Posted by Smalls at adsl-63-196-58-73.dsl.lsan03.pacbell.net on January 24, 2004 at 18:49:32:
In Reply to: Kevin-Directorial queston-need advice. posted by GohanMD on January 24, 2004 at 18:14:01:
To frame it differently.
Massage her with promises that it can be reshot if need be, down the road... "we don't wanna rush your process, honey, but we need to get something down on film for this scene and if it doesn't work, we can always pick up a tiny reshoot later..."
Maybe ask her to do a rehearsal take with the cameras on. "Roll on rehearsal..." and give a wink to the crew.
Hell, if she's really that nervous and it's really that essential and... if you're shooting DV, do a few takes from a slightly-different set-up where her mouth is out of the shot and you can ADR it later... that should loosen her up for a take or three in the set-up you wanted.
Or maybe make a little promise about letting her get in an ad-lib later on in the process if she can push through this little problem...
Kevin, I believe, avoids a lot of these problems by rehearsing the hell out of his cast long before the cameras ever roll. That's the best case scenario but... clearly, you don't have a way-back machine for that so that can't help your particular problem.
Seriously, though. Small dabs of "don't worry, if you screw up a little, we can fix it in post" phrased in a complimentary way go far far far.
Mike