John Badham on directing : notes from the sets of Saturday night fever, WarGames, and more

"Veteran director John Badham explains the elements of action and suspense and dissects the essentials of any good scene from any genre. Badham's list of "12 Questions You Must Ask Before Stepping On Set" is an absolute must in any filmmaker's toolbox. Whether actor, director, cinematographer, production designer, or any other creative, Badham gives you the tools to deconstruct and solve scenes that either don't work or need sharpening. Continuing the work begun in his best-selling book I'll Be In My Trailer, Badham shares more insights into working with difficult actors, rehearsal techniques, and getting the best performance from your cast"-- Provided by publisher Title Copyright Dedication Contents Contributors Using This Book Part I: A Lack of Trust: The Five Mistakes Introduction: A Nasty Bit of Laundry Chapter 1: Mistake #1: Directed by Anonymous Get ’Em While You’ve Got ’Em, Before You Get ’Em Homework . . . Do It They’re On Board On the Day Failure Is OK Summary Chapter 2: Mistake #2: Know-It-Alls Rule Summary Chapter 3: Mistake #3: Filibusterers Summary Chapter 4: Mistake #4: Too Many Notes Step #1: Cut and Validate How Not to Watch a Take Step #2: Privacy Please Technology Sidebar Step #3: Keep Them in the Loop The Bull in the Arena Step #4: Make It Fun Step #5: One at a Time Don’t Let Things Slide Make It Their Problem Summary Chapter 5: Mistake #5: Enamel Grinders Tales from the Trenches Summary Part II: Action and Suspense: The Five Strategies Chapter 6: Strategy #1: Not Just a Pretty Chase What Is Action? African Action Directing Actors in Action Summary Chapter 7: Strategy #2: Who, Where, and When Point of View ID and Locate Orientation Jeopardy Countdown Summary Chapter 8: Strategy #3: Quick Techniques and Safety 1. Pointless Masters 2. Few Actions Exception Observe the Three-Take Rule 3. Overlap Actions 4. Scissor Time 5. Not That Fast 6. Change-Up 7. No Immutable Rules 8. Booby Traps Summary Chapter 9: Strategy #4: See It Before You Shoot It Storyboarding 1. What’s the Point? 2. Dialogue Scenes 3. Overdrawing 4. Losing the Flow 5. Slaves to the Boards Can’t Afford No Stinkin’ Storyboards? Coverage Summary Chapter 10: Strategy #5: Mystery, Surprise, Suspense Rule #1: Mild Conflict, Mild Interest They’re Coming! Get Out! Setups, Builds, and Switches Another Cat Skinner Mystery vs. Surprise vs. Suspense Summary Part III: Preparing the Scene: The Director’s Checklist Before Rehearsal? The Checklist Chapter 11: The Scene Related to the Film 1. What happened before this scene? 2. What does it add? 3. What’s different at the end? Summary Chapter 12: Architecture of the Scene 4. Whose point of view? 5. Where are the beats? Tool #1: Physicalizing Tool #2: Characters Think Ahead Tool #3: Use the Camera to Show a Character’s Thought Process 6. Where is the Tipping Point? Summary Chapter 13: Characters Enter the Scene 7. What do they want? Rule #1: We Always Have a Goal Rule #2: No Goal, No Acting Rule #3: Every Character Has His or Her Own Goal Rule #4: One Beat, One Goal 8. What do they expect? 9. What’s at stake for each character? Summary Chapter 14: Interacting Characters 10. What’s stopping them? 11. How do they get what they want? Only Verbs . . . Active Verbs! 12. How does a character regard the other? Summary Epilogue Acknowledgments Further Reading Photo Credits About the Author Index