I recently took a seminar from Judith Weston that dealt with acting for directors. It was based on her highly recommended book ACTING FOR DIRECTORS. One of the many salient points that she makes is that the best directors actually do very little directing, but rather guide with questions. "What is important about this scene?" "What if the character just lost a family member?" "Do you feel like hitting him when he says that?" Howard Hawks used to say that he was merely giving the actors an attitude. "Once they've got an attitude, then its up to them to do the lines".

Perhaps the single best 'how-to' book for the craft of directing and staging scenes is Steven D. Katz's book CINEMATIC MOTION. Steven's wide ranging welth of practical experience makes this book essential for both the novice and seasoned professional.

When you're finally ready to step up the plate and take a swing at a fast ball, there is no other seminar that can whip your career into professional overdrive like the ACTION / CUT Filmmaking series by noted director Guy Magar. Scene by scene, shot by shot, Guy takes the mystery out of the motion picture manufacturing process. Guy's methodology and approach is equally sound for episodic or cinematic long form, film or digital.

Now available on DVD and following the same intensive methodology of his enormously popular seminar series, Guy's ability to infect you with his passion will quite simply turn you into a better director. There simply is no better way to learn the secrets of walking the walk and talking the talk than the ACTION / CUT Filmmaking series by Guy Magar.

Like me, Guy isn't a webmaster, but he maintains his own site to keep it current. This is one "book" you don't want to judge by its cover.

There are of course as many styles of directing as there are directors.

One of my favorite analogies with regards to the director's roll is from Robert Altman. I apologize in advance for any misquoting as I was at a party when I heard him telling it and I wasn't in any shape to take notes. Essentially he related making a movie to building a huge sandcastle. In the beginning you're all excited about the concept of building a sand castle, so you sit around with some other people and design the thing and plan where and how to build it.

Every one has a lot more opinions than you were expecting and the whole thing starts changing so much that by the end of the process you're almost ready to ditch the whole idea. Finally, the day comes that everyone planed on and it turns out to be a really nice day, so you go to the beach and start building the thing. With all those people trying to help it takes a lot longer to build than you thought it would.

Its getting hot, you got sand in your shorts, its looking totally different than what you had originally envisioned and you can't wait for the whole thing to be over. Finally, just before sunset, you finish it. People like it or they don't. A large wave comes along and washes it away and you're ready to start planning the next one.