Scripted One Take: "Bridge of Spies"

Scene:

Director’s Reflection

            Nothing like being on set after you have stayed awake for 25 hours straight. Luckily, my adrenaline kicked in and I felt pretty good directing this thing. I thought Cooper, the main actor, was excellent to work with. He came memorized and he took direction very well. Brett was very helpful and we had much collaboration on our lighting and blocking of the camera. I wanted to shoot in black and white and I think it turned out nicely. I wanted the camera to be even closer in the beginning to the actor’s face but the table was huge and it would have been more difficult. Britany did fantastic with our sound. We had two back ups which was nice, one file from the h4n and one from the lavs. I only found one actor in time for our shoot so I had to do act for the other character. It was a way different learning experience though. It was interesting that based on my acting and delivery my other actor would react differently so in giving direction, I could put that in my performance and that would influence him to where I wanted him to be. It was interesting to connect with Cooper as a director to actor and actor to actor. I wanted him to feel comfortable in that and we spoke before shooting that I would be the other guy. I think since we were so skeleton crew that it was easier for me to do this because I know with a bigger crew it would have been more difficult. What was tough is that I didn’t watch monitor during the scene. I had to focus on performance and I only looked after. I missed some things as far as specific deliveries on some lines that I wish I could have changed. I learned a lot on this shoot.