When facing a script, and trying to envision how to bring it to life, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. The solution to this is to make the problem smaller. Rather than trying to figure out the whole story, work with a small chunk of the script, say a few lines exchanged between two characters. Then, start asking yourself the question, what does each character want? As soon as you know the answer, then you can start thinking about some of the visual elements that will go into the scene. For example, if a character has something to hide, they might not look someone in the eye, or they might stay closer to the door. If a character wants to get closer to someone else, they might lean in. In this way, directing is not about “style” but about action.
A common mistake made by novice directors is to think about the camera before movement and emotion. No amount of lovely composition can save a scene in which actors don’t have clear physical intentions. Take a crack at the scene without a camera. Simply watch the way the scene plays when one man is trying to convince the other man of something, and that man is not buying it. After a few times, you will start to see moments where they hesitate, where they talk over each other, where they stand up. It is only then that you should think about where you might want to place the camera. Not where you would like it to look good, but where you might place it to actually capture the shifts in behavior.
Take 15 minutes. Find a two person scene that is three pages long or less. Read it twice. Once sitting, read it out loud. Then standing up, read it again and try to move across the space as each character, shifting positions for every line. Where do you feel awkward? Where is it easier to get around? Use the rest of your 15 minutes to draw a simple plan and diagram the movement with arrows. This exercise helps you see scenes as movement in 3-D space instead of flat text on a page. If you do this exercise with a different scene every day, you will be able to develop your instincts much quicker than trying to lay out an entire production at once.
If you find yourself stuck, it may be because the objective of the scene is too nebulous. If you’re feeling bored, try pushing the scene to an absurd extreme. Tell one character that they desperately want something from the other — approval, a piece of information, a way out of a room — and then make it impossible for the other character to give it to them. The scene will probably feel awkward or melodramatic, but you will at least discover some options. Then you can reel it back in until it feels real. By doing this, you turn being stuck into a series of revisions rather than a road to nowhere.
As these smaller moments become manageable, confidence will start to build. So instead of going for inventiveness, go for clarity. Who walks, who stands still? Who owns the scene, who recedes from it? Use your smartphone to record a rehearsal and play it back without the audio to see if the dramatic arc registers on a physical level. If it reads without audio, you have something. Once that’s in place, it’s easier to refine the scene by deciding how to place the camera, how to move the camera, and how to use editing to make that scene sing.