Directing Book - The Film Director's Intuition

Directing Book - The Film Director's Intuition: Script Analysis and Rehearsal Techniques
By: Judith Weston
Michael Wiese Productions
2003

Book number two of two by the incredible Judith Weston. While the previous book dealt with directing actors, this book deals with the other end of the stick, the script analysis to make choices during filming. It also deals with rehearsal techniques to use to get the moat honest truth out of every performance.

It also deals with getting in touch with, understanding and utilising your intuition as a director. It is a book about preparation as much as anything else. 

“An effective director bonds deeply with the characters and the actors who play them, and at the same time allows both actors and characters privacy and independence.” 

What the book taught me:-

It taught me the absolute value and necessity of proper and in depth script analysis. That in order for you to effectively analyse a script, if you have wrote the screenplay you need to take off your writing cap and put on your directing cap. That to analyse the script to your best ability, you have to look at it as if someone else wrote it. This allows you to see hidden truths and possibilities that you might not have seen before because you had a set mind on what your script was about. 

 It further helped me understand the craft of acting and I feel it helped improve the relationship[ I have with my actors on The Big Game. It helped me to understand the psychology of actors, characters and indeed crew as well. In particular, it aided in my understanding of what makes characters do and say the things they do. The explanation of spines, beats, wants, needs and motivations as well as others, has been a most useful piece of knowledge that I have used on multiple script, including The Big Game.

“Actors, writers, and directors all must be able to speak from their pain. In order to operate at the feeling level you must be able to feel. Unless you’re willing to feel painful emotions, you can’t really feel anything.” 

Should you buy it?

Of course you should! It's Judith Weston for goodness sake! She is a very knowledgeable and insightful woman. She writes interesting and enjoyable books and she sounds like a fantastic human being, rich in knowledge and experience. With respectful writings on directing and acting, I can't imagine how useful it would be to actually meet and learn from her. This book and the first are the next best thing. These two books, are gold mines of bountiful information. 

“In life we start with subtext, our conscious and unconscious intentions and associations, and we end up with language and behaviour. In a script, the writer starts with subtext and ends up with language, the printed word. The director and actor start with language and delve into subtext. Language is what is written on the page. Subtext is what is not written on the page; it is deduced from the clues in the script and what we know about life. Intuition plays a bit part in accurately reading subtext.”

Where to buy it? (Copy&Paste)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-Directors-Intuition-Rehearsal-Techniques/dp/0941188787/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421178637&sr=8-1&keywords=the+film+directors+intuition