Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s Process:

          Depicting the lives of real people and the rejection of the Hollywood structure

Mike Leigh was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, Leigh trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, later attending other venerable British arts institutions including St Martins College of Art and Design and the London Film School.

Throughout, Leigh used his idiosyncratic production methods which rely on a unique style of character development: lengthy improvisation sessions with actors, often lasting months, gradually building into a cohesive script. Initially working one-on-one with each actor, they explore the character intricately before he or she is introduced to another character in a realistic scenario. This highly stylistic method discards the need for a concrete script, and lends a fresh, realistic flavour to the finished project  CITATION Mad12 \l 4105 (Party)

Mike Leigh uses a theatre style of rehearsal, weeks even months in advance of picking up a camera in order to write and integrate his actors into the creation process of his screen plays

Step 1: Picking a theme

Mike Leigh starts his process by picking a one line theme that will guide the story of his film. Some examples could include:

·         Secrets and lies

·         Relationships

·         Work

·         Family

·         Eating dinner

Step 2: Working with Actors

Each actor gets extensive one on one time with Mike in the character building process Mike will use the theme to encourage actors to remember people from their lives and find ways to relate the person to the subject matter of the film. This leads to a building of character for the actor. This person could be:

·         A girlfriend or boyfriend

·         Parent

·         Brother or sister

·         Acquaintance

Or some bloke in a pub (as Mr. Leigh would say)

The character should be well constructed so that the actor can be fully embodied in the character, however separate enough so that they don’t get stuck as the character. The person chosen as the example should not be the actor him/herself but instead  have a relationship to the actor that maintains some distance. This enables a separation between the character and the actor.

Step 3: Building Scenes

After a character is established, Mike will then introduce scenarios to the actors that will spark a session of improvisation around the theme and characters that were devised. Take for example:

·         First date at a restaurant

·         Afternoon stroll in park

·         Car pool lane to work

·         Crowed bus

·         Street at night

·         Chill bar

These scenes will be the first time the actors meet the other characters in which they will be working with. Mike continues the process by choosing the scenes that were notable and stood out. And so begins the screen writing process.

After the screen play is finished actors may be fully cast into characters either of their creation or of other actors’ creation to build the full narrative.

Leigh says he is now and will always remain “the guy with no script.”

 Mike Leigh