Film Directing – Know What You Want

For those of you with creative sensibilities, directing a film can be an artistically joyous experience, whether it be a short, feature, documentary or any other myriad of forms that exist today. More opportunities exist now than ever before for anyone to pick up a camera and start shooting their epic. Inexpensive cameras, cheap software and editing systems, and the proliferation of internet-based distribution models have seen a blurring of the line between amateur and professional; and it’s no longer a rich man’s game.

Despite all these advances however, old-fashioned storytelling sensibilities and knowing how to craft a film is still what really counts. In this respect, no amount of cheap technology or new distribution platforms will ever help a director who doesn’t know what he/she wants. This is the real skill that has to be learnt in order for someone to succeed as a film director.

Being a film director is not an exact science. You can go to school, be ‘told’ what a director is meant to be, be told the ‘proper’ way to work with actors, and you may even try to emulate what you’ve been told; but at the end of the day, you have to learn what works for you. I can guarantee you if you try to copy or do what someone else tells you to do, it will not only not feel right, but you won’t do your best work. This isn’t helped by the fact that as you’re learning you’ll have people telling you how you should direct, and they will sound like they know what they’re talking about, especially if they come from the professional world. Some will have the best intentions at the heart of their advice, and some won’t (be wary of the latter!). And complicating matters further, you’ll have to know when to listen and when not to listen. In this respect, you not only have to have good creative judgment, but you have to know how to judge people as well; your success as a film director is greatly influenced by how many good people you surround yourself with and how well you block out negative people from holding you back. You’ll be amazed at how your creativity will blossom when you have other talented people supporting you (and in turn you supporting them).

Being a director requires a strong confidence in your own creative judgment. A director has to simultaneously know when to listen to those who are working for him/her, and when to proceed with their own judgment despite arguments to the contrary from others. It’s a fine line to walk, you will make mistakes, but you will only know how to handle it through practice. This is why the best advice for any new filmmaker is, to borrow a phrase, ‘just do it!’.

Returning to the central question, how do you know what you want? If you cannot answer that, don’t direct a film. You’ll put yourself through a lot of misery if you proceed without knowing what you want. You will feel frustrated with yourself and those who work for you will have no respect for you.

When you start making films, you’ll realise that much of what you’re doing is about damage control, or avoiding situations when things go wrong; and they will go wrong as no film ever goes through production without a hiccup. You’ll go in wanting to get one hundred percent of your vision, but you may only get eighty percent at best. Some things you’ll lose, and some things you’ll find along the way. As long as you remain creatively flexible, you will be surprised at the results. What you end up shooting can be quite different to what you intended at times, but if you have good judgment, what you will improvise in the face of adversity will quite often make your film better than you could have imagined; and with a strong, talented cast and crew for support when these things happen, you won’t fail.

However, if you want an answer, perhaps you should inform your filmmaking decisions based on what you would like to see if you were watching your film in the cinema as if it weren’t your film. That sounds strange but it is a way of creating a sense of objectivity on your work. You know what you like when you watch it in the cinema, so why not apply that judgment to your own work?

Anyone who takes up the challenge of directing a film deserves points for courage. You have to deal with a lot of factors, some in your control, and some not. When you start, you won’t be great, you’re likely to be the opposite and it will be frustrating. We’ve all been there; but if you don’t get out there and do it, and not be discouraged by seemingly never-ending setbacks, especially when your first work is not what you hoped, you’ll never become a good film director.

Related posts:

1. Film Directing Film directing is an art form, that many people don’t...