbook activity in Chapter 12: Developing a Visual Palette, and gather photos from magazines and other sources of people who fit your mental image.

Next, identify the scene or moment from your script that best reveals each character’s essence. What actions or lines of dialogue are most crucial to identifying an actor who could embody that role? Note these scenes as potential excerpts to use during auditions.

Keep these notes handy for when you are ready to cast your film. When the time comes to post a casting call, write a short description of the key characteristics you are looking for in each role. (Try not to be too rigid in your specifications— leave wiggle room to be surprised by actors who stretch or challenge your expectations.) There are an overwhelming number of casting websites that you can use to post your audition opportunity, but below are four of the most reputable:

Actors access

 Actors Access is a casting website that allows actors and casting agents to upload and view headshots, resumes, and reels. It is free to create an account, with the ability to purchase additional perks.

Backstage

Backstage is a long-established and trusted resource for actors and casting agents. They publish a weekly magazine and maintain a casting platform that includes a calendar of auditions, resources for industry insiders, and access to over thousands of roles being cast for projects across the United States.

Casting frontier

One of the better free casting websites, Casting

Frontier is a digital platform that permits casting agents to upload audition materials and casting calls, and enables actors to upload a headshot and resume. You can upgrade to a paid membership plan for additional perks such as voice and video reels.

mandy.com

Known widely both inside and outside the industry,

Mandy.com is a useful resource for casting. The site is entirely free, and facilitates the posting of job opportunities not only for performance talent, but for technical and production services as well. There is also a community forum where users can ask questions and share advice.

 

Part 2: Conduct your auditions

 

As you set up your space on audition day, think about ways to create a comfortable environment for your aspiring cast hopefuls. Make sure you have clear signage and that you have one or two staff members checking in actors, who are able to answer questions and give clear directions to the bathroom. Because auditions often run behind schedule, and actors tend to arrive at least 15 minutes before their scheduled time, provide amenities in the waiting room such as magazines, wi-fi access, bottled water, and snacks. Finally, designate one person on your team to guide actors from the waiting room to the audition space—never make them find their own way!

Make the audition room a safe, friendly, and inviting space. The guide who leads the actor into the room can also hand out the actor’s headshot and resume and make the introductions. The goal is to offload any nerve-wracking procedural steps so the actors don’t need to worry about anything except his performance.

Start with some small talk and light questioning about their resume. For instance, inquire about their experience on a previous film, or an interesting skill or hobby that they listed. You don’t need to dedicate much more than one or two minutes to this type of conversation; the aim is simply to get a feel for the actor’s personality and to reassure them that you’re human too. Lastly, ask whether they have any questions before they begin. This will give them the opportunity to resolve any confusion or hesitations they have about how to play the part, and will provide you with the chance to encourage them to make bold choices.

As you conduct each audition, look for the following qualities to an actor’s performance:

Believable

Actors should create a convincing impression of a character actually going through the imagined scenario in their scene. Their performance should feel authentic.

Vulnerable

Characters are most interesting when they are being emotionally impacted by an experience, perhaps even at risk of failing or falling short of their goals. There should be a feeling to the performance that something real is at stake.

Collaborative

Look for clues that this person will be enjoyable to work with. Are they friendly, relaxed, and willing to experiment? Do they respond well to feedback, with positivity rather than frustration? Or do they complain and resist? Choose performers to work with who are willing to cooperate and join your team.

Authentic

Truth is often far more powerful and stronger than fiction, even in the casting process. Mira’s training in the theater and working in the real streets compels her to cast people of similar background to her characters. She believes that the “map of life” is written on the faces of street children, so she vowed not to cast an upper class educated child to play a character who has been exposed to the brutality of the streets. After you feel you have fully explored possibilities with an actor, don’t just leave them hanging. Share clear expectations about next steps: how to check out of the audition; how callbacks will work; when a final decision will be made; and how those who auditioned will be notified. Give them an opportunity to ask any final questions, and then thank them sincerely for their time and their effort.

LEARN MORE

If the budget for your first film can’t support a casting director, it’s time to learn the tricks of the trade yourself. Casting Revealed: A Guide for Film Directors, 2nd Edition, by Hester Schell (Routledge, 2016) is an insider manual on the art of casting. Learn industry standards for how to run auditions, draw up contracts, and make offers, and hear from casting directors about what to look for in a performance. Check out the companion website for even more resources to build your casting skill sets.

Mira’s book Salaam Bombay! (Penguin Books, 1989) is a diary of how the award-winning film was made and cast. It serves as a helpful coaching manual for aspiring actors, as well as a behind-the-curtain peek at the skills, art, and craft of casting.

