In our first session of the day, Benjamin Caron drew upon the experiences of his fascinating career to deliver a masterclass in directing actors.
Find our live-tweets and a selection of photos from the session below. Find out more about Benjamin.
And now, our first session of the day - Directing Actors: @TheCrownNetflix with director Benjamin Caron #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19 pic.twitter.com/MPL8QBCvfd
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin begins by asking the crowd who here has directed actors, how many want to direct actors, how many have been actors & how many are terrified of actors. A fair few hands go up for the first three questions - not so many for the last, fortunately! #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin grew up with the image of people like Steven Spielberg and Wes Anderson making their first films in their 20s and early 30s. That left him feeling like if you haven’t directed a film by that time then you’re a failure #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
But most careers don’t go like that. Benjamin didn’t start off directing @TheCrownNetflix, his career began in factual, directing @DerrenBrown #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
When he wanted to make the move to drama, it involved taking a 40-60% pay cut and starting in children’s, online and then soap. He had to earn his spurs #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
He hugely enjoyed his time on Hollyoaks, and had the chance to experiment, to “play” with the format and try things out #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
This led to Skins, which allowed him to work with young writers and actors, and again to play with the format and direct things in different ways #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
All of this took him to My Mad Fat Diary, where for the first time he was brought on to design the look of the series #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Producers noticed his work on all these shows - they saw scenes in Skins and My Mad Fat Diary that really stood out and stuck in their minds #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And so that enabled him to transition to full adult drama, starting with Not Like That, Like This, a biopic of Tommy Cooper and then the final series of Wallander #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
He was invited to a meeting about @TheCrownNetflix, but he felt he’d mucked it up. It did take them a while to get back to him, but they eventually did and asked him for his thoughts on the scripts and which ones he’d want to direct #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And that’s how he got to The Crown. It was a long journey, and didn’t take place overnight #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Talking about working with actors, Benjamin recalls his work on the third series of Sherlock. It was the end of a long shoot and people were exhausted #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
So Benjamin introduced a 5-min morning meditation session for the cast & crew. It’s not something he’d done before or since, but he’s always looking for ways to bring the team together and overcome whatever the individual challenges are of a production #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
We watch an emotional scene from The Crown, involving John Lithgow as Winston Churchill #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin explains that as a director you have to be constantly aware that the actors are shooting out of sequence, maybe with different directors from day to day #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
So you have to bring them back to the scene in hand, remind them what’s just happened in the narrative - or rather give them the space to do that themselves #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And make them feel like it’s a safe space for them to experiment and try out different ways of doing things #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And make them feel like it’s a safe space for them to experiment and try out different ways of doing things #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Don’t over-intellectualise - actors can get that from producers #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Give notes privately. ‘Active’ notes are often the most helpful - a way of performing the action in the scene #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
It isn’t a problem to admit that you don’t know something. Be decisive, but ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘I don’t know’ are all equally valid #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Actors and crew respond to that honesty #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
#DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19 pic.twitter.com/TJuM7yD6kQ
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin isn’t a big fan of just doing a scene again for the sake of it. Have something that you want to achieve with each retake, and communicate to the actors what that is #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Responding to a question about using multiple cameras to shoot intimate dialogue scenes, Benjamin says that while there’s a certain focus to using a single camera, if two cameras makes sense, use them #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Responding to a question about using multiple cameras to shoot intimate dialogue scenes, Benjamin says that while there’s a certain focus to using a single camera, if two cameras makes sense, use them #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
The way The Crown looks, and the way it’s lit, it tends to work better with two cameras, so that’s what he does now #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin goes through every line in a script and gives it an action word. That helps him to understand what he needs to convey on the day #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
We watch another scene involving Vanessa Kirby as Princess Margaret. Benjamin explains that this scene was largely improvised because it wasn’t working as originally planned #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
He gave the actors permission to play and fail, and that helped them find the characters in that moment #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And that requires trust. You can then use that trust to surprise the actors and get surprising results. These are small marginal gains that you’re able to capture on camera #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin: I think that all scenes are capture scenes. Character 1 wants to capture X. Character 2 has X but doesn’t want to give it to character 1 #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Think of ways to dramatise that chase, to build up tension, and then dissipating it once X has been captured #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin storyboards big action scenes and set pieces, but not smaller ones. He approaches those like a short film, or a piece of theatre #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
You can thing of an individual scene as a thing unto itself, not just part of the larger project #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
Benjamin says he’s very lucky to have a budget to do all the things he wants to try. He does things at short notice on The Crown that he would never by allowed to do on Skins or Hollyoaks, because they couldn’t afford it #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And yet, ultimately, you’re still talking about two actors in a room. You’re still trying to allow your actors to give the best performances they can #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
On working with first-time or inexperienced actors, Benjamin says he’s often amazed at how little they know about a set. So tell them!#DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
One of the actors on The Crown had no idea what a focus puller was, even though that has a huge implication for their performance. It helps them if they know these things #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
And we end with the trailer for series 3 of @TheCrownNetflix #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19 https://t.co/qSpjUZMguV
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
A big thank you to director Benjamin Caron for that illuminating session #DUKcrown #DirectorsCut19
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) November 2, 2019
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