Cecil B. Demille’s thoughts on directing…
8 May 2008 in Blog | Comments enabled

I had to pass this along. One of the blogs I subscribe to posted a link to a speech that the great filmmaker Cecil B. Demille gave in 1927 at Harvard University. (He directed The Ten Commandments among other things.) He said something very interesting -

Take a scene where a man comes in, sits down, and picks up the telephone. The first-class director has the man come in, sit down, and pick up the telephone. Your highest class director says, “How on earth can I make that interesting, so it will hold an audience for just a second, so that it is not just a man. coming in, sitting down and picking up a telephone? What twist can I give that to make a little smile come to the audience? If merely the cord of the telephone catches in the drawer that little incident means a lot because the audience thought they were going to be bored and then they say, Oh! That little exclamation, Oh! has a great psychological effect.” That is the way every scene should be worked out in the mind of the director.

That’s what I want to strive for in every scene we direct: That little exclamation. Oh!

You can read the rest of this speech here. It’s really good. And still relevant.

You can find out more about Mr. Demille here.

The blog that posted this is called Film Directing Tips and Resources. It is the personal blog of a working Directing and Assistant Director, Peter D. Marshall. I have found his blog extremely useful. It’s nice to read the insights of a man who has been doing what I want to be doing. Check it out.