As rehearsals for our movie shoot approach, I'm starting to get nervous. This is the first time I've directed more than two actors, and, more importantly, the first time those actors have been actors! Hitherto I've only directed friends, who don't have years of experience behind them. The first reahearsal, this Thursday, will be the moment when I'm first put on the spot.

Since Scott, one of the screenwriting friends I'm collaborating with, is himself an experienced actor, I'd thought of asking his advice on how to approach the rehearsals. But I remembered suddenly this morning a piece of advice I received years ago in a completely different arena. My then boss, Richard, had asked me, out of the blue, to take over management of a very large, high-visibility, multi-person project at work. At that point, I'd only managed small projects, and the idea of stepping into Richard's shoes on such a large, established project was incredibly daunting. I imagined the first project meeting with me leading. The team meetings always included some upper management people, and here, all eyes would be on me, expecting me to show leadership. I just couldn't see it happening.

Richard told me just one simple thing: if you show people that you believe you're the leader (even if you don't actually feel like the leader), they'll believe it too. Eventually, despite my fears, I accepted the challenge, and took on the project, which ultimately ended up being the most accomplished acheivement in my career.

Now where was I going with all this? Oh yeah, rehearsals. I decided I'd just pretend that I know what I'm doing. I think I can pull this off because I also realized that most of Scott's experience has been in theater, where the role of rehearsals is much different (I think :). So I just did a little bit of research on the web about rehearsals for film, decided on an approach, and sent off an email to Scott and Jim saying "Okay, this is what we're going to do." Wish me luck!