On Comedy Directing

First, and foremost, don’t be intimidated by the idea of directing a comedy.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “dying is easy, comedy is hard.”  That’s not completely true. Every director of comedy would like you think that however. Why? Less competition.  Who needs another comedy director, anyway.

Of course I’m kidding . But I am making a point. You don’t have to be funny to be a comedy director. But you do have to understand the nature of comic timing. And how it works.

For starters, you can practice by telling jokes.  Work on a couple of jokes and refine them and keep trying. If you are lousy at them, you will eventually get a laugh or two and then all of a sudden some internal light bulb will go off and you will begin to enjoy the process. But it takes time and serious work. Again, another important saying “Comedy is serious business”

I had an early epiphany experience. I was in a stock production of A THOUSAND CLOWNS in Coconut Grove Florida playing the young boy. It was in 1962 and I was twelve at the time, and it was my first professional job. It is one of the great roles for a child. I had a monologue in the second act when I try to explain to the social worker what my Uncle Murray’s view of the world was and I describe the time we were in a crowded elevator, and Murray turned to me and said,  “ Max, you’re 40 years old. It’s about time you got used to being a midget.”

First night in front of full audience of what must have been 600 people, I played it completely straight and didn’t know it was funny, and I brought the house down in laughter. I killed. It stopped the show dead.  I didn’t know it was supposed to be funny and I had no idea what happened and why it was so funny, and I was taken completely by surprise and I was elated. I had become, in my mind, a comic actor. I had no idea what I did. But then, I paid the price of thinking I was funny.  Every night after that performance I anticipated the laugh and I pushed, or I commented on it, and guess what? NO laugh. Not a chuckle. I bombed.

I had no idea what happened.  I couldn’t figure out what I had done to kill the laugh. I was crestfallen and I lived with no laugh for the rest of the one month run.  But as a result, I became very interested in the process of Comedy and I tried to figure out what I had done wrong. I came to the conclusion that I anticipated the laugh somehow, and I lost track of the investment in the story itself. I must have been pushing in a way that indicated to the audience that this will be funny, and that Is the kiss of death for comedy. I removed the element of surprise.  And that, you have to experience it to know it. That’s why telling jokes to friends of anyone is important. You can tell a joke with no stakes and see what happens.

There is another famous saying: Comedy plays best in the Wide shot. Close ups are for reactions. And finally, comedy has to come from clarity.

If there is a comedy that you particularly love, watch it again and again and study it. Watch it without sound. Look at the cuts and the timing. Dissect it. And then sit back and watch it again and see what you have learned.

On Television Directing

The First Step in Directing a Television Episode: Read Your Script

Now, for the moment, let’s assume you have gotten the job (I will address getting your first job in a later chapter). It may seem obvious that reading the script is the very first step in the directing process, but I am going take this opportunity to specifically address the form of episodic television.

In the case of episodic television, you are stepping into a world in which characters already exist, and you are charged with the task of furthering a tremendous backstory that has been developed long before the single script you are about to read. It is essential to watch completed episodes of the series you now shoulder. Ten is a nice number, but it’s helpful to go all in on a three day binge of the series.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the storyline, character backstories, and look of the show, NOW it’s time to read your script.

First Reading

The very first reading should be a quiet, zen-like experience with no interruptions, and no note taking. It is a fully attentive read. You are consciously wearing the viewer hat, dropping into the story emotionally, letting the material wash over you and speak to you as you willingly take the ride with the audience.

For instance, if the script has an unsatisfying ending, allow yourself to experience that. If it’s a mystery, and you find yourself ahead of the plot, experience that as well. Fully feel the character arcs and development or lack thereof. You will be amazed at how much you will discover by literally relaxing into the read and seeing where it takes you. Only by experiencing it might you address it with the writers (but that comes much later).

With the experience of that first reading you have made a giant step forward in the process of directing the episode, whether you realize it or not. You have internalized the story and characters, and you are ready to ask yourself one simple question: What’s this story about?

This brings us to the second reading.

Second Reading

Now the next step to directing begins. Read the script or the episode again from the beginning but this time, stop at every scene. Don’t think about camera angles yet. Think about physical staging. Ask yourself: What is the physical action of the scene? Not what the dialogue explains, but what the sub- text of the scene is. I always try to stay away from just letting people sit and talk. If there is no way around it, then I think about what went on just before and where the characters are heading to next. It actually might spark an idea for staging. I call it putting the scene ON ITS FEET. It’s a very commonly used term in the Theater, but rarely used or understood in film and television.

