Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television

Amazon.com

This is essential reading for anyone interested in directing or acting. Judith Weston's brilliance is to recognize that directors, actors, writers, and technicians are involved in a process that is at essence a collaboration. In order for them to have the best shot at creating something true and meaningful, they must share a language and a method of exchange that fosters creative cooperation. Weston rightly sees the director as the central figure in inspiring the energy of a production's harmony. She advises the prospective director on every aspect of a stage or film production, showing how the director can draw the best performances possible from actors.

Book Description

Internationally-renowned directing coach Weston demonstrates what constitutes a good performance, what actors want from a director, what directors do wrong, script analysis and preparation, how actors work, and shares insights into the director/actor relationship.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this book now!.......2007-04-15

If you are even thinking that this book might be of some interest to you, I can assure you it will change the way you work -- all for the good. Weston has boiled down and focused the art of getting a performance in a clear and brilliant manner. What else can I say, why are you still reading this - buy it. Simple.

Simple techniques that WORK!.......2007-02-05

Judith Weston has outlined for the director (of any performance, not just film) quick and effective ways to communicate and elicit the performance you want... at the very least, you will get something different. I am an actress who has had the privilege of working with Judith and her directors. I have seen the process in action. I've used it. When someone has truly applied the techniques that this book recommends, it doesn't matter if the actors have just started, or if they're old pros, with vastly different methods, the performances are fresh. The performances change. The performances improve! READ THIS BOOK!

No other book on acting or directing comes close.......2006-10-18

This book isn't just for directors. It is an invaluable resource for actors as well. I've taught film and video acting for a number of years and never found a book that was worth having students read even part of. Until this one. Unlike most books on acting which focus on techniques that may work great on stage but are worse than disastrous on film, Judith Weston goes under the surface of acting and directing to the core of what a close-up camera needs to see. That, in a nutshell, is "lending the character your unconscious," so that absolutely nothing looks (or is) fake or "pretend." Even more importantly, she provides down-to-earth, extremely effective techniques for directors that support and demand genuine, affect-free performances. She discusses the creative process of the director at a level that is not idiosycratic or based on her personal "style" (as so many books for directors and actors do). Her advice is both common-sensical and deeply insightful, it's what every good director knows but often can't articulate consistently enough. Don't miss this book if you work in film or video, whether you are a director, actor, teacher, editor, DP, AD, or even a gaffer. After reading Weston, you will see every aspect of the actors performances more truly and clearly, and find yourself finding new ways to get the most out of every second on screen. One of those books that changes your life by telling you what you already knew more clearly than you ever thought it could be said, and giving you fresh new ways to put it into practical use. Highest recommendation.

the best book on directing actors.......2006-02-17

This book teaches the most important skill a director can possess: getting great performances from actors.

She breaks things down into logical bits and helps you avoid many common mistakes directors make, such as giving unplayable directions, giving too many directions, talking too much, etc.

She writes with wisdom, insight, and humor.

If you're a director or a wannabe director, do the world a favor and read this book so the world has better performances to watch.

This book is the best kept secret in show business. An even more valuable secret is her workshop, which she teaches regularly in L.A. as of this review (Spring 2006).

Great beginner book.......2005-10-14

I agree with Thor Vadir's review in that it did favor the actor more often than not. But that is ok as long as you are aware ahead of time.

As a very first time director, I read this book through 2x before my shoot. It is a 40 min short film with paid actors.
It was very helpful as a true newbie.

This, coupled with some experience under my belt, has given me a great start to my (hopeful) career.

Directing Actors : Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television

Average customer rating:

Directing Actors : Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television
Judith Weston
Manufacturer: Michael Wiese Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KW9YSW

Book Description

The Truman and Eisenhower Blues is a fascinating and exhaustive account of the gospel and blues music of the post-war period (1945-1960). Guido van Rijn studies over 300 songs, many of them rare recordings, from artists including Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker and B. B. King, and usefully transcribes 123 of them in their entirety. Tapping sources which have previously been neglected by historians, musicologists and sociologists, he provides an illuminating examination of the themes at the heart of this Cold War music: the reconversion, the atomic bomb, the Korean War, civil rights, Presidential elections, the economy and the space race.

This is a companion volume to the author's award-winning book Roosevelt's Blues (1997).

