TV Directing 04: Blocking

TV Directing 04:  Blocking

The first step of working a scene after the story analysis phase is blocking the actors.  Blocking means "where they actors move."  I will make lots of decisions for the actors, but if at all possible, I like to see what the actor's instincts are.  I might say "Enter the room and get comfortable."  I want to see where their natural path would take them.  Actors know their characters pretty well, my job is to enhance their choices for the drama.

Sometimes, you ignore everything just to make a more dramatic scene or to help tell your story.  In tomorrow's scrīpt for example, there is a scene where one of the characters is in a control room telling a story.  Someone asked, "Where do you want him standing?"  Now, it's very possible, someone would just stand or lean somewhere or sit down and tell their storry.  However, in this story, he is very conflicted.  He's not talking about his childhood pet, he's talking about something of recent global significance... and he's a little trapped - so I want him movie.  so he is going to weave through everyone... now.. because he's doing that - the people who interact with him will also move to gain more position.  For example, if they are challenging him, they're going  to want to stand up to his level.  So, now one single choice has definied a totally different scene.  The camera will move as well.  That's step two of blocking - blocking the camera.

Because our lead is weaving, the camera will move opposing to him to emphasize the confusion he is feeling internally.  I look for object to cross in frontof him as much as possible to emphasize that he is feeling trapped.  I'll try to pan on and off of him to various people watching to make sure the "audience" is included and the scene can have some very nice fluid moments between speaker and lister.   This also will give me a nice way to cut back to the actor without too much continuity issues.

Yes, I just started making up some thoughts at the last paragraph.  I'm preparing the scenes right now.  I have two more to prep, so I will go do that now...  oh and at some point sleep.   Today's lack of sleep was pretty harsh.