Then I go on to the next scene and to the next and begin to feel the shape of the internal drama or comedy. Scenes build upon scenes. Try and imagine the whole story as physical movement. There might be a scene that works beautifully that is very still without movement after a scene with a lot of movement. Imagine it in your head. Make it apart of your waking dream life.  Live with the story in your mind and be consumed by it. This is very similar to when an actor or actress becomes consumed with the character they play. People sometimes accuse actors of being crazy. Well guess what? Directors are crazy too. And so are writers. We are all crazy living in imaginary circumstances as if they are real to us. What madness, what fun. 

This reading of the script takes time. I stop and start. I go over things. I find little suggestions for the writers to consider that enhance what they’ve written already. For example.  Do the characters have to be sitting and already talking? Can they come into the room in conversation and then no one sits down because I have found some tension between the characters? It’s a way to start the dialogue so the writers themselves can start visualizing the action. It becomes a collaboration. A process. You are using what has been written and bouncing off of it in totally directorial terms. And on and on.

The third read can be dedicated to character analysis. Any ideas for illuminating the character issues can come with a third read. These usually take the form of questions to the writers. Get them thinking, but try and think together. It truly becomes a team process. This is the best kind of collaboration.

On Working with Actors

I was once an actor, and in truth still am and always will be an actor because a director is an actor. You can be a terrible actor but that’s okay, because as a director you get to play all the parts – the good guy, the bad guy, the female lead, the male lead. You can be the child, the family dog, a cat. What fun!

Now, I did star in one of my own movies. I made a film called Frankie and Johnny Are Married which I wrote, directed, and starred in with my ex-wife Lisa Chess. The film humorously chronicles the troubles of trying to mount a production of the Terrence McNally play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. The production is beset by one problem after another which eventually results in the producer (my character) stepping in as the lead role in the play. I made it for three hundred thousand dollars and pretty much lost it all, but that was not the point. The project was a moment of self-exploration and has taken me to where I am. 

It’s very important as a director to try your hand at acting. Take a class, get on stage, fail, and fail big. It’s important because it offers you a window into what the actor is experiencing. It’s one of the things I love most about working with actors – being able to empathize, relate, support, and thereby enjoy their talent and ability to do things I am totally incapable of doing. 

Actors and actresses are driven by a need to self -express through their own emotional instrument. They have chosen a profession where they share their pain, their joy, through themselves. The director, on the other hand, stands back behind the camera and guides and supports the actor’s journey.

But don’t think for a moment that the storyteller is spared the journey of emotional pain and joy. In fact, if done right, directing can be a greater and perhaps more satisfying experience. You are in charge of the whole story, not just one character’s version of the story. You are orchestrating every move, every angle, every close up in the process; you are, in fact, guiding the audience’s experience.

On Directing

My favorite quote about the definition of drama was taught to me by Alexander Mackendrick, the Brilliant film director and my teacher at Cal/Arts. I was one of his first students in 1970, when the school first opened. The definition was from a book written by William Archer over a hundred years ago called PLAYMAKING. “Drama is anticipation mixed with uncertainty” in case in point,  you have an anticipation of how a story will unfold but you are ultimately not sure of the outcome.  This is a crucial and important idea that is incredibly helpful to the director as he or she goes about telling their story.  You learn how to dramatize with an eye towards suspense.  I mean suspense in dramatic terms. What is the drama of a particular scene? And how does one physicalize that drama? 

The director has to wear two hats. He or she has to wear the objective hat, and then switch on a dime to the subjective hat. The subjective director gets inside the scene, and gets inside the characters and gets emotionally connected. And then the objective director becomes an objective viewer – not the audience, but the critic to make sure the story is told. 

If directing a movie is like working in Oils as a painter, then directing an episode of television is like making a pencil drawing. There is an art to both. Directing a movie takes a long time, but the episode is done quickly. It is an intuitive process and it can be at its very best a remarkable expression of emotion and thought. And there is very little time for reflection. One has to make quick decisions and be completely in tune with the story one is trying to tell. At its best, it is a remarkable expression of emotion and thought. One must view the time limitation as a plus, and as a challenge to test your own skills to work quickly and decisively.

The director of a movie or a television show is the story teller. The story is told through his or her eyes. It is their point of view. The director sees the movie in one’s head first. Then the process of directing is about putting the movie that you’ve imagined into reality. That is the excitement and challenge of the journey.