Podcast: You Are a Storyteller
Executive Summary
Directing is not about forcing external emotional displays or imposing a director's ego onto a crew; it is the art of guiding internal performance, serving as the first audience, and aligning a creative team behind a single narrative compass. The hosts explore practical directorial techniques—such as using action verbs instead of result directing, learning performance subtlety from real life, and treating neurodiversity (such as dyslexia or ADHD) as a pattern-recognition strength rather than a disability.
Key Vocabulary & Unique Concepts
- Result Directing: The amateur directorial mistake of telling actors to show an external emotion (e.g., "be angrier," "look sadder"), which forces actors to perform for the camera and leads to melodramatic overacting.
- Internal Directing / Action Verbs: Giving actors specific, transitive verbs (e.g., "punish him," "seduce her") that redirect their focus outward toward their scene partner, resulting in subtle, authentic performances.
- Subordinating Style to Narrative (Lens Strategy): Adjusting visual techniques strictly to serve the emotional progression of a story rather than showing off (e.g., Sidney Lumet shifting from wide lenses to telephoto lenses in 12 Angry Men to make the jury room feel progressively claustrophobic).
- The "Do Nothing" Rule: A performance principle inspired by director Sydney Pollack watching an unscripted Candid Camera episode where a gas station attendant discovered an engine-less car; real human shock manifests as silent, motionless cognitive processing rather than dramatic gasping.
- Virtual vs. Real-Life Mentors: The distinction between learning craft through studying a master's body of work from afar (e.g., Rod Serling's pre-Twilight Zone teleplays like Patterns) and direct, hands-on apprenticeship (e.g., Bruce Walters guiding McDonald at ILM).
- Cognitive Diversity / Dyslexic Synthesis: Framing neurodiversity (such as dyslexia) not as an inherent disability, but as a brain architecture optimized for long-range pattern recognition, non-linear problem solving, and intuitive synthesis.
- Process-Oriented vs. Goal-Oriented Creation: Embracing the iterative sketching/drafting process without judging early attempts against an ultimate masterpiece.
Deep Dive: The Directorial & Performance Framework
Guiding actors and managing set dynamics requires moving from external control to internal alignment:
1. Shifting from Result Directing to Action Verbs
- Mechanics: Replace adjectival instructions ("be sadder") with strong action verbs ("punish him" or "seduce her").
- Function: Takes the actor's self-consciousness off their own performance and directs their focus outward toward changing their scene partner's behavior, producing subtle, believable interactions.
2. Utilizing External Constraints for Internal Devastation
- Mechanics: Assigning physical constraints or counter-intuitive actions during tragic beats (e.g., Alexander Payne directing Paul Giamatti to smile through the entire scene in Sideways when finding out his ex-wife is pregnant).
- Function: Prevents melodrama and forces the audience to feel the heartbreak of a character attempting to maintain composure.
3. Serving as the "First Audience"
- Mechanics: The director avoids pre-visualizing hyper-specific micro-performances or dictating every pause, acting instead as a receptive evaluator.
- Function: Creates a safe collaborative space where actors can discover authentic reactions, allowing the director to simply adjust what feels unconvincing and "shut up when not needed."
Key Directing & Performance Principles
The Shared Armature Resolves Collaborative Friction
When creative teams disagree, arguments usually stem from ego or personal preference. Establishing a clear narrative armature acts as an objective compass: team members evaluate ideas based on whether they serve the core thesis rather than who pitched the idea.
Real Human Reaction Is Internal Processing
Amateurs equate acting with performative emotion, but real human shock, grief, or anger often manifests as stillness or containment. Directors must study real-world human behavior—such as a person processing unexplainable events—to guide actors toward authentic restraint.
Dyslexia and Neurodiversity Are Systemic Flaws, Not Brain Flaws
Neurodiverse traits like dyslexia or ADHD are often mislabeled as disabilities by rigid, pre-packaged educational systems. In reality, thinkers like Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, John Coltrane, and August Wilson utilized dyslexic brain wiring to make non-linear connections, recognize overarching patterns, and solve complex problems.
Craft Mastery Outlasts Transient Recognition
Setting out to win awards or gain industry status produces fragile, goal-oriented anxiety. Real satisfaction comes from process-oriented craft—setting personal creative benchmarks, surrendering to the material, and serving the audience's emotional needs.
Notable & Reference Quotes
"If you can find a way to make the acting internal, it's going to appear more natural... because you're making it an internal process rather than an external process." — Brian McDonald
"Serving the story is serving the story... style is not there to be noticed, it's there to be felt." — Brian McDonald
"If you're not needed as a director, shut up." — Brian McDonald
"Dyslexia is a flaw in an imperfect educational system, not a flaw in the human brain." — Brian McDonald
Practical Applications Outside Directing & Arts
- Executive Leadership & Feedback: Avoid "result directing" during performance reviews. Instead of telling employees to "be more confident," give them clear, actionable operational objectives that naturally elicit confidence.
- Team Alignment & Conflict Resolution: Use a single core objective (armature) as the decision-making compass for projects. Evaluating ideas against shared standards removes personal ego and office politics from team discussions.
- Neurodiversity in the Workplace: Leverage cognitive diversity within teams. Employees with non-linear processing styles often excel at big-picture strategy, cross-domain synthesis, and novel problem solving.
- Public Speaking & Presentations: Avoid performative gestures or forced emotional delivery. Focus on the internal intent to inform, persuade, or support the audience, allowing natural delivery to follow.