Oliver Assayas

 Continuing through the Directing film craft book I've been reading I've been introduced to Oliver Assayas, a French film maker with a rather keen interest in Asian culture.

Here are some notes -

• He says its difficult getting the best performances from your actors when you first begin making films because you don't really understand how to deal with them. You have to work out a way of functioning with your actors yourself. You have to learn and try new things with every film you make. 
• When your writing the script your writing for your actors so you need to think about the emotional context of the script and let the actors absorb it and then translate what you have written into a good performance. 
• When he writes a script he says he has a skeleton that he builds on throughout so he always knows where he is going and where he has come from. 
• He is a very precise writer and also on set he goes through set plans, camera plans and the respective positions of his actors religiously way before shooting even begins. 
• He keeps his actors on their toes by changing lines on set when necessary  he doesn't want his actors relying on what they have practiced in rehearsal. He also likes hearing the actors own input into proceedings. He feels his method allows the actors more freedom to perform. 
• He has worked with the same group of people (film crew) throughout most of his film making career. He says they all know how he works and in turn he understands them, it makes his film making process faster and more precise allowing him to have the room to experiment when the need arises. 
• He used to be a painter so he has likened camera movement to the stroke of a brush. Aided by his choice of cuts he says his films take on a rhythmic flow.
• He evolves the shot with each new take, developing new ideas and incorporating unforeseen opportunities.
• The trick that took him the most time to understand was the process of capturing those tiny nuances of emotion you can find on set, especially on location. You can have a real sense of space and see some small moments of beauty like a sunrise or rain. He feels its really important to get those elements into the film. 
• The thriller is the most experimental genre there is. 

Advice to young film makers - 

"Just look what's happening around you when you are shooting. No one really tells you that, but it's very important. Just don't think only of whats in your screen play and whats useful for your story. Open your eyes to the world you are creating around you and eventually consider it might be more interesting or stranger than you had planned."