Directing Actors | London

An introduction to techniques essential to promoting the best performances for the screen. To aid the more visual or technical filmmaker in gaining an understanding of directing actors.

Tutor:	Chris Thomas	Venue:	St George's Church, Bloomsbury Way London WC1A 2HR
Date:	13/14 November 2010	Duration:	2 day weekend
Time:	10am - 6:30pm	Price:	£250 + 17.5% VAT

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Directing Actors introduces directors to the acting process and demonstrates proven techniques to enable directors to promote strong performances.

By developing the inner and outer worlds of the characters through relationships with their environments, other characters and themselves, a great story can be given further depth and will create a greater involvement for the audience.

Working with professional actors, Chris Thomas will demonstrate how the director can gain clues from the text, think creatively about casting, and together with their cast create rich characterisations and relationships, no matter what the film is about.

Participants will gain insight into how actors prepare, explore ways to use rehearsal, and direct actors during the shoot. The course will be illustrated through examples, demonstration, and review of scenes shot during the class.

Day 1 : Preparation with Actors

What makes a good performance
Actors' tools and training
Stage acting versus screen acting
Developing characters
Casting and auditioning
Working with non-actors
Result Direction: when to avoid it
Playable direction
Exploring the text for character
Staging the scene

Day 2 : Fine-tuning the script

When and how much to rehearse
Improvisation in rehearsal
How the camera affects performance
Business and endowment
Keeping performances fresh.
Rehearsal on the day
Emotional scenes
Intimate scenes
Directing comedy
Directing actors without rehearsal

Filmmakers, directors, performers seeking to understand screen performance.

Chris Thomas has been teaching and developing courses for film directing with Raindance since 2000. With a strong emphasis on storytelling and communications skills, he has created classes both practical and inspirational.

Chris learnt his key skills from acting and directing in Theatre where the focus was always on using limited resources and engaging the audiences imagination. It was a natural shift for him into filmmaking.

The camera classes he runs place weight upon storytelling and understanding visual grammar from a psychological and creative perspective.

As a teacher Chris has always prioritised clear communication of the techniques he has learnt and encourages his students to harness their individual talents through the methods he demonstrates. He believes learning is a two-way process and as a film maker it never ends, however there is a place to begin and his courses offer up an opportunity to do so.

Chris is has recently shot a teaser trailer for the upcoming psychological thriller, Dead of Winter, a short called emmas Last Date , both shot on HD and is devlopment on his first feature script The Devil You Don’t, a dark comedy about the power of influence and the battle between the nearly good and the fairly evil.

"I thought I’d send over a quick message to let you know how much I enjoyed the Directing Actors workshop at the weekend.
This was my first experience of a Raindance course (although I’ve been intending to do one for ages) and this really was a fantastic way to spend a weekend. Chris Thomas was very generous in the way he shared his knowledge and the relaxed atmosphere and interaction between delegates created a valuable learning experience.
I have limited experience of working with actors, but they’re becoming an increasing requirement in the material I’m producing. This workshop really helped to plug the gaps in that respect, and I came away feeling so much more confident and prepared about how I’ll do things in future productions. Thanks again." Richard Walker

“I thought this course was excellent, especially Chris’ direction…I have learned lots of new techniques which I will put into practice.” – Michael Shack

“Two days well spent.”

“Chris was great! We witnessed the evolution!”

“Great course, very practical and supportive. An inspirational environment!” – Lisa Howgis