4. Stretching your Budget

When you are first conceiving your film, don’t think about the budget. Write your story first. Budgeting is the creative act of figuring out how to do justice to your idea in a way that doesn’t reveal that you are a struggling independent filmmaker.

Mira has always managed to fit the size of her budget in an interesting way without the need of being apologetic. Sometimes, as with Salaam Bombay!, she spends the majority of her money on high quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen. For instance, the climax of the film takes place within the public spectacle of a Ganapati festival for the elephant god Ganesha. Rather than staging this event with hundreds of paid extras, Mira filmed during the actual festivities, protecting her main characters inside a small circle of actors who themselves were surrounded by the surging crowd. Because the budget allowed for only one camera, the strategy required careful advance planning to block the action and identify where to place the cinematographer and actors. The result was a grandly scaled set piece that effectively disguised the low budget.

Mira calls pre-production “cheap time”, because you can afford to really think through how to stretch your budget in preparation for the much more expensive phase of production and shooting. Such pre-planning is vital to preserving the intention and scale of your film. The cinematographer, locations manager, and script supervisor are your three most important collaborators in this endeavor. Together, scope out each scene on location, and design what will be the most effective vantage points for the camera. Your script supervisor will advise you as to how to maintain continuity, or self-consistent details, in your coverage of the various actions from scene to scene. (For instance, if a crowd riots at the sight of a gun, then you had better film a close-up of the gun!) The result will be a shot breakdown that serves as a helpful ‘table of contents,’ a kind of checklist that helps you to determine exactly which shots you need to get, and how to organize your production timeline to minimize costs and maximize your efficiency.

Throughout the shooting of your film, plan to collect a “bank of images” that don’t necessarily fall strictly under your scheduled shot list. Breathing space is essential for every films. In the edit room we may discover the need to show the passage of time, evoke a space, Or it's just can be a simply transition between locations.

Some directors schedule a day or more of pick-up shots and so does Mira. She believes in filming a bank of shots that can be used in many ways in the edit. Work with your cinematographer to make sure they understand what visuals you are excited by, and encourage them to explore the potential of each location. It could be a bird lands on a telephone wire, for instance. film that bird and put the image in “the bank.” Who can say, when it may come in handy.

Use natural elements to your advantage whenever possible. Instead of artificially staging weather conditions with expensive equipment like rain machines, wait to film your scene during an actual rainstorm. Mira recommends going into every exterior shoot with a plan A, when the sky is sunny and blue, and a plan B, where if it rains, you switch gears immediately to take advantage of the weather. Your film will look big budget, even when it’s not—but you have to plan effectively.

You must plan for worst-case scenarios and figure out how to turn them to your advantage. After the initial shooting for Monsoon Wedding had wrapped, four days of film reels were compromised due to X-ray damage while being shipped to New York. Rather than despairing, Mira had those reels processed anyway, and cut her rough cut with the damaged footage. Meanwhile, she applied for and was granted an insurance claim. She used the money for reshoots, but since she had already cut the film, she was able to assess the story for areas of improvement. She decided that more rain was needed, and was now able to afford rain machines for a key scene showing the bride caught in her car with her lover, and pulled into the drenching rain by the police. The seemingly disastrous loss of footage made possible one of the most visually striking scenes in the film.

To market their films to audiences, studios often rely on big name actors. But more money costs for big name. Carefully weigh the worth of different casting possibilities. It's not a very wise decision to spend a lot of money on a small role. It's just to give the film a boost in name recognition, nothing else. Instead, invest money in an actor who will raise the bar for the rest of the cast. For example, in Monsoon Wedding, the patriarch and center of the family is the character of Lalit Verma, the father of the bride. Because this role would affect the casting of every character around him, a truly great performer would be needed. Mira relied on the legendary actor Naseeruddin Shah, whose presence was enough to elevate everyone else’s performances. Mira used a variation of this principle in the casting of an unknown actor, Riz Ahmed, as the lead in The Reluctant Fundamentalist.The combination of established and lesser-known actors sharing the screen together resulted in stronger performances throughout the film.

LEARN MORE

Whether or not you’ve secured funding for your project, you should estimate how much your current vision will cost. If this is your first film, it’s hard to know where to start. The following resources will help you get the ball rolling, create a sensible budget, and begin planning a realistic production timeline.

Producer to Producer: Step-by-Step Guide to Low-Budget Independent Film Producing, 2nd Edition by Maureen Ryan (Michael Wiese Productions, 2017). This comprehensive guidebook is geared to emerging producers, and covers every aspect of the film-production process, from script development to marketing and distribution. Particularly relevant are chapters two (script breakdown), three (budgeting), and eleven (scheduling). Notably, the book features a helpful series of checklists (also available on a companion website) to help keep you on target for each stage of the project.

