John Rogers, the Kung Fu Monkey, on working with Tim Hutton in the pilot for the show Leverage:
On the next take, in the middle of five pages of dialogue, he delivered a line as he stepped forward – then stopped without warning. He took two steps back to reset just that line among dozens, and said it again on the move. But this time, he shifted about eight inches to the right and on the step-in landed not just perfectly into a glorious foreground light, but with slightly better framing of the intricate background for the complete shot composition.
He’d been watching his stand-in to memorize the light layout and composition from camera view, and then used it to map out his moves within inches to give us the best shots. All while slamming the performance home.
That is, to be blunt, pretty goddam sick. That’s how the grown-ups do it, kids. Next time you rush off the set as soon as the director calls “cut” so you can text your agent on your Razor, keep that in mind.