{"id":694,"date":"2019-01-31T17:04:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T00:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=694"},"modified":"2019-01-31T17:04:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T00:04:43","slug":"directors-close-up-nicole-holofcener-the-land-of-stellar-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2019\/directors-close-up-nicole-holofcener-the-land-of-stellar-performances\/","title":{"rendered":"Director\u2019s Close UP: Nicole Holofcener: The Land of Stellar Performances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Film Independent\u2019s 2019 Director\u2019s Close-Up Series began this week with one of everyone\u2019s favorite indie auteurs, Nicole Holofcener. It is often said that a director\u2019s job is 90% complete in the casting room. Hear from both sides of the camera as Nicole, her long-time casting director Jeanne McCarthy and actor Thomas Mann discuss the art of casting and directing actors, and what it takes to bring memorable and believable characters to life. Panelists: Nicole Holofcener\u00a0(writer\/director;\u00a0The Land of Steady Habits<\/em>,\u00a0Enough Said<\/em>); Jeanne McCarthy\u00a0(casting director;\u00a0The Land of Steady Habits<\/em>,\u00a0Private Life<\/em>); Thomas Mann\u00a0(actor;\u00a0The Land of Steady Habits<\/em>,\u00a0Me and Earl and the Dying Girl<\/em>); Moderated by\u00a0Karyn Kusama\u00a0(director;\u00a0Destroyer<\/em>,\u00a0The Invitation<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director\u2019s Close Up 2019 \u2013 January 30th
By Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, Age 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The annual Film Independent\u2019s 2019 Directors Close-Up<\/em>\nbegan on January 30, eventfully with a deep and compelling discussion on the\nrelationships between the director, casting director and writer. The panel\nincluded director Nicole Holofcener, casting director Jeanne McCarthy and actor\nThomas Mann. All three have proven themselves over and again in the film\nindustry as talented creators with a true love for cinema. Moderated by Karyn\nKusama (director of Destroyer <\/em>and The Invitation<\/em>), the first\nnight left every audience member with a fresh new perspective in the acting\nworld of movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The evening began with Nicole and Jeanne discussing the role\nof a casting director. Some very interesting conversations emerged, mainly\nabout finding the right person for the role. Nicole shared her many experiences\nof attempting to decide which person she felt was best for her stories and\nJeanne shared her perspective in the casting director role of trying to find\nwho she thought not only would be best suited for the part, but best suited for\nNicole as well. It seems booking a role in a film does not simply come from the\nperformance of a person, but their relationship with the director as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nicole shared many examples of how she makes sure an actor\nand she can get along before ever stepping onto a film set. She discussed the\nnecessity of meeting with the actors she is considering, in order to make sure\nthat she will be able to work with them for lengthy periods of time and under\nheavy stress. Both Karyn and Nicole made it clear that an actor can be\nincredible at acting, but a character in a film will always reflect the\nchemistry of the actor and director, no matter the talent of either. Another\npoint Nicole noted was the sad case where an actor does not make the\nperformance needed. She stated that, after a certain amount of takes for a\nscene, she realized that she will never get the performance she wants and must\njust figure out how to make the best of it in the post room. Of course at\ntimes, the process may fail and an actor must be replaced. \u201cIt\u2019s painful, but I\ndo it,\u201d Nicole said solemnly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thomas shared many experiences from the third angle, that of\nthe actor themselves. Thomas and Nicole shared their experiences with rehearsals.\nFor Nicole, she enjoys the fact that, not only does the time allow for her to\nbuild a stronger bond with the actors, but also time to understand different\nways of running the scene and how the actors approach their characters. Thomas\nhad a slightly different benefit, building a relationship with fellow actors. Thomas\nbrought up the point that, very often the first shooting day can include very\nemotional scenes and it can be difficult to deliver a natural performance if\nthe scenes are with actors who have never met each other. The rehearsals allow\nthem to build their relationships in order to deliver a natural performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, once on set, the relationship does not end there.\nThe actual film must be made and the art of directing actors came up many times\nin the evening. Nicole honestly shared her many mistakes when she was starting\nout as a director. She often would give lines and lines of back story to an\nactor, explaining every detail, every reasoning for emotion and every single\naspect of that character. She realized an actor doesn\u2019t need all this. They\nneed simple commands. Thomas also backed that up. While many first-time\ndirectors go the route of too many details, they both explained that, in\nreality, an actor simply needs to hear very basic instructions such as \u201cdo it\nagain louder,\u201d instead of the deep reasons why this actor in this specific\nmoment must say that line louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event held a much larger range of insight, advice and\nproverbs that enriched the mysterious process of choosing and working with an\nactor. Thomas also discussed the unique situation of being in a supporting role\nof a film, when you come in as the filming is already in progress and leave\nbefore the production is wrapped. Thomas explained that it creates an\ninteresting challenge when the actor must hit the ground running and be\nprepared to handle the already established energy of the crew who have been\nthere since the first day. This event lasted a couple of hours, but the\npanelists truly she a light into the hidden relationship between acting,\ncasting and directing. This was another successful and memorable event hosted\nby Film Independent! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film Independent\u2019s 2019 Director\u2019s Close-Up Series began this week with one of everyone\u2019s favorite indie auteurs, Nicole Holofcener. It is often said that a director\u2019s job is 90% complete in the casting room. Hear from both sides of the camera as Nicole, her long-time casting director Jeanne McCarthy and actor Thomas Mann discuss the art of casting and directing actors, and what it takes to bring memorable and believable characters to life. Panelists: Nicole Holofcener (writer\/director; The Land of Steady Habits, Enough Said); Jeanne McCarthy (casting director; The Land of Steady Habits, Private Life); Thomas Mann (actor; The Land of Steady Habits, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl); Moderated by Karyn Kusama (director; Destroyer, The Invitation)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,10,7,9,6,8],"class_list":["post-694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jury-updates","tag-directors-close-up","tag-film-independent","tag-jeanne-nccarthy","tag-karyn-kasama","tag-nicole-holofcener","tag-thomass-mann"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}