Scene Blocking Quotes

Shooting a film with seven to eight actors together is complicated sometimes because you have to cover everybody.

I did a good bit of episodic television directing, but directing a movie is so much more complicated.

We've had no problems with the actors, but we keep a really loose set.

When I'm in a movie, what I always do, instead of sitting in a trailer or watching a DVD, is I go on the set and watch the director work and the actors work, and sometimes I'll hang out with B camera and watch what they're up to and ask questions because there's so much to learn about the medium.

What a director should be doing is making it appear as though there was no script.

I didn't have the regular high school experience. My experiences were on sets.

We shot 'High School Musical' in eight weeks. I spent longer rehearsing for 'Hairspray' than filming 'High School Musical'.

I am much more involved in the filmmaking experience on Mag Seven. I'm much more involved in story elements, casting decisions, the writing of the show, the blocking of the scenes.

The thing about 'Veep' is that you never really know where the camera's going to be. So you're not really just saying your line and then just watching it: you're trying to act the whole time just in case the camera is watching you.

But it was not possible to do this movie, in this matter of time, without a solid rehearsal period.

I kind of want to learn how to direct TV. It's interesting.

I don't storyboard, and I don't really shot list. I let the shots be determined by how the actors and I figure out the blocking in a scene, and then from there, we cover it.

I am constantly asked, 'What's the difference between acting in the theater and acting in film?' The only answer I can give is the space - you adapt to the space. But acting is acting.

I love directing.

As an actor, I love the feeling of being on set and the camaraderie of working on something together.

I don't cover my scenes. We approach it visually. Sometimes we go out of our way to do awkward blocking so that we can tell whatever the emotional heartbeat is of that scene in the most interesting way possible.

There are a lot of visual marks that have to be hit, and lines that need to be said in a right way - so there wasn't really any improvisation on the set when it came to the bulk of the script.

In filming, you're waiting - you're waiting for lights, you're waiting for people to set things up - and when you're not waiting, you're repeating.

I'm not an actor that tends to care. I don't ask 'Is this a close up? Is this a master? Is this a wide? What are you doing? If I look up and notice the camera I go 'Oh, it's a big one today, must be an IMAX.' And that's kinda it for me because it doesn't affect what I'm doing.

Directing television is really hard - it's so fast. You shoot an hour show in seven days.

You really get to direct the movie three times when it comes to the action sequences and the set pieces.

I can't do a one-camera show. I don't know how to do that kind of show where you count in your head and then you do the next line.

When we were doing 'Freaks and Geeks', I didn't quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn't on me. I thought I was helping the other actors by keeping them on their toes, but nobody appreciated it when I would trip them up. So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way.

Another mistake a director can make is not to be prepared, so you get there on the day to shoot the scene, and they don't know how it should be blocked, and they're not clear on how they want to do a scene.

Raft told me how to walk with him in a scene: We'd start off in a long shot normal, and about the time we got together in a close-up, I'd be bending my knees so I'd be shorter.