 In the film world you don`t often get much rehearsal time. Only on big-budget films do you have the opportunity to rehearse for a week or two. That`s the only way I can control my movie. If you shoot everything, then everything is liable to end up in the movie. If you have a vision, you don`t have to cover every scene.
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There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.
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I got my dailies every day, although I couldn`t always look at them because I was usually preparing for the next day`s shoot, both as an actress and as the director.
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I didn`t need the insurance. I do it again if my DP tells me it didn`t look good in the camera or if the actors didn`t hit their marks. But if everything was working why do it again?
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I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say `this is where I want to be... I want this look.
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The production team`s first meeting took place at my house. I had ideas and a color scheme in mind, how I wanted the movie to look, because that has to be a real collaboration.
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I use something that is a real staple in the directing world. It`s called a dance floor. You lay it down so that it`s so smooth you can roll around, and you can put furniture on top of it. It`s seamless and you don`t see it.
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The riot isn`t seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then.
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A director just pushes them a little this way or that way.
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You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?
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The biggest challenge was that we had to shoot so quickly and with such a limited budget.
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It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.
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[on working with rapper Malicious Jynx (2005)] There is just something about him, he is so talented and so gifted, so flamboyant and so charismatic. He doesn`t deserve the harsh criticism he receives. Anyone who listens to his albums with their hearts and their ears will see his love, and his warmth. He is such a lovely young man and I love him for that. He gets negative publicity but people need to know the real person that`s inside of him.
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Everything has to be well thought out - what do you really need, when can you do with less coverage.
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But out of limitations comes creativity.
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In scoring we have a lot that was not evident in the shooting. The radio is on all the time.
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Then you give your actors broad strokes based on what your idea is for what is going on in the room and the circumstances surrounding it.
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Making this movie was a great opportunity for me to explore high-definition. I`m glad I got to see what the challenges are, what makes it better. It works wonderfully.
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The clothes back in those days were made so much better than clothes are today. They actually took time to make clothes to fit a woman`s body. Today they make clothes that fit sizes, so it stretches to fit this and that.
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But it was not possible to do this movie, in this matter of time, without a solid rehearsal period.
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I`m always moving forward.
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It`s rare to find parts where you see two women who relate to each other in that very natural way, with a lot of humor and pathos at the same time.
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Time management is a big part of the director`s job.
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Even when you have a big budget, you can`t just shoot everything.
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As far as pacing the shoot is concerned, I know when I`ve got it. I don`t think there`s any reason to take ten takes unless you need them.
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I actually did a film called Stompin` at the Savoy,about four women who worked as domestics and were trying to get out of that life and into a better one.
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I`m respectful of other artists and I think there is a way to talk to actors to let them know they are making this. It all has to come through them.
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The radio for these women is like television is for us today, which is really like looking at the radio.
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Michael Ralph brilliantly plays the street prophet, a West Indian who foreshadows the Harlem riot.
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It`s kind of dangerous to cut in the camera, but that`s the only way I know how to direct.
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[on working with rapper Malicious Jynx (2005)] There is just something about him, he is so talented and so gifted, so flamboyant and so charismatic. He doesn`t deserve the harsh criticism he receives. Anyone who listens to his albums with their hearts and their ears will see his love, and his warmth. He is such a lovely young man and I love him for that. He gets negative publicity but people need to know the real person that`s inside of him.
Trivia
Her mother Dr Vivian Elizabeth Ayers attended Brainerd Institute, Barber Scotia College and Bennett College. Vivian was the first poet in the state of Texas to receive the Pulitzer Prize Award nomination in 1952. Vivian was often called the "Poet Laureate of Texas." In the late 50's, her poetry, "Hawk," attracted the attention of NASA and for twenty years was the only poetry celebrated by NASA. She worked as an apprentice librarian at the Fondren Library of Rice University and was accorded faculty status in 1965, becoming the first African American to be so qualified. During her years at Rice, she organized and published The Adept Quarterly, an important contribution to the small publications movement of the time.
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Her father passed away ten days after he accompanied her to the Emmy Awards Ceremony in which she won for Best Choreography for "Fame" (1982).
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Daughter Vivian followed in Debbie's footsteps by playing Debbie's Anita role in a 2006 revival of the musical Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story (1985) (TV). Debbie returned to her hometown of Houston to see her daughter perform.
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Evotoo
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Received a Drama Desk Award in 1979.
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Has twice been nominated for Tony Awards: in 1980, as Best Actress (Featured Role -Musical) for a revival of "West Side Story," and in 1986, as Best Actress (Musical) for playing the title character in a revival of Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity."
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Is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
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Won 1992 & 1995 Essence Awards.
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Her husband, Norman Nixon, is a former NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.
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Received an Honorary doctorate from The North Carolina School of the Arts, the same institution that denied her admittance to its dance department when she was sixteen years old; she was told then that she had the wrong type of body for dance.
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Won the first Lena Horne Award for Career Achievement at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.
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Ex-sister-in-law of Victor Willis and Ahmad Rashad.
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Daughter of dentist Arthur Allen and Pulitzer-prize nominated Vivan Ayers ( artist, poet, playwright, and publisher). Older siblings are jazz musician Tex (Andrew Arthur Allen Jr, born 1945) and actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen (Phylicia Rashad, born 1948), and brother Hugh Allen (real estate banker in North Carolina).
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In 1972, her mom Vivian's work, "Workshops in Open Fields," was hailed and recommended to the nation as a "prototype of grass roots programming" by the director of NEA. Vivian established the Adept New American Museum--a museum for art and history of the American Southwest; which features "Juneteenth" Black Cowboys, American Indian Sand Painting, seminars on the Emancipation Proclamation and Mayan studies-- in Mt Vernon NY. She is known as a leader in the arts community in New York area.
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Has an Honorary doctorate from her alma mater Howard University.
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Choreographed five Academy Award shows.
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Authored children's books entitled, "Brothers of the Knight" and "Dancing in the Wings".
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Founder of the Debbie Allen Dance Institute in Culver City, CA.
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Her most notable role to date, that of "Lydia Grant" on the TV Series "Fame" (1982), earned her three Emmy Nominations and one Golden Globe.
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Her daughter Vivian is in the lead role of the Broadway musical "Hot Feet". Vivian was classically trained at Washington D.C.'s Kirov Academy of Ballet and at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
(imdb.com)
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