    Scheduling and Budgeting Your Film: Panic-Free Guide by Paula Landry (Focal Press, 2011). This clear and easy-to-read book explains the fundamentals of line producing, or managing a film’s budget,with tips for how to create shot breakdowns, organizing an efficient production schedule, accurately pricing costs, and optimizing each shoot.

         StudioBinder provides customizable solutions for production managers, such as script breakdowns, shot lists, storyboards, shooting schedules, contact lists, task management and calendars, and more. Available at several different subscription levels, as well as for a free trial, the website also publishes a helpful blog filled with tips and ‘hacks’ for preproduction.

DID YOU KNOW?

The term ‘blocking’ is thought to come from Victorian-era drama, when show runners such as Gilbert and Sullivan would plan their productions by first creating a miniature model of the film set. And then to represent the actors using thin blocks of wood . Today, the term has evolved to mean working with performers to figure out their body positions, gestures, and movements on stage. In cinema, blocking also involves working out the placement and movements of the camera, and can impact the lighting, set design, and more. It is thus an essential part of the planning process during preproduction.

Blocking can be an art unto itself, and is similar in many ways to dance choreography. What is the "doing" of the characters in the scene? How can their motions embody the text? The movements of actors can be crafted during the rehearsal process in artful ways that reveal additional subtext in the dialogue, as well as reflect the relationships between characters, the viewer’s focus should be directed, and create effective compositions for the camera.

In this Class, blocking will be explored in more depth beginning with Chapter 8: Scene Workshop: Read-Through and Blocking. 

ASSIGNMENT

Part 1: Breaking Down Your Script

After completing your screenplay, there is an intermediary step you should take before drafting your production budget—create a script breakdown of all the production elements that will be required to tell your story. Begin by printing out your script and dividing each page into eight parts (you should literally draw horizontal lines across the page to delineate eight equal units of writing). This will help you examine your script in microscopic detail and ensure that you don’t miss anything. Next, gather a half a dozen or more highlighters of various colors. Comb through every page and every scene of the script, and designate a different color for each of the following elements:

Characters and extras: Identify each and every role that is explicitly mentioned in the script. You will then be able to draw up a cast list for your film, and estimate how much screen time each cast member will get. The general rule of thumb is that one page of the script equals approximately one minute of runtime in the final film. Realistically, an indie film should be able to shoot about two or three pages per day—so you can then extrapolate from that the number of shoot days needed. Record the expected time commitment from each actor and use that figure to estimate salary.

Props, furniture, and costumes: Identify every material object that is needed to ‘dress’ the world of your script, and then research and calculate the rental and purchasing costs for these items.

Vehicles and animals: Identify each instance that a character drives a vehicle or interacts with a pet or animal. These involve special considerations, such as insurance and appropriate handlers, that will impact costs.

Sounds and music: Most audio will be added in post, but take special note of instances where actors need to react to something audible in real time. Budget for any on-set Foley sounds or live music that is specified in the script.

Effects and make-up: Depending on the nature of your script, you may also identify instances where practical effects will be needed, such as fire or rain, or special makeup effects such as prosthetics, blood, or aging techniques.

Stunts: Action films aren’t the only genre to involve risky scenes for actors. Identify any potentially unsafe maneuvers in your film, and consult with a stunt coordinator to estimate cost for shooting those scenes safely.

You won’t be able to arrive at a realistic budget estimate until you itemize every potential expense in your screenplay, in addition to the daily salaries of your crew. The script breakdown is an essential prerequisite to production, and will help you identify ways to save money by calling out disproportionately pricey elements. Figure out what can be cut without losing anything essential for the story, and how to get the most bang for your buck.

 

Part 2: Storyboarding

Your Shot List Related to the script breakdown is the shot list. In the same way that you combed through the script for production elements, you should examine every scene to determine the kind of coverage—wide shot, close-ups, dolly shots, et cetera—you need in order to tell your story visually. As Mira suggests, this process is best done in close collaboration with your cinematographer.

For the truly complex set pieces in your film, you may want to work with a storyboard artist to help you visualize the framing, movement, and sequence of shots that you will use to tell your story. Think of the storyboard as how a graphic novelization would be of your script, where each panel will represent a new camera angle or a key moment in the action. The aim of storyboarding is twofold: to ensure that you get all the coverage you need on set to craft a coherent and exciting story in the edit room, and to do so in an economical way, so as to avoid spending time and money filming unnecessary shots.