Customer Reviews:

PRESIDENT BLUES.......2004-03-03

Ever since the Negro spirituals first reached a broader public consciousness in the years during and immediately following the Civil War, African American folksongs and their popular extensions in blues and gospel song have been viewed by listeners, critics, collectors, and scholars as expressions of an entire race within America, or at least of a vast portion of that race, one that had few other outlets of expression that left any lasting record. With few exceptions, the singers and composers of these songs were not the writers of poems, books, articles, and letters to the editors of newspapers. They were not leaders in politics, the church, and business. Many, particularly those involved mainly in secular music, were not even members of churches, labor unions, or other organizations. Yet they had opinions about the world around them, they served as organizers of the opinions of others and, with the help of mass media such as phonograph records, as spokespersons for millions of people from similar backgrounds. While their songs were created and intended almost entirely for hearing and circulation within their own social group, many curious and sympathetic listeners of a more formally educated and literate class have found these songs to be an invaluable key to understanding this group which otherwise often seems inarticulate, inscrutable, or threatening. These songs not only provide insight into another social world, but they entertain and please the ear with their artistry. Unintentionally perhaps, they bridge some of the great social and racial divides that America has created, as well as providing spiritual and artistic nourishment for the victims of these divides.
Writers and scholars have concentrated on three major domains in the study of the lyrics of African American folk, blues, and gospel songs. They have seen them as examples of literary expression, as reflections of daily life and living conditions, and as expressions of opinion and psychological states. Even when concentrating on one of these domains, most writers have shown some awareness of the others. In searching for literary expression, one can hardly avoid the social content of these songs, and with opinion and description of daily life often comes great artistry.
Early twentieth century writers and collectors, such as Howard Odum, Guy Johnson, Newman White, Dorothy Scarborough and John A. Lomax, saw the song lyrics as examples of the "folk poetry" or "folk psychology" of "the Negro." Although some indicated that they were struck by the power and artistry of particular performances and the personalities of some of their informants, for the most part they treated the songs as anonymous collective expression. Odum, however, felt compelled to create a composite character, a Black Ulysses, to be the voice for many of the songs he had collected in the South, and Scarborough consulted black songwriter W. C. Handy as an expert on the meaning of the blues. Lomax did provide the names of his informants along with occasional bits of biographical information. In 1934 he displayed his star informant, Huddie Ledbetter ("Leadbelly"), an ex-convict no less, as a living representative of the black folksong tradition, taking him around to concerts at universities. Little did Lomax realize at the time that he had unleashed a creative musical force with a mind of his own and a desire to build a professional career as a performing artist, a man who would, in fact, become an important voice on a variety of political and social issues, including the fight against Jim Crow.
It was the twin forces of musical professionalism and commercialism that forced writers and scholars away from the simplistic interpretation of these songs as expressions of "the Negro" and toward a more multi-faceted approach that would take into consideration the personalities and varieties of life experience and opinion of individual singers and composers. W. C. Handy himself served as a bridge to this new understanding. In his 1926 collection Blues: An Anthology and his 1941 autobiography Father of the Blues, Handy discussed the specific circumstances of his encounters with folksongs and his transformations of this material into his own popular compositions. In the former book he also included the works of several other blues songwriters. Handy viewed his source material as exploitable common property for musically literate composers like himself and his own compositions as works deserving the protection of copyright. Nevertheless, in dipping so deeply into the common well of African American folksong, he set himself up as a spokesperson for his entire race and his life as an example of progress from the status of anonymous "Negro" to that of an American household name.
Concerts by performers like Leadbelly, compositions by songwriters like Handy, and especially phonograph records by countless blues and gospel artists brought these songs to the attention of millions of Americans and interested listeners overseas. By 1960 enough records had been issued and enough large private collections built that a British record collector and scholar, Paul Oliver, could publish a book called The Meaning of the Blues. In this and several subsequent publications, Oliver examined the variety of themes and opinion in a large sampling of commercial recordings made between 1920 and 1943, showing how these songs reflected a black American working class culture with rural and urban, sacred and secular, dimensions, exhibiting change and variety over space and time, and studded with individual personalities.
The early folksong scholars and collectors had not ignored songs that dealt with themes of politics, economic conditions, wars, and race relations. Particularly noteworthy were John J. Niles' Singing Soldiers (1927) and Howard W. Odum's Wings on My Feet (1929), both of which discussed the songs and experiences of black American soldiers during World War One. But all of these studies were weakened by their authors' insistence on revealing the mood and expression of "the Negro." By the 1940s and 1950s the overwhelming number of blues songs on themes of love, romance, and sex, and gospel songs on themes of sin and salvation made it appear that there were few, if any, African-American songs on these broader sociopolitical topics. To remedy this apparent lack, left wing ideologues encouraged singers like Josh White and Leadbelly to create and record new "folksongs" of protest against fascism, racism, and economic exploitation. Some scholars, like Miles Mark Fisher in his Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953), examined folksongs of earlier eras, claiming to detect coded references to historical events and messages of black resistance. While Fisher could not substantiate most of his interpretations with clear evidence and while Josh White and Leadbelly sometimes seemed like isolated voices of protest directed at sympathetic ears mostly outside their own communities, the need for new sociopolitical songs was eventually met in the early 1960s by the civil rights movement's adaptation of spiritual and gospel songs in support of its cause. In the arena of scholarship Paul Oliver's The Meaning of the Blues revealed a rich vein of sociopolitical commentary, including protest, in blues on "race records" that had been recorded and intended for sale almost entirely within the American black community.
Oliver and other scholars who examined these records in the 1960s and following years were hampered somewhat by an inability to acquire and listen to all of the known and possibly relevant recordings and by fragmentary background information on the singers and the historical events and social conditions underlying the songs. Not until the mid-1990s were all of the factors in place that would allow a more sophisticated and detailed analysis of the lyric content of this material. These factors were the reissue on LPs and CDs of virtually all of the African-American blues, gospel, and folk material recorded up to 1943 and a great amount recorded after that date; a worldwide network of research-oriented record collectors ready and willing to fill in gaps where reissue albums were lacking; comprehensive blues and gospel discographies running up to 1970; and an enormous new body of literature about singers, composers, and record companies and about African-American history and culture.
Exploiting these resources (and having helped to build many of them over the years), Guido van Rijn undertook to examine all of the recorded African American songs containing overt commentary on political events and issues during the years 1933-1945. His Roosevelt's Blues: African-American Blues and Gospel Songs on FDR (1997), with a foreword by Paul Oliver, arranges these songs thematically and chronologically, relating them to specific historical events, personalities, issues, and programs. Information about individual singers, songwriters, record companies, and recording sessions is all brought to bear, when appropriate, to explain particular song texts, and the latter are transcribed with great accuracy. Only a very small percentage of the total number of songs recorded during this period dealt with political topics, but van Rijn shows that such songs were recorded by a representative range of blues and gospel singers. Although they often mixed political opinion with humor, sexual themes, religious doctrine, and other highly personal concerns, and tended to view President Roosevelt as a benevolent and powerful patron or "bossman" able to protect and intervene directly in their lives, the singers nevertheless displayed an incipient political consciousness. That is impressive when one considers that these singers were almost totally shut out from the political process during this period except as recipients of government relief during the Depression and soldiers during World War Two. Roosevelt's willingness to listen to African-American voices and to take action on their behalf led singer Otis Jackson to memorialize him with the following lines:

