One of the primary challenges for novice directors is figuring out what to do with two actors for an entire page of dialogue. Some novice directors are so afraid of a static or dull picture that they add as much movement as they can—crosses, sitting, standing, etc.—making the scene busier, but not necessarily clearer.
This type of blocking can end up feeling random and can even undermine dramatic clarity, rather than heightening it. However, blocking can really start working for you when the blocking choices start to reflect shifts in the relationship between the characters. In other words, if the character’s objective has changed, they can cross. If their relationship with the other character has changed, they can sit down. If the other character is pressuring them, they can stand up to match the other character in height. The movement becomes meaningful because it reflects shifts in the scene—shifts in the relationship between the characters, shifts in the character’s objective, shifts in power, etc.
In this sense, then, stillness becomes a tool for the director. Too much movement can kill the tension in a scene. Allowing one character to remain still while the other character is attempting to provoke them, for example, can heighten the visual impact. If the character has been still up to that point, it will make the movement more noticeable for the audience when they eventually move.
One way to begin to approach this is to run the scene in a very stripped down way (making sure the actors have very clear objectives) allowing for very little movement in the scene. Ask yourself if there are places in the scene where the relationship shifts, where something changes. Make notes of those places (literally jot them down in the script or on your notebook). Once you’ve marked those down, run the scene again and try adding just one moment of movement for the actor and see how it feels. Where do the shifts in the scene occur? What has changed for the characters or the relationship?
Blocking should make sense because shifts in the relationship between the characters can be read visually.
Another way to tackle a simple dialogue scene would be to first identify what is necessary in the way of furniture or to diagram the stage. Once you’ve mapped the acting area, consider where the characters can start in relation to each other and consider some alternate paths of movement. A diagram like the following is helpful for blocking.
This will give you something that is easy to refer back to while blocking and to easily mark changes. However, it’s important not to overdo the blocking on paper. The scene will ultimately need to be physically acted out to know if it works in the space because something that looks beautifully blocked on paper may actually feel very clunky in action.
In the final run of the scene, make sure the actors aren’t relying on any obvious physical clichés such as moving forward when they have a good line. When that happens consistently, the action becomes predictable and loses meaning. Also make sure the actors aren’t constantly mirroring each other in terms of blocking, e.g. when one actor moves the other actor moves in the same way. That may look balanced in terms of pictures, but it may not necessarily make sense dramatically.
In the end, the point is to be able to explain why an actor is moving. If the scene is working and the audience can tell where the action is focused, can read the relationship between the characters and can feel the tension without the movement in the scene, get rid of the movement.
