One gap in my knowledge which I feel I’d like to address is working with actors. Before university, my films tended to be focused exclusively on learning to tell stories visually and so were almost entirely without dialogue. This was a great way to improve as a visual storytelling, but it perhaps shifted my attention away from the actors, when it really shouldn’t have. While at university, there haven’t been any classes on how to direct actors; my only real experiences have been just jumping in and working with actors on shorts. I learned a lot from my experiences directing Hostages and I’ve absolutely loved working with the actors on The Hollow Men. In fact, it might have been my favourite part of the process. However, I’ve never been formally trained in how to direct actors. I’ve read countless books on the subject, perhaps the most useful being Judith Weston’s Directing Actors, however I can’t help but feel lacking in that area. The more I direct actors the more confident I’ll get, I’m sure, but I think that perhaps the issue is that I have never acted myself, so I can’t fully relate to the experience of an actor. To this end, I would like to attend some kind of an acting course. For example, I like the look of Acting Out Drama School’s Adult Beginners Drama Course. It runs once a week, but it does cost £160. I think it would be a lot easier to direct actors when I can more easily relate to their experience having done it myself.
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