Rabiger - Directing. Film techniques and aesthetics. 5th, rev. ed

First published 2013

by Focal Press

70 Blanchard Road, Suite 402, Burlington, MA 01803

Simultaneously published in the UK

by Focal Press

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Focal Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2013 Michael Rabiger, Mick Hurbis-Cherrier.

The right of Michael Rabiger and Mick Hurbis-Cherrier to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Rabiger, Michael.

Directing : film techniques and aesthetics / Michael Rabiger, Mick Hurbis-Cherrier.5th ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

1. Motion picturesProduction and direction. 2. Motion pictures--Aesthetics. I. Hurbis-Cherrier, Mick. II. Title.

PN1995.9.P7R26 2013

791.430233dc23

2012027180

ISBN: 978-0-240-81845-0 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-07238-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon LT Std

by MPS Limited, Chennai, India

www.adi-mps.com

M. Rabiger

To Lewis, Netta, Alma, Lauren, Freya, Jessica,

Olivia, and Helena with much love.

M. Hurbis-Cherrier

To Jay Roman and Joel Zuker: colleagues,

mentors, and friends.

www.directingbook.com

PROJECTS

Directors personal themes projects

Will help you identify your personal themes and develop your artistic voice as a director (from ).

Shooting and editing projects

These projects explore a variety of techniques of expression and filmmaking skills.

Outcomes assessment forms

These forms are used with the shooting and editing projects to measure the development of your skills.

Film analysis projects

These film study projects will exercise your ability to examine image composition, editing, sound, and lighting technique in films.

WORKFLOW CHARTS

A collection of common project workflows from shooting to distribution and a Workflow Worksheet to help determine your specific workflow.

FORMS AND LOGS

Download: Storyline analysis form / Storyboards / Location scouting report / Budget form / Call sheet / Script breakdown / Camera and sound logs / Sound spotting sheet

AESTHETICS AND GENRE QUESTIONNAIRES

Designed to help you uncover your films full aesthetic potential.

PROJECT CHECKLISTS

Stage-by-stage summaries derived from the chapters that serve as reminders for each phase of the production process.

MISCELLANEOUS

An actor prepares (for )

Production safety notes, publications, and links

Teaching notes

FILMOGRAPHY

Full citations and distributor information for all films mentioned in this book.

WEB RESOURCES

Links to all websites mentioned in this book and more.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Here is a practical, comprehensive film manual for the aspiring film director. To find a friendly and comprehensive text that can help you learn film directing has been difficult, except of the technological kind. There has always been a lot of anecdotal materialbetter known as war storiesbut almost nothing prescriptive, practical, and encouraging. Here is a book that explains the procedures using analogies, exercises, and illuminating mentorship. Like none other, this book prepares you for the thought processes, feelings, judgments, and techniques that a director needs throughout the demanding and fascinating experience of practicing the craft.

Using digital cameras and computers, the novice can now at low cost experiment, improvise, solve problems collaboratively with cast and crew, revise earlier solutions, and treat crises as disguised opportunities. A guerrilla approach like thiscommon in documentary but foreign to the cost-driven norms of the features industrymeans you are empowered as a low-budget independent to produce cutting-edge creativity.

By recognizing that you can only learn from doing, this book offers a great range of hands-on projects as learning tools and talks to you like a colleague. You will find few warnings, and much encouragement: simply do it and learn, we say.

Learning to make films that speak with your own voice and identity will engage your head, your hands, and your heart. This is the artistic experience as its lived through filmmakinga way of life that you can make your own, and one that will test and enhance every aspect of your life for decades to come.

This, the 5th edition, brings together the latest trends and terminology that the director must know, while avoiding the extensive particularities of equipment that nowadays can be found elsewhere in satisfying depth. The core knowledge here is the human, psychological, and technical knowledge that any director needs, knowledge that will remain current for a very long time to come.

In this, the 5th edition, virtually every chapter has been revised, updated, and re-organized for a more streamlined and integrated approach. These developments expand and emphasize all that is enduringly central to the directors creative and logistical responsibilities, no matter how much the technologies of sound, image, and editing may change in the future.

Critical and aesthetic:

• All illustration graphics are new.
• Film examples and references are completely updated and expanded to include recent independent and international films, as well as those considered classics.
• New discussion exploring the elements of naturalistic and stylistic aesthetic approaches.
• New discussion of the narrative power of lighting and the lensincluding many film examples of shot size, perspective, focus, and exposure.
• Greater emphasis on the narrative, emotional, and tonal implications of composition, miseen-scne, continuity shooting and editing, long take shooting, point-of-view sequences, and camera handling.

Dramaturgy:

• Revised and expanded sections on the basics of drama include thorough analyses of The Kings Speech (Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, 2010), The Fighter (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, 2010) and The Messenger (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, 2009) among many other examples and references.
• Considerations specifically for the short film added to the The Story and its Development.

Project development: