Precision in Performance: Blocking & Directing Actors
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Course Info
Participant, Udayan's Directing Summer School 2025
Participant, Udayan's Directing Summer School 2025
Participant, Udayan's Directing Summer School 2025
What’s included?
This intensive workshop will help you develop the clarity, discipline, and practical tools required to:
- Lead rehearsals with actors
- Shape truthful, nuanced performances
- Communicate clear, playable direction
- Sustain performance quality under time pressure
Each director will rehearse with professional actors in a film‑school environment, gaining hands‑on experience and individual guidance. You will refine your directorial craft while learning how to use space, movement, and rehearsal time more intentionally.
The focus of this course is directing actors. We strip away the non‑essentials and concentrate on the core skills every director needs. Over eight days, you will build the practical skills of:
- Communicating with actors clearly and confidently
- Structuring rehearsals with discipline and purpose
- Integrating blocking with actor intention
- Maintaining performance quality under time constraints
By the end of the course, you will have a grounded understanding of how to draw dynamic, truthful performances from your actors. You’ll learn to recognise what an actor needs to deliver their strongest work, how to guide them effectively, and how to shape behaviour to support the emotional core of each scene.
You will also gain confidence in integrating purposeful blocking—using placement, rhythm, and physical choices to heighten narrative tension and strengthen the dramatic arc of your story.
Enrolment is limited to eight participants to ensure generous rehearsal time, close mentorship, and precise, practical feedback tailored to each director’s growth.
Who is this for?
This course is designed for directors who:
- Have directed short films or completed basic filmmaking training
- Have a basic understanding of production workflow
- Want to strengthen their work with actors
- Are ready for rigorous and concentrated development
It is not suitable for beginners. Participants may be asked to submit previous work as part of the application process.
Schedule:
Day 1 to 5: Working with Actors
The first 5 days will be focused entirely on rehearsal, text and actor-director collaboration and will explore:
- How actors train and prepare
- The director-actor relationship
- Giving clear, playable direction
- Objectives, action and subtext
- Avoiding over-direction
- Structuring rehearsal with intent
- Understanding rhythm and emotional beats
Participants work through practical exercises, alternating roles to improve understanding of both sides of the process. Mid-week sessions include rehearsals with professional actors using scenes selected by Udayan. This ensures parity across the cohort and keeps attention on craft rather than material.
Day 6 & 7: Scene Rehearsals incorporating Blocking
The second phase translates group rehearsal into individual rehearsals and performance. Each participant will be provided a script for scene that does not include more than 2 actors.
Each director will:
- Prepare and rehearse a two-character dramatic scene
- Focus on shaping performance through prep
- Understand how to incorporate movement and blocking for actors
- Learn how to dissect a script for performance and answer actors questions
Day 8: Sessions on Filming the Actors & Cinematography
Teaching on the importance of point of view when filming a scene, and learning the various aspect of camera coverage when filming scenes. This session will offer a concise yet informative introduction to the fundamentals of camera coverage and the principles behind effectively filming actors. It is designed to give emerging directors a practical understanding of how shot choices, angles, and visual perspective shape performance on screen, providing them with essential tools to approach the filming process with confidence and intention.
Tutor
Udayan Prasad
DirectorUdayan Prasad
DirectorUdayan Prasad is a multi-award-winning director whose earlier films include the MY SON THE FANATIC by Hanif Kureishi and BROTHERS IN TROUBLE, winner of the Golden Alexander Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. He also directed THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF starring William Hurt, Maria Bello, Kristin Stewart, and Eddie Redmayne, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in the US by Goldwyn Films.
Television projects includes several with the British writer Simon Gray including RUNNING LATE, winner of the Gold Gate Award for Best Television Feature. And two BAFTA-nominated collaborations with Alan Bennett: TALKING HEADS 2: PLAYING SANDWICHES and 102 BOULEVARD HAUSSMANN, winner of a second Gold Gate Award.
Recent work comprises of BECOMING ELIZABETH and SELECTION DAY, an adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s Booker prize-winning novel for Seven Stories and Netflix, on which Udayan was lead director and executive producer. He also helmed the closing episodes of BBC TV’s THE MUSKETEERS.
When not in production, he runs workshops on directing and screenwriting at several film schools including The London Film School, The Wajda School in Warsaw and the National Film Television and Theatre School in Łódź, Poland. He is also an advisor and mentor on various international directing and screenwriting workshops.
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