The Directing Program

The director as creative artist

The International Film School Sydney's approach to directing mirrors its philosophy of creativity of technique, artistry over craft, inspiration, intuition and instinct over meaningful symbolic theoretical rationality.

The director is a creative artist, not a technical crafts person.  Artistry comes from a subtle yet sophisticated understanding of filmic storytellling, creating cinema, deployment of space and time, the use of sonic-image moments, thematic depth and richness, simplicity, economy, performance, experiential ontological impact, delicacy of touch, deeply rooted personal attachment to material, a zeal for creative possibilities, determination, an experienced understanding of sound and editing, and the drive to find the fresh artistic stake in every new endeavour.

In a phrase inspired genius.  Film is the business of inspired artistry.

The creative act as genius

As Gertrude Stein once said  "it doesn't take a genius to be a genius.  The act of creating masterpieces is about having a pure inspired feedback loop relationship with ones work: making and feeling, whilst feeling and making. Being in the zone cannot be some occassional mystical alchemy.  It's your job.  It's the work.  You need to train to do it.  Be it.  To allow yourself to be inspired. Beyond that one needs to be a realist, a strategist, a quiet zealot and a pragmatist.  Tempered with unfettered energy and the highest creative ambitions for your work."

Again such an attitude and approach needs training, honing, nurturing.  You need to blossom.  You need to excel.  And be exceptional.  In your own way.   And beyond it.

The expansive journey

Our directing training takes you on a journey through a series of creative tasks and challenges using the most simple of means to the most complex: a structured path which at every step gives you the opportunity to create a work of inspiration.   Or sometimes better yet, the opportunity to try your hardest, risk it all, do your best and fail spectacularly in such a way that a new creative self can rise from the ashes of artistic enlightenment.

If that sounds like hokum, then be a crafts person.  We provide you with the support and insight of successful professionals who have the ability to identify your nascent brilliance, your own unique exceptional qualities.  And thus your chance to find your own voice and wisdom.

The creative pact

You will learn to be a storyteller.  But beyond that a creator of cinema.  Your job isn't to tell a story.  It's to use 'story' to take us somewhere.

Whether you want to direct drama, tragedy, comedy, entertainment, documentary, arthouse, television or commercials, the directing training of The International Film School Sydney will guide you towards your greatest depths and heights of creativity.

A multiplicity of voices

Directing is an individual skill; you must find your own way and your own sensibility.  We therefore teach with a rolling roster of guest and visiting lecturers.  A diversity of voices.

Course Components- Directing

Tier 1
Aims:
Guide students through an intensive practical filmmaking process, and through training exercises, seminars and directing classes encourage students to experience, encounter, explore and develop expertise in shaping cinematic vision and comprehending the cinematic language.

Cinema Experience
Poetics, vision and imagery, flow and visual storytelling, contemplation, constructing action, dramatic depth and intensity, delicacy, pace and resonance visual texture.

Film Grammar and mise-en-scene
The banquet of possibilities, Framing and composition, Storyboarding, Shot size, shot type and shot choice, Mise-en-scene. Visualizing the Story, screen language, shot-planning - according to the requirements of story and      character and styles of coverage. Viewing and deconstructing recorded scenes. Floor-plans, shot-listing.

Coverage and staging
The space of performance. Pre-visualization and planning. Scene coverage and staging action. Developing a shooting plan and on-set communication.

Working with Actors
Performance, script interpretation, conquering actor-phobia, developing actor/director relationships, exploring character and performance. Rehearsal strategies and directing methodologies.

Crew roles
Understanding the key roles of cinema production. Negotiating, directing and communicating with different departments. Collaboration. The director cinematographer relationship. The director composer relationship. The director editor relationship. The director sound designer relationship. The director assistant director relationship.

Tier 2
Aims:
To extend student understanding of the role of the director and build comprehensive skills in interpreting and applying cinematic concepts to dramatic material. To engage specifically and fully with the relationship between camera, performer and space.

Directors toolkit for actors
Avoiding cliché, developing your voice, perfect casting, creating a performance and guiding its emotional shape. Pacing, tempo, rhythm and performance style. Fight scenes, love scenes, dinner table scenes, dialogue scenes and screen dynamics

Movement and Space
Working with tracking shots, dolly shots, cranes. Zoom and focus. Staging action and blocking. Designing each film's own unique screen language

Advanced crew roles relationships
An actors view of directors. A crew's view of directors. Conflict resolution. Conflict surfing. Creating creatively-beneficial conflict. Managing conflict. Creating calm and trusting your instinct.

Directing the documentary
Interview technique, working with interview subjects, creating trust and truth. Research and planning. Pitching and preparation.

Tier 3
Aims:
To engage with directing a major project with a distinct cinematic voice. To examine in detail the art of cinematic exploration and the pragmatism of developing viable and dynamic creative works.

Planning the major project
Merging creative and practical directives. Fusing creative vision and story with budget, physicality and pragmatism. The relationship between the director and producer. Casting, rehearsal, locations, script breakdown, script re-writes and edits.

Pre-production, visualization and pitching
Visual construction. Visualizing shot and sequence. Documenting the shoot, storyboarding and shot lists. Mapping the performance and cinematic space. Producing concept documentation and communicating a creative vision.

Advanced directing of actors
Tonal and emotional constancy, mood and emotional shift. Articulating the director’s vision. Pushing your limits and strategizing growth as a creative professional.

Advanced crew roles
Understanding and engaging set dynamics, working with collaborators, creative management.

Directing complex story
Actor based filming, Visuals based filming, Ideas based filming. Form and style, layers of direction, subtext and metatext, narrative and lyricism.

Tier 4
Aims:
To solidify a consummate directorial voice. To engage fully with a detailed and dynamic cinematic process. To commence and articulate a distinct creative vision and through practical and pragmatic processes deliver that creative vision into tangible form.

Directing the major project
Collaborating with production teams. Communicating clear cinematic direction. Develop and foster actor performances through rehearsals to craft on screen drama. Coordinate creative departments and develop a sophisticated and holistic view of the creative project.

Collaborating with an editor
Working and communicating in the editing process. Constructing dramatic sequence and tension. Seeing the film fresh. Constructing narrative. Editign and re-writing. Allowing the editor’s voice.

Deep-staging, layers and focus
Understanding the power of the ‘stage’. The relationship between camera, lens and space. Articulating and focusing layered compositions. Shaping emotional, visual and cinematic depth. The relationship between narrative and visual style.