Ivan walking to location during the CBI workshop
Last week I sent off a private screener of Cats of Malta to our Kickstarter backers. The next day I received a reply from an actor/filmmaker I knew from my past life working out of Studio 106 in St Kilda. Katrina asked me about our improvised process of filmmaking, how we make films, and if she could see an example of my favorite improvised NPG film.
This request got me thinking and sent me down a rabbit hole of reminiscing about our improvised work and how we started producing and shooting films using this unique method. All this thinking led me to Tubi TV and getting lost within the first twenty minutes of Friends, Foes & Fireworks – the first improvised film Ivan and I produced and directed, plus shot in a single night.
Within the body of the email reply to Katrina I pasted the Tubi TV link to Friends, Foes & Fireworks and filled the rest of the blank space with our improvisation inspirations, directors and films we admire – one of which is Mike Leigh. His name led me to thinking about the whole improvisation journey and business transition which NPG has gone through since making Friends, Foes & Fireworks in 2017. Again this led to yet another fond memory – the five days Ivan and I spent in Basel during 2019 taking part in the Character Based Improvisation (CBI) workshop Robert Marchand teaches.
I also mentioned the CBI workshop to Katrina, then I hit ‘send’. Sitting at my desk I realized it's been a few years since Basel, and that realization brought on some wonderful memories.
The last improvised film I directed was a short film titled The Dance and the shoot was only a few weeks ago – hardly a distant memory. The Dance was quite an experience. What I like most about improvisation is that you're always learning something new. You're always finding ways to keep the process fresh, and to continue to challenge yourself with a surprise factor, not just for yourself and the audience, but also for the actors to get the authenticity across.
So going back to the CBI workshop in Basel, we actually never made a blog on this, and in hindsight I definitely think it would have been a great topic to cover. As bad as my memory has become in the last few years, I still remember that the workshop was a very interesting experience. The workshop shaped the way I direct and approach actors and stories and prep for a film shoot and I still use the CBI teachings today.
THE MIKE LEIGH METHOD
Robert Marchand’s CBI workshop is based on teaching Mike Leigh’s specialized method of improvisation, with permission from the master himself, of course. What starts as a story idea in Mike’s head or on paper becomes a series of improvised scenes acted out during rehearsal. The scenes become a watchable film with a coherent story once the best sections are chosen, distilled, made into a script and re-acted by the cast.
THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE NPG METHOD AND THE MIKE LEIGH METHOD
The CBI workshop poster
It's slightly different to how NPG work – we don’t distill acted scenes and build a script with the actors. Our improvised process closely resembles the Joe Swanberg improvisational approach – using a set story outline wth beats you want the actors to hit and then it’s the director's job to work with the actors extensively beforehand to build the character's history and relationships.
But despite taking a different approach to our work, what we learnt during the CBI workshop was very valuable practice. It was invaluable in fact because, as with most artistic practices, you take what feels right to you and make it part of your own practice. The most prolific artists chop and change to find their own way of working and producing content.
The main contrast I found when comparing how Mike Leigh works and how we work was the amount of control we take in regards to driving the story forward drama-wise. Ivan and I developed our method which had us, the directors, being more open to letting the actor take care of not only the character, but sometimes elements that affect plot. But one phrase Robert said early in the workshop stuck out the most to me. When I am directing, I always have this phrase floating in the back of my head:
“The actor controls the character, the director controls the drama.”
Think about that for a second.
We have the structure for the film’s story and the way we want the story to go from start to finish, but sometimes we are swayed within the moment. This is ok, together with the actors we go with the flow, live in the moment, and see what works better for the character arc. The story may change.
But the CBI approach places more control in the director guiding the drama and the story; after an actor begins to get comfortable with a character and their history Robert (and Mike) may spring a surprise on the actor such as ‘you just found out your sister was in a car accident’ and the actor would have no option but to react to this new story situation.
But despite the differences, with both methods it’s the actors responsibility to get to know the character inside out and through knowing a character so completely they react naturally to any situation as the character. So you, the director, creates the drama (what’s happening in the story including any surprises that may pop up throughout to create extra drama), but the actors create the character.
HOW THE CBI WORKSHOP UNFOLDED
The mock cafe was were we shot some scenes during the workshop.
On the first day the actors and the directors are all put into a room. We were sitting down listening to Robert talk about Mike Leigh’s technique to start and the actors are given their character backgrounds. The actors, after taking in all the character backgrounds on paper must then start to examine their character further. So the actors are placed in the spotlight and directed by Robert to move as their character. It's fascinating stuff to watch Robert yell out different moments that arise and see the actor's improvised reaction. This character building exercise is super beneficial to both actor and director as it's the first time the actor starts to transform into the character.