Only two presidents that I ever felt:
Abraham Lincoln and Roosevelt.

In the present study Guido van Rijn has tackled the somewhat more problematical task of examining the blues and gospel songs dealing with political topics during the presidencies of Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower (1945-1960). Once again attempting to survey all of the known material, the author shows that these songs do not present a view of nearly total approbation as they did for President Roosevelt. Truman was seen as a sometimes fallible leader who, despite his actions and directives in support of equal rights, was not able to control fluctuations in the economy, could not hasten racial progress fast enough, and got America into an unwinnable war in Korea. Eisenhower, after an initial burst of enthusiasm for his arranging of the Korean armistice, came to be seen as unresponsive to the economic plight of black people as well as their growing demands for equal rights. By the time of his second term of office, singers were virtually ignoring him and his administration altogether, just as they had ignored the unresponsive presidents before Roosevelt. Having gained a hold on the development of political thought and an incipient sense of involvement during the Roosevelt era, blues and gospel singers, as van Rijn shows, displayed a greater awareness of abstract political issues during the Truman and Eisenhower years and less concentration on the personalities and deeds of the presidents themselves. His masterful study is one of the few lengthy examinations of any body of commercially recorded blues and gospel lyrics after World War Two. It prepares us for the momentous era of the 1960s. Let us hope that Guido van Rijn will examine the songs of that period with the same thoroughness that he displays here and in his previous work.

David Evans

Book Description

American rituals are vital to the creation and renewal of cultural meanings and rules for social interaction. These rituals are rooted in tradition yet are rapidly changing: a contradiction of hyper-modern society. This phenomenon was first explored by Professor Deegan in her 1989 study American Ritual Dramas. The theory examines both participatory rituals and mass-media rituals to show how everyday people become attached to and alienated from other rituals. Elaborating on the "critical dramaturgy" theory, the essays in this collection show how patterns can be changed to create a more emancipatory and celebratory society. The topics covered in the collection include an analysis of Santa Claus, skinheads, hate crimes, and strip dancing, among other topics. Each contributor has participated in these rituals and many examine related cultural artifacts such as music, brochures, and so forth. As the essays show, postmodern theory has gratly underestimated the power and coherence of these events. An important study for scholars and other researchers involved with sociological theory, social psychology, and popular culture.

