Helm Control
Garth Maxwell outlines exactly what's involved in the directing process, from script to screen...
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 18
“When I get a script, the first read through is critical,” Maxwell states, “and I find I can't stop halfway through. I have to clear my mind of everything else and read it from beginning to end and not worry about making notes or comments. I just see how I feel [about the whole thing] and after I've done that I start going back through, looking for ways to improve it or make any suggestions I can while the writers are still available. This could be to hype something up or to suggest that the action evolve in a certain direction that the writers hadn't thought of.
“The production process is normally an incredibly fast track from when the script arrives, so there is usually a very limited amount of time to turn it into reality. The job of the director on Xena is basically to make entertainment rather than anything that is historically accurate. As long as you’ve got a few basic reference points on, perhaps, a character that has been re-worked into the Xena context, then that is generally enough. Everything is fiction here, so there is limited value in spending time you don't have pursuing historical fact.
“A little bit of research can be advisable in some instances, though,” he adds. “For example, with a character like Caligula, as the name is such a major one to invoke, people have expectations. Everyone knows something about him, so you have to try and meet the audiences expectations as well as delivering what the show requires.
“The art department also has to be brought up to speed and given some idea of what to do. Normally, you have somewhere between eight to 10 days from getting a script to starting to shoot. But that would include a weekend [which is referred to as ‘downtime’], so really you have something like six pre-production working days during which everything has to be built.
“The entire production unit also has to be briefed on your take of the story. That has to be very specific, because the team has to be clear on it right away. It's all very quick, but then that's half the fun! You might give the production team some film references or maybe there's an illustrator you can mention so that people can go and look at their work to see if there is a light quality that can be adapted, for example. Alternatively, you might just give some general, broad outlines for the design or a broad aspect to help all the departments work together.
“You also have to look at wardrobe concepts and cast guest actors for the parts. Casting ensures that your bit players are right for the roles. This can sometimes take a while, and you may end up going back to the Casting Department and asking them to keep looking. You also have to sort out locations with the manager [Sally Sherratt], who will suggest areas that she thinks might work. And at this point you have to consider travel times, because if the locations are distant, it may mean you have an hour less on set to shoot each day, or even two hours of lost shooting each day to accommodate travel times. This is not a good thing, so you always try to find locations that arc close to the city.
“The stuntees also have to rehearse to a choreographed plan, plus if you have any dance sequences in the story; the playback music has to be established very early on as well.”
Aside from coordinating all these elements, the director has specific preparations which he needs to make before filming can start. “Your time is spent defining the direction the filming should go,” Maxwell reveals. “You work closely with your First Assistant Director and see how the schedule is evolving. This is so that you can give more lime to the scenes that you want to spend longer on. You also have to decide which scenes you can treat fairly succinctly because they won’t take a lot of time to complete. So that’s the point when you have to decide how long you want to spend on each of the parts of the story.
“Then, when all the stars have arrived you have the cast read-through. This is the first chance the actors have to speak their lines, and some wonderful suggestions can be made at this read-through. I don't have much to say at this meeting. I prefer for the actors to have the first dance through this piece of opera we’re trying to make. It feels operatic. Generally, it really is on that scale. I feel that my job is as much conducting this thing as it is telling the actors what to do.
“I try to be more and more flexible with the skills the actors present, so I tend not to produce a shot list [a running order of the shots needed for the episode] these days. I’ve found that it isn’t necessarily the best way to go. You can spend days getting a list together, and then the actors might not be available or can’t work in the order the list dictates. So the pleasure for me is just to work with these talented people and to try to get the best out of what they suggest.
“So at this point you’re starting to shoot the episode, and you start to get a feel of which scenes are working best and which aren't. It then becomes a matter of juggling with resources to put emphasis on the best elements while at the same time trying to minimise the weaker points. During the course of shooting, you also start to get feedback from the producers on your takes. This is something worth paying attention to, because they are more distanced from it than you are.”
So what kind of schedule is involved in a day's shooting? “I find that my brain is much more alive in the morning, so I'm usually up around 4.30 to 5.00 am,” Maxwell says, “and I try to get to the set about an hour before we shoot. This is because I can at least gel through the sets to make sure that my ideas for blocking the episode are going to be coherent. I’ll eat some breakfast and we’re on and shoot from 7am to 7pm. When I get home I'll go through about an hour to an hour and a half of lakes from the previous day. And then we start all over again with the same process the following day.
“My skills at blocking have improved enormously doing all of this stuff,” Maxwell remarks, “and I can see really fast ways to accommodate just about any movement. For me, that is the advantage of being consistently employed, and it gels you over any phobia you might have about having authority watching over you. I used to be quite anxious about my abilities, but now I just stomp out there and try and pull it all together more or less on the spot.
“The Second Unit follows on after the Main Unit,” Maxwell explains, “but sometimes it’s only a day behind you so it’s all pretty quick. While you're working with the Main Unit, you also have to collaborate with the Second Unit’s director the whole time and talk over the day’s work after it’s finished. I don't supply a strict shot list for the Second Unit, but say where to put the emphasis of a scene and then leave it to them. This is because I think it’s fairly insulting to hand another director a list of exactly what you want. It's more a matter of encouraging them to decide what turns them on.
“The film then goes to the editors and you see the first cut. I usually insist on being available for the edit. The trips to Los Angeles [to talk with the editors at Renaissance’s US office] are a perk of the director's job, but they really pay off. That is really where I want to be at that time, and I've worked with both the editors on Xena. ‘Robbo’ [Robert Field] is incredible, and there is a fantastic and very talented young editor called Tim Batt who has just started. So there are some really expert people involved in the post-production stage.
“When the edit goes off to the Visual Effects Department, I talk them through the enhancements I envisage they'll need to make. It’s a case of getting them to spend more time on enhancing the major aspects rather than the many smaller ones scattered throughout the episode. I think it’s better to get some really big and glamorous special effects in rather than just work on smaller ones that aren't necessarily going to be seen.
“The first cut of the show is the ‘Editor’s Cut’, and this is followed by the Director's Cut. It’s at that point that I try and leave an episode that I’ve completed alone. Then all I have to do is wait to hear how it all went!”