The next few days we moved into locations around Basel and we watched Robert start to build the scenes and bring these characters together. We ran scenarios in hotel lobbies, apartments, staged cafes sets, on the streets, and it was all part of one big story, where these characters started off as strangers, but all became known to each other through elaborate links Robert had developed. There were secrets revealed, family dramas, and many fun scenes unfolding over the city in an exciting few days. And all while Robert was controlling the drama, we, the directors, were watching it all unfold by walking around and observing.
There was one day when we were put into groups and with a camera person we were told where the actor was and we had to follow them around while they were in character without them knowing, which is quite challenging. Mike Leigh is known for doing this to his actors – sending them off to walk around as their character and to interact with strangers while he observes from a distance. Doing this process for ourselves was very interesting and I have now adopted it, using a similar method in rehearsal to get my actors prepared for productions.
On the last day of the workshop, after watching Robert work with the actors, the directors had the opportunity and the freedom to create scenarios. Like our instructor, we placed the actors in situations and drove the drama based on Mike’s techniques we had learnt over the course of the workshop. It was a blast and so fun to watch the actors move around in character and react to the surprise factors we put in place and to other actors who arrived in their space.
EGO TAKES A FRONT SEAT
Day 1 of the CBI workshop in Basel
Going into the workshop Ivan and I had collectively already produced and directed two improvised feature films and a bunch of improvised shorts. I wondered if there was something spectacular we would learn, that we didn’t know already from our experiments and experience. I had a ‘what else is there?’ question lingering in the back of my mind before I physically and mentally stepped into the workshop.
But over the course of the workshop, I would learn I had a lot more to learn! And I fell more in love with improvisation.
If we look at the conventional method versus the improvised method of filmmaking, you will see they each sit on opposite ends of the spectrum. The former is very rule based and rigid – which is ok, structure can be good – yet the latter is more free flowing and unpredictable because there are no scripts, nothing to initially rehearse, no set steps. But improv still comes with rules, just bendable rules. The choice is yours.
The positives about improvisation and working with actors and stories using the method is that you have more leeway. As a director and storyteller, you have more room to experiment and play. Playing is the best part! With the story you can play, and you can also play with the dialogue because we don't write scripts.
WHAT I LEARNT DURING THE CBI WORKSHOP
The tools we learnt during the CBI workshop in Basel were career defining. Simply watching Robert work with the actors and then practicing the improvised directing skills ourselves was an experience that has made us better filmmakers.
Before producing and directing our two improvised feature films, Friends, Foes & Fireworks and In Corpore, I took on a large amount of study on improvised films and the filmmaking process. I read up on the subject, the history of the practice, I watched many online interviews with Mike Leigh where he talks about his practice and how he works and why; I watched a ton of good (and some not so good) improvised films from the early 2000’s, including Australian mumblecore my peers were producing, and some of Mike’s most praised films.
The takeaway for us, after undertaking the CBI workshop, was that there are many ways to approach the process of improvised directing. So much depends on how you as a director can confidently direct an actor, or shape a scene. It all revolves around creating the right amount of drama and the actors will be looking at you when they feel something is not working, so like them, you have to be prepared to improvise and think on your toes.
THE LESSONS
Sarah Jayne, Robert Marchand, one of the participating actors, and Ivan Malekin.
The lesson here is that the best thing you can do for your career as a filmmaker and a director is to always be open to learning. Never stop learning about a topic. Filmmaking and directing is an ongoing lesson that spans a lifetime. And you know, I went in wondering what else I would learn since I studied the method and I had directed improvised films before. I didn't think that I knew everything, but I thought I had a pretty good idea.
I learnt more effective ways to work with actors, to bring the story out, and I think that's huge. It's always good to have more practice. What I love most about improvisation is that with every project and every film there's an opportunity to challenge yourself and to challenge the actors. If there was something you wanted to do better in the last film, such as a more solid surprise factor, or more surprises, but I couldn't quite get it out, there's always another chance to do it. With improvisation there's also different ways to get the actor to react to something if you're clever enough and creative enough to come up with that as a director.
So I recommend trying improvisation in directing to anyone with some basic directing experience. Not only is it an awesome way to challenge yourself, but you also feel you're doing something different and breaking away from the more traditional filmmaking approach, which is very important. I'm very blessed as a director to have had the opportunity to take the CBI workshop, and I know I will continue to use the lessons I learnt every time I direct a film.
Written by Sarah Jayne