Mira found storyboarding to be essential when planning a climactic action sequence for The Reluctant Fundamentalist, when an innocent bystander is shot in the midst of the chaos of a restless crowd, triggering a riot. The storyboard that her team created is included on the following page and is exclusive to this Class workbook. Inspect the panels in sequence, taking the time to visualize each drawing in your mind’s eye as though it were a freeze frame from the film. As you piece together the action, note the use of graphical arrows to show motion, including the movements of actors out of the frame or into a car, for instance, as well as the expected motion of the camera, including tilts, pans, and zooms.

If you want to compare this early visualization with the final edit, rent or stream The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The riot scene begins at 1 hour 55 minutes, runs for three minutes, and took 13 pages and 38 panels to storyboard. Examine how closely the two products match, and note places where the cinematography and editing diverge from the artist’s original rendering. Although there are considerable differences, you should be able to spot key moments that were retained from start to finish.

Choose one of the more complex sequences in your own film, and work with your cinematographer to scope out a vision for the scene. 

List all of the shots that you anticipate needing as raw material, and then work with a storyboard artist to map them out in a proposed sequence for the edit. If you need help finding an experienced and qualified artist, consider starting your search on Jorgen’s List, Upwork, or the public Facebook group “Frame Dump.”

3. Finding the story

Before storytelling can begin, you must first engage in a process of story finding. Truly new stories are rare, and the best way to discover them is to constantly engage your curiosity in the world around you. Your goal should be to find a story that captures your imagination and doesn’t let go. Once that happens, acquaint yourself with the work of filmmakers who have tackled similar subjects before. The aim is not to imitate what the great people before you have done, but to develop your own voice and approach.

A wonderful starting point for inspiration is the written word. Indians were raised on a diet of Russian and English classics, such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Keats. When Mira discovered Indian writers writing fiction in English, she was inspired. Her choice of films, The Namesake, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and the forthcoming A Suitable Boy reflects her passion to tell stories from her own literary world.

Find a writer to work with who matches your own style and taste. This person will be your most important collaborator in developing your story, and should share your visual sensibility, sense of humor, and knowledge of the subject. If you are telling a story outside your experience, then do the research needed to ‘inhabit’ that world. Explore books and works of art that come out of that culture, involve yourself in the community, and get to know your subject first-hand. As you work on the script together, write each scene with a clear intention, yet also try to weave in additional layers of meaning and subtext so that each moment is doing several things at once.

Interestingly, Mira believes that specificity is key to helping your audience relate to unfamiliar characters and places. The more specific the details are in your story, the more the principles of that story are clear. For instance, Mira chose in her film Monsoon Wedding to preserve her characters’ unique way of speaking three different languages in one sentence. Although most Western audiences were quite unfamiliar with this practice, they could still relate to the honesty and humor of the dialogue, and were willing to follow along with the necessary subtitles. The story, in its particularity, connected with audiences everywhere. The more local you are, the more universal you can become.

Of course, there is always the chance that such details will be confusing for the unacquainted—and confusion can prevent a story from becoming universal. For that reason, always test your screenplay by sharing it with your inner circle of trusted friends and colleagues. Ask where they are confused or bored, and what their understanding is of the story’s world and the character’s motivations. If their understanding does not match what you intended, address those discrepancies in your next draft. Revise rigorously and repeatedly in order to create clarity for those unfamiliar with your story, while still preserving what is fresh and distinctive about your approach.

Before you finalize your script, sweep through one more time to strip out any words from the dialogue that are didactic or redundant with the visual drama of the story. The goal for your writing should be to transport viewers to a world that is new and unfamiliar, and yet still relatable. Your challenge as a writer is to translate those ‘foreign’ elements without pandering to the audience or making it feel as though they are being given a lecture about another culture. Strive to reveal, rather than lecture, and to show, rather than tell.

DID YOU KNOW?

Lovers of fiction will probably recognize the names of several contemporary South Asian authors like Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth, Mohsin Hamid, and V.S. Naipaul. But the writers whose work Mira mentions as having deeply influenced her as a teenager are less well-known outside the Indian subcontinent. If you are curious to immerse yourself in literature by the same authors that Mira explored in her formative years, start with her recommended reading below.

Ved Mehta (born 1938 in Lahore, British India) lost his sight at the age of three and went on to become a writer of more than 24 books. His first novel, Delinquent Chacha, was serialized in The New Yorker in 1966, and he was a staff writer on the magazine from 1961 to 1994.

