Arts & Entertainment
Directing Gestures
Lesson time 15:23 min
Mira shares her methods for incorporating unique and humanizing gestures into the actors’ performances in order to add life to the frame.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: Pull Gestures From Life • Use Distinctive Gesture to Separate Characters • Call Out for Gestures in the Moment • Ask for Gestures Simply • Choreograph the Shooting of Gestures
Preview
For me as a director, I want every frame to pulsate with life. Life is translated through the character's gestures often. And I'm always seeing what the actor or the non-actor does, actually, in their lives in terms of gestures. The actors have a much greater self-consciousness of gestures that they come with-- removing their glasses, whatever. They use all these ways to enhance their performance in some way. But child actors do not know necessarily what they do. One of my lessons from life and from making cinéma vérité documentary into making fiction film is that I'm very finely attuned to observing what the reality of life is around me, to seeing how people naturally are and what they do, and to mine that one gesture that might serve the story I'm telling. So for instance, Shafiq Syed, this wonderful street kid who was playing the tea boy in "Salaam Bombay!", he used to have this gesture, whenever he was confused and thinking, of bringing his hand up behind his ear and just pondering, like this. And I also love hands, and I love the map of life in a person's-- the palm of one's hand. And I would always marvel at this extremely beatific sort of child. But his hands were rough, and calloused, and spoke of the struggle that he had lived, and that he was living. So I love that gesture. And every time I needed a moment like that, of punctuation, like when the-- his boss, the tea stand owner, would challenge him about money, or breaking glasses, or whatever it was, I would ask Shafiq actually to do what he-- I had seen him doing. And then it became a small, subtle, quiet signature of this tea boy, who was actually absolutely a child, but in his hands-- to my eyes, at least-- was an adult who had seen rough times. - Or I would ask for the gesture of the wink that, you know, Manju did, because she used to do that, and I loved it. And I loved that sauciness that would come that-- that it imbues. And so in a scene, where they're dancing over there, I would say wink for me. And she would wink for me. A lot of children, especially in-- the street kids in India, they're obsessed with Indian movies. And they're often dancing, and singing, and imitating their favorite movie star, and doing the moves. And I would use that. I would ask them for it. We even made a scene about it, where they go to the movies and they sing the song before the song comes on, and another audience member hits them on the head. Anything that shows both the reality of what they do, which is they may have nothing, but they'll save 5 rupees and go to the movies so that they can escape the struggle of their life, and how they deal with it, how much-- how much sort of strength and energy. It gives them. So make a scene of it. comes from truth, which is very exciting. And also, it is-- you have fun watching them do this, because this is what they actually do. But each gesture sort of counts and makes us completely be endeared to them as our characters. ...
About the Instructor
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair approaches directing with the “heart of a poet and the skin of an elephant,” spurred by rejection and fighting to bring uncompromising stories to film. In the Golden Lion-winning director’s MasterClass, learn to make a big impact on a small budget in film production, evoke the best from actors and nonactors, and protect your creative vision so you tell the story that can only come from you.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Mira Nair
The Oscar-nominated director teaches her methods for directing powerful performances, maximizing budgets, and bringing authentic stories to life.
Explore the Class