MM1 Directors Statement
Guidelines
Write a Director’s Statement outlining how you would direct a film based on one of your own original
stories. This can be either the same idea you used for your visual sequence or another original idea you
may have. We assess the story, but mainly you are assessed on the ability to communicate your vision of a
film, encompassing its key elements, from a director’s point of view. You must use what you learned in the
lectures about genre, camera, lighting, sound, editing and more to illuminate a story on the cinema screen.
Simplified Rubric
• Story: creativity, thematic sophistication and narrative cohesion: 30%
• Director’s vision: use of FIVE of casting, genre, locations, production design, camera, lighting,
sound, music, editing, special and visual FX: 50%
• Engagement and effort: 10%
• Presentation incl. spelling and grammar: 10%
Assessment Form (ensure you fill out BOTH PAGES below)
Story NAME: Stanley Donan STUDENT NUMBER: 000000
Title (10 words max):
Logline (30 words max):
Synopsis – include your target audience/demographic (200 words max):
Singin' in the Rain
Can Don Lockwood translate his acting skills from the silent screen to the talkies, or will he lose his
career and his newfound true love to the machinations of a Hollywood starlet?
Taking place during the rise of the "talkies", we meet Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont who have
risen to stardom during the silent-film era of Hollywood. Beautiful, charismatic and influential, the
two combine to make a great on-screen pair. The introduction of talking pictures poses a threat to
the powerful duo, however, when it is discovered by audiences that Lina has an excruciatingly
shrill voice. Enter young studio singer Kathy Selden, a woman who lacks the stardom of Ms.
Lamont but possesses the beautiful voice of which Lina is in dire need.
Can Don and Kathy find a solution to Lina's laughably annoying voice to salvage their careers?
They secure a place for themselves in this new industry with the help of Kathy's ingenuity, only to
save themselves from Lina's dirty tricks thanks to Don's bravery in exposing Lina as a sham.
This film is pitched as a date night movie for general release (PG) but should perform well as a
midday movie on network television for decades to come, and is likely to retain value on iTunes
into the future for an older audience.
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Director’s Vision
Choose FIVE of the following elements and comment upon how you will use these
elements to tell your story, to bring your film to life: casting, genre, locations, production
design, camera, lighting, sound, music, editing, special and visual FX (800 words max):
You may include reference to your inspirations/influences, to help the reader “see” and
“hear” your film (if so, include a bibliography as footnotes at the bottom), you may cast
anyone at any stage of their career, and your budget can be as large as your vision!
I would cast Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood as he embodies the good looks, charm and
physicality needed by stuntman Don, has all the dancing and comedy skills required, and
he could offer co-directing skills given his experience as a choreographer. Cosmo
Brown's vaudevillian hysterics would be ably performed by Donald O'Connor, and Jean
Hagan has both the gorgeous good looks and precise comedic delivery needed for the
role of Lina Lamont - particularly as a voice actress who can achieve Lina's shrill tones. It's
a bold choice, but I would choose up and coming Debbie Reynolds for the part of Kathy
Selden - though she does not have dance training, she has the smarts and dedication
required to pull it off, and the innate goodness that will make Kathy a tremendously
sympathetic character, worthy of Don risking his Hollywood career over.
I would film in Technicolor, even though the film is set in the age of black and white film
during the advent of the "Talkies", because this is such a light and bubbly tale, the soft
pastels of Technicolor would decorate the film like icing on a sweet layer cake. I would
return to pinks and purples over and over to accentuate the romance of the piece,
particularly in the love songs.
I would shoot the film as a musical, because a succession of musical numbers will enliven
the audience, and capitalise on the talents of the cast and my co-director Gene. It's also
the perfect genre to show off the best of talking pictures - singing. The lightness of the
delicate melodic staccato of the key musical number Singin' in the Rain will bring to life
the feeling of falling in love, when love can lift you out of even the darkest of moods, and
let you sing right through a storm. Kathy's character is a chorus girl, and Don is a
stuntman, so the story of their infatuation can be very well expressed in dance, as their
bodies do the talking - and singing. The tension between body and voice that the film
encompasses in its central dramatic questions will come alive as sexual tension in the
bodies and voices of these dancers.
I would use a fluidly moving camera, in a motion reminiscent of a lilting love serenade,
throughout the picture, using cranes, dollies and jibs to wheel around the characters like
a dancer in motion. Much of the time I would stick to wide shots and mid shots to make
sure we capture the full bodies of the dancers, and the choreographed set pieces.
Occasionally I'd go in closer for a bit of vaudevillian mugging, or on Don's lovesick face
as he seduces Kathy in a dance sequence in the studio in which he uses all the illusions
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cinema has to offer to create the environment in which he can finally profess his love.
I would shoot the whole movie on the studio lot, re-creating a sidewalk for Gene to do
Don's Singin' in the Rain musical number. I think we can shoot this scene in a couple of
days if we have the room to put cranes and lights in where we need them to just shoot
takes over and over until we get the number right. We obviously don't want to rely on
shooting only during the real "magic hour" of sunset outside for this kind of film - we
can create our own magic hours in the studio instead. Any semblance of illusion will
only add to the feeling of Hollywood magic that imbues the story as a whole. We can
blend a depiction of the machines and equipment that make this magic come to life
with the results - a softly lit dreamscape that anyone would wish to escape to.