Welcome to Directing 2!

I hope everyone is having a great summer!

In an effort to get as much info to you before the semester as I can, I will be putting information on this blog over the next few weeks.

Please read this entire message for valuable information about the upcoming semester!

In your first directing course, you were given highly restrictive filmmaking exercises and limitations. The goal of that course was not to allow you the opportunity to make a few short films, but to force you to encounter and address the use of camera as a tool for expression.

Similarly, the goal of Directing 2 is not to provide a course in which you can make another short film. In fact, most of you will find the limitations set for your films in this course to be much more restrictive than Directing 1.

The goal of Directing 2 is to encounter and address what it takes to direct the performances of actors.

To meet this goal, you will complete a bare-bones short film, with an emphasis on directing truthful, credible, and affecting performances from your actors.

All limitations that are put forth are designed to force creative decision-making and to restrict your emphasis on other aspects of filmmaking, such as image quality and production value.

All students participating in Directing 2 for Fall 2013, will be required to sign and adhere to the D2 Vow of Chastity on the first day of class. Inspired by Dogme 95, this set of guidelines will prevent you and your classmates from indulging too heavily in other elements of filmmaking that would distract from the nurturing of performances.

If the film you were hoping to make this semester does not fit within these limitations, save the idea and your production money for D3 or Capstone. 

Please read the vow, at the link at the top of this page, called D2 Vow of Chastity, in order to be sure your script follows this semesters guidelines.

Because we have so little time this semester, students are required to arrive on the first day of class with their proposed Directing 2 script. My sincerest apologies that these guidelines could not reach you sooner - I understand it takes time to write a script.

For that reason, I want to encourage as many of you as possible to direct a friend’s script or adapt previously written materials. No student is required to write the script they will be directing. Adaptations are strongly encouraged! Links to some good materials for adaptation are provided on this blog, under the link called Adaptation Ideas.

For questions or concerns before the first day of class, please email me at Katherine.Shults@ucf.edu . Keep an eye out to this website for the schedule and syllabus, which will go out as soon as possible.

I look forward to meeting some of you for the first time and working with you all these next two semesters!

Best,
Kate