A long time ago Steven Spielberg’s Amblin’ Entertainment was considering making an animated series based on my comic strip, Jim’s Journal. We didn’t end up making the show, but I walked away with the best directing advice from the master director himself.
I was working on a small project at the time, a TV pilot for a totally different project (The Comedy Castaways), and I was having some trouble. I had never directed anything this big before.
“Oh, what’s going on?” he asked with great curiosity. “I’m a director, I’ll give you some pointers.”
!!!
So I told him the problem I was having, that I had a few crew people and set designers who had some ideas that didn’t jive with my vision of the show. They were charismatic and strong-willed, and I was having trouble communicating with them. I felt like they were overpowering me. I felt like I was losing control of the show.
To me, this was a complex problem giving me a lot of anxiety, but Spielberg waved it away.
“It’s simpler than you think,” he said. “If you want to direct, be direct. Give directives. It’s what the word means.”
It was such simple and elegant advice. And it proved incredibly effective.
The next day on the set I walked up to my people and said, “Thanks for your ideas, but we’re doing it this way,” and walked away.
They said, “Okay, that settles that.”
The problem was gone!
And I never had a problem on that set or any other set ever again, thanks to Steven Spielberg’s incredible directing advice.
There's an expression, "If you want money, ask for advice. If you want advice, ask for money."
A nice example of chiasmus.
Great story and advice. Thanks for sharing.