Anita Desai (born 1937 in Mussorie, India) teaches creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has been publishing novels for over 55 years. She has been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize for three different novels: Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984), and Fasting, Feasting (1999). Clear Light of Day, a coming-of-age story set in Old Delhi, the neighborhood where she grew up, is her most autobiographical and most popular novel—you should easily be able to find the reprint edition, released in 2000 by Mariner Books.

Nayantara Sahgal (born 1927 in Allahabad, British India) is a novelist and political commentator who was born into the ‘first family’ of India, being both a niece of Jawaharlal Nehru, and a cousin of Indira Gandhi. She has remained independent and even critical of her family’s politics, and her memoirs and essays explore deeply feminist concerns. Her most acclaimed novel, Rich Like Us (1985), is set during a period of political upheaval in India during the 1970s known as ‘The Emergency.’

LEARN MORE

As you sit down to write your screenplay, you may realize that you’re not positive how your document should look. At what margin setting should your dialogue be indented? What font should you use? When should you use shot headings, and do you bold them, underline them, or write them in all caps? Professional Hollywood scripts have an unwritten standard for formatting and style—and luckily an insider from Warner Bros. has written those standards down in a handy reference book. The Hollywood Standard, 2nd edition by Christopher Riley (Michael Wiese Productions, 2009) will help you avoid common mistakes, share clear examples of how to format and punctuate shot headings, directions, dialogue, and transitions, and guarantee that your final draft will look clean and professional.

Alternatively, if you have a couple hundred bucks to spare, invest in screenwriting software like Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, or less expensive alternatives like Fade In and the subscription-based Celtx. These tools take care of the formatting for you, so that you don’t have to fiddle with margins, spacing, page breaks, and other clunky word processing commands. These programs also feature many other tools to help you create storyboards, shot lists, schedules, and budgets—but if you’d rather strip out the bells and whistles and work with a free program with the bare formatting essentials, go with Amazon Storywriter.

ASSIGNMENT

Part 1: Finding Your Story

Try the hands-on approach to story finding that Mira recommends: travel, educate yourself, pay attention to current events, and get involved. Choose one or more of the following exercises to get your creative juices flowing.

Travel. Choose a nearby destination that you have overlooked, that you are unfamiliar with and have rarely, if ever, passed through. Counter intuitively, you don’t have to fly overseas in order to find unexplored places. Simply visit a new neighborhood and hit the pavement, with a notebook and pen handy. Explore the streets, step inside storefronts, and talk to the locals. Jot down observations, questions, and discoveries, as well as highlights from your conversations. What stories could you tell about the people who live here?

Educate yourself. Gain familiarity and knowledge about a subject matter that intrigues you. You can easily start by reading a book, but don’t stop there. Explore different facets of the topic as they appear in films, works of art, TV and radio programs, musical compositions, live performances, and more. Take note of what inspires or excites you, and use that to guide your story finding.

Pay attention to current events. If you don’t already subscribe to a newspaper, start now. For at least a week, make a daily practice of reading the news from start to finish. Go beyond the headlines and front-page stories that everyone talks about. What are the local stories? What’s happening in your own backyard? Look for unexpected and overlooked stories, and find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Get involved. The most intimate and authentic stories often come from personal experience. If you squirrel away and do nothing but read, there is only so much you can learn. Get firsthand knowledge by immersing yourself in a community or cause. If the issue of homelessness interests you, volunteer at a soup kitchen. If you are fascinated by 3D printing, join a maker space. Commit at least one hour a week to participating in an organized activity—and gain direct access to story possibilities.

Part 2: Writing Your Story

A first draft of a feature-length film can take anywhere from six to twelve full weeks to write. If you don’t have that much time available right now, start smaller. Aim to write a script either for a 10-minute short film or for a scene from your envisioned film that stands out clearly and vividly in your imagination.

If you have a writing partner, schedule several large chunks of time together over the next week or two. If you’re writing solo, block out time in your schedule to focus.

Begin by identifying a clear intention for your short film or scene. What is at stake for your characters—the central conflict or tension? What outcomes do they want, and what actually happens? Once you have identified a clear central through-line, then add layers of subtlety. How can you build complexity so that your scene conveys more than one thing?

As you write, strive for the kind of specificity that Mira encourages. What concrete details will make the world of your story feel real and authentic, rather than generic?

If you describe a character as being a heavy smoker, for instance, then specify the brand of cigarette. Identify the particular visual attributes that will anchor the story in your viewer’s attention. When you have a draft that does what you set out to do, share your screenplay with two or three trusted friends. Ask them to verbalize what they think motivates your characters, and check for confusions or misunderstandings about the plot.

Then, revise!