Book Description

RF spectrum is the most valuable commodity in the wireless market – the wireless equivalent of real estate. Without the necessary spectrum – and the skills to manage it – companies cannot hope to compete in the brave new world of wireless services. Government agencies and private companies developing, using, or selling communications systems and services must be certain their systems are compatible with national and international frequency assignments.

Book Description

Are you fully up-to-speed on today's modern spectrum management tools? As regulators move away from traditional spectrum management methods, introduce spectrum trading and consider opening up more spectrum to commons, do you understand the implications of these developments for your own networks? This is the first book to describe and evaluate modern spectrum management tools. Expert authors offer you unique insights into the technical, economic and management issues involved. Auctions, administrative pricing, trading, property rights and spectrum commons are all explained. A series of real-world case studies from around the world is used to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches adopted by different regulators, and valuable lessons are drawn from these. This concise and authoritative resource is a must-have for telecom regulators, network planners, designers and technical managers at mobile and fixed operators and broadcasters, and academics involved in the technology and economics of radio spectrum.

Radio Spectrum Management (I E E Telecommunications Series)

Average customer rating:

Radio Spectrum Management (I E E Telecommunications Series)
D. J. Withers
Manufacturer: Institution of Electrical Engineers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Television | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0863411770

Book Description

A review of the administrative, regulatory and technical measures applied to the main radio services today. Will include general principles of national spectrum management, management methods applicable to the fixed service below 30 MHz, HF broadcasting, broadcasting at LF/MF, VHF and UHF, the fixed service above 30 MHz, maritime and land mobile services, satellite broadcasting and the fixed satellite service.

Spectrum Management for the 21st Century: A Report of the Csis Commission on Spectrum Management (Csis Panel Report)

Average customer rating:

Spectrum Management for the 21st Century: A Report of the Csis Commission on Spectrum Management (Csis Panel Report)
Robert Galvin , James Schlesinger , and James Andrew Lewis
Manufacturer: Center for Strategic & International Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0892064374

Book Description

New technologies and services have created explosive demand for radio spectrum, which is outstripping supply. Fortunately, these same technologies can provide the solution. More intensive use would meet existing and potential demand and could be the basis for unprecedented economic growth.

Unifying the Software Process Spectrum: International Software Process Workshop, SPW 2005, Beijing, China, May 25-27, 2005 Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Average customer rating:

Unifying the Software Process Spectrum: International Software Process Workshop, SPW 2005, Beijing, China, May 25-27, 2005 Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Management Science | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 3540311122

Book Description

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the International Software Process Workshop, SPW 2005, help in Beijing, China in May 2005.

The 30 revised full papers presented together with 11 keynote addresses were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 initial submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on process content, process tools and metrics, process management, process representation and analysis, as well as experience reports.

Spectrum 2000: International Conference on Nuclear and Hazardous Waste Management September 24-28, 2000 Chattanooga, Tn

Average customer rating:

Spectrum 2000: International Conference on Nuclear and Hazardous Waste Management September 24-28, 2000 Chattanooga, Tn
Tenn.) Spectrum 200 (2000 Chattanooga
Manufacturer: Amer Nuclear Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nuclear | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Spectrum Engineering uses computers to make paper. (Spectrum Engineering Group) (Focus: Telecom/Office Products): An article from: Fairfield County Business Journal

Average customer rating:

Spectrum Engineering uses computers to make paper. (Spectrum Engineering Group) (Focus: Telecom/Office Products): An article from: Fairfield County Business Journal
Ethan de Seife
Manufacturer: Westfair Communications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Fairfield County Business Journal, published by Westfair Communications, Inc. on June 29, 1992. The length of the article is 816 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Spectrum Engineering uses computers to make paper. (Spectrum Engineering Group) (Focus: Telecom/Office Products)
Author: Ethan de Seife
Publication: Fairfield County Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 29, 1992
Publisher: Westfair Communications, Inc.
Volume: v31 Issue: n27 Page: p12(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Defense spectrum management : more analysis needed to support spectrum use decisions for the 1755-1850 MHz band : report to ranking member, Subommittee ... U.S. Senate (SuDoc GA 1.13:GAO-01-795)

Average customer rating:

Defense spectrum management : more analysis needed to support spectrum use decisions for the 1755-1850 MHz band : report to ranking member, Subommittee ... U.S. Senate (SuDoc GA 1.13:GAO-01-795)
U.S. General Accounting Office
Manufacturer: The Office
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Frequency management engineering principles: spectrum measurements: Reference Order 6050.23 : final report

Average customer rating:

Frequency management engineering principles: spectrum measurements: Reference Order 6050.23 : final report
Joseph D Fretz
Manufacturer: National Technical Information Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006Y1248

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books