Directed by John Ford

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A few things I learned from Directed by John Ford, Peter Bogdanovich’s fascinating 2006 recut of his 1971 documentary on the legendary director:

• Ford didn’t like rehearsing; he thought a scene could go stale quickly and often used first takes.
• Ford didn’t like dialogue and would eliminate as many words as possible from a script.
• Because he didn’t edit his own films Ford would be careful to not shoot too much coverage as he feared this would leave studio editors too many shots to pick from which could easily destroy Ford’s shot sequence.
• A basic Ford directing principle was to never place the skyline in the middle of the frame.  
• A Ford set wasn’t the most pleasant place; the director enjoyed to humiliate actors in front of the cast/crew if he thought it was necessary to get a point across.
• Maybe it was all an ‘act’ but Ford, at least in public, was a grumpy and not particularly pleasant person.
• Ford was very modest when asked about his astonishing body of work and the indisputable influence it’s had on filmmakers for decades.

Tagged with: Add new tag • Arts • DVD • Film • Film director • Filmmaking • John Ford • Movies • Peter Bogdanovich

Filed under: Filmmaking • Uncategorized

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