Woody+Allen+(Helen+Wong)


 * Master Class with Woody Allen**
 * You either have the skills of directing or you don’t.
 * If you don’t have it - you can study all your life and it won’t mean anything
 * If you do - you will quickly learn to use the few tools you need.
 * Most of what you need, as a director, is psychological help. (Balance, discipline, things like that)
 * One should not be intimidated by it (filmmaking) or get caught up in thinking its some kind of mysterious, complex thing to do. Just follow your instinct.
 * If you have the talent, it won’t be hard. If you don’t then it would be impossible.

//Directors Make Films for Themselves//
 * There are two distinct kinds of directors: Those who write their own material and those who don’t
 * One thing you get when you write your own script is a sort of idiosyncratic (distinctive) movie all all the time.
 * Audience would be more in contact with the personality of the film.
 * If a director adapts a different writer’s script every time, he might do a brilliant job and it could turn out to be a great film.
 * However, the director will never have the personal quality that the screenwriter has.
 * All directors should make their films for themselves.
 * Whatever obstacles they might have to face, the film is (and remains) theirs from beginning to end.
 * The director must remain the master of the film, always.
 * If you make a film that pleases you, and you make it well, then you will please the audience too. (or part of the audience)
 * Theres a mistake in trying to guess what the audience will like and try to do that.

//When I get on the set, I don’t know anything.//
 * Every director has his own way of working.
 * Woody Allen’s way of working: walk around the cameraman and see where I want the action tot ale place and how I want it to look, and then when the actors come in, I ask them to accommodate what I’ve decided for the camera.
 * It’s the kind of directing that, in a way, resembles theatre, and the frame I’ve chosen defines the borders of the stage, if you will.
 * Try to shoot every scene in a single shot. Don’t cut as long as I don’t have to. I never shoot the same scene from the different angle.
 * Don’t like the actors to do the same thing over and over. This way they can stay fresh and spontaneous and they can also try lots of different things.
 * Could play the same scene differently every time, without having to worry about whether it’ll match with the other shots.

//Comedy Requires Spartan Direction//
 * Comedy is a particular genre in that it is very demanding and very strict in terms of directing.
 * Nothing can ever get in the way of laugh.
 * If you move the camera too much, edit too quickly, there’s always the risk that you’ll kill the laugh.
 * Comedy has to be real, simple, and clear.
 * You want to see everything, you want to see the actors do what they do.
 * Timing is everything in comedy.

// To direct actors, just to let them do their work //
 * You have to do is hire talented people and let them do their work. But it’s true.
 * A lot of directors tend to over direct their actors, and the actors indulge in that because, well, they like being over directed.
 * Over directing gets the actors confused and lose their spontaneity or their natural talent.
 * I hire talented people and let them do what they’re good at.
 * I completely trust their acting instinct, and I’m hardly ever disappointed.
 * I shoot long, uncut scenes which most actors love because that’s what acting is all about.

//A Few Mistakes To Avoid//
 * Avoid doing anything that doesn’t contribute to your vision
 * If this idea doesn’t belong in your film, then you must have the honesty, or the integrity to put it aside.
 * It’s a grave error to start shooting a film with a script that is weak or not ready.
 * If you have a good script, you can do a miserable job of directing and still get a pretty good movie, whereas if you have a bad script, you can do a brilliant job of directing and it will hardly make a difference.
 * Do not ever - think that you know everything about cinema

**Master Class with Tim Burton**

//Everyone says No to me//


 * The great thing about film making is that it’s a team enterprise
 * (Filming process) creates a real necessity to communicate, and the director’s job often becomes more political than artistic, really, because you spend your time trying to convince all these people that your ideas are valid.
 * I mean, if I want actors to do something, I can’t possibly go to them and say “Do That!” I have to explain why, I have to convince them that it’s a good idea.
 * I think you have to find a way to maneuver through the problems, and sometimes it may mean saying yes to something and hoping that the studio won’t remember and that you’ll be able to do it the way you wanted anyway.
 * But the good director is the one who’s able to determine which battles deserve to be fought and which are just a mater of ego.
 * // If I wrote, it won’t make sense //
 * A director has to make the film his own; that’s essential, and that has to happen before shooting.
 * When I make a film, my goal is to tell a story.

//You don’t know before you shoot//


 * I realize that Spontaneity is really the best approach, because - and that is definitely the biggest lesson I have drawn from my experience so far - you do not know anything until you actually get on the set.
 * So I tend to not rely on storyboards too much. They get in the way; people take them to literally.

//I like Wide Lenses//


 * You have to be sure that everybody is on the same wavelength, that they’re all trying to make the same film, that they will understand everything you try (team)
 * Personally, I like to begin a scene by placing the actors on the set, so that I find the right relationship between the characters and the space around them.
 * I try to find the most interesting shot for the scene and shoot it, and then I think about a couple of other shots that might match well with it in the editing.

//Use whats inside the actor//


 * What I need to know about the actor/actress is whether he or she fits the part, and the answer really has nothing to do with the acting.

//Directing is Listening//


 * If you’ve done your casting well, then ninety percent of your job as an actor’s director is done. But of course, the remaining ten percent is more complex because every actor is different; each one has his own way of working, of communicating. And you cannot guess what it’s going to be like.
 * I understood how important it is to listen to actors.
 * You have to direct them, of course, but all that really means is showing them what the objective is. After that it’s really up to them to decide how they want to reach that objective.
 * I rehearse very little because I’m always scared that the acting might become too technical and that we will lose the magic that usually happens on the first takes.

//Everything Surprises Me - then again, nothing does//


 * I never believe it when directors claim that their movies are exactly the way they imagined in their heads. It’s impossible.
 * There are just too many aspects you cannot control.
 * The final result will always be a surprise.
 * You are who you are; your personality is usually the consequence of what you went through during your childhood, and you spend your life, consciously or not, rehashing the same ideas over and over again.