Is directing an acquired skill or a gift you're born with?

[swaneon]

i think that the two need to come hand in hand to be amazing but is everyone equal in all settings? no i think that some people have a tendency to excel in certain areas

mentally logical intelligence could be one---friends, professors working extremely hard at physics but not on the level of feynman or einstein
and the age thing, there is an article awhile my old teacher mentioned that men (could be women also) are in their prime intellectually and sexually at the mid 20s and it drapes off then so i theres that point

[gonzo_entertainment]

"Also, is everyone just accepting that Kurasowa is the greatest or something? Good thing no one told, oh, every great director that came around post Seven Samurai not to bother, never be as good as old Akira. In conversation I refer to this as the masterpiece problem. People see them as end points instead of parts of a continuum (high water marks, sure, but not an arrival point. "

Not an "end point" but extremely influential. a paradigm shift. Where nothing after is the same. Same for Hitchcock, Same for John Ford, etc... They set the standard of what CAN be done.

[Kholi]

Here's an example. You're directing a scene, and the performance is just not what you want it to be. A director who might be very skilled will have an idea of what to do. They've read a lot of books and understand why for instance giving result direction is usually bad. They try some of the tricks they've picked up over the years, etc. But in the end the performance is still not working. In instances like this, what is needed is a deep and true understanding of people. There will be directors who in an instance like this will be able to dig deep and get to the root of the problem. But a lot of people won't. Now you could argue that understanding people is also a skill that can be learned, but I don't think so. I'm not talking about understanding in a psychological sense, I mean more in an empathetic sense.

I'm still fledgling, but this post to me summarizes the critical duties of a director. You must be able to do this successfully, and what successfully means to me is the completion of a scene to satisfaction of the audience. It doesn't necessarily only deal with what you can do on set, either. Decisions in post are just as seated in the same problem solving "skills".

Again, I'm still new but at this point in time this is where I sit. Maybe it'll change later on.

[JeffHarriger]

Getting a bang out of problem solving definitely seems like a key thing, for sure. And as ever, allowing different courses for different horses, or whatever the hell that saying is. A lot of people have this idea Kubrick didn't understand, like, or feel much empathy for people. I think this is nonsense, but his directing approach to actors was just to keep doing it and wait til it was right, whatever that was. Not much direction he could give at a certain point. He had the true luxury of time, he could wait. He could re-do scenes weeks later if the exposure wasn't right, anything. It's the ultimate working model. The rest of us, vainly fighting against time all the time, not having been granted genius status just yet, need some tricks!

I hear ya Gonzo. I don't find "influence" the hateful word some people do, but there's a lot of professed film "lovers" with a dead history view of art that is creepy. Nostalgic types. You know what I mean.

[vic777]

Interested to hear what you think.
Will

Everything you are is a result of your heredity and environment. Directing a movie is not rocket science. A person with average natural abilities can become a great Director given the proper environment/training/experience.

[nycineaste]

Everything you are is a result of your heredity and environment. Directing a movie is not rocket science. A person with average natural abilities can become a great Director given the proper environment/training/experience.

This week I saw two asian horror films that showed such a remarkably tasteful sense of pacing, humanism, and CONTROL (what to show, what not to, when to cut, when not to), despite both being very intensely horrific and "extreme" if you will. It was a reminder that there is such a thing as advanced, high level, masterful directing.

so yeah anyone can learn to be a hack but we all aint gonna be geniuses (at least not without a bunch of hard work). I wanna make horror movies. Can I pull off something as manically energetic and fiendishly clever as Evil Dead? As human and touching and exciting as The Host?

Hmm... Ill try....

[CallaghanFilms]

I love the IQ analogy bit quite a lot (too much filler b/t here and there to search it out for quotage).

But it really is okay to say talent is innate.
This particular analogy shows that
IQ = PC(proof)

[Jordan Scott Price]

I think you need both talent and skill to excel. You can have an innate disposition for the craft, or you may have a keenly developed instinct brought by experience and education.

Either will likely be advantageous in the career path...But the two together with a driving work ethic is the recipe for excellence, in my opinion.



My personal take on directing is the ability to direct people to make your movie. Therefore, I think you need a balance of talent and skill in people. Introverts, such as I, need to develop skills with people in order to succeed, but having talents for quick-wittedness and analysis help in becoming a "people's" director. The argument about talent for the creative is outside this point because this is my view of what a director is. You need to be a craftsman, but a leader first, in my opinion.

[Lisa Talley]

I agree with some opinions that it is something that can be learned in the sense that certain skills can be obtained to get the job done. The greatness of the final product though will largely depend on that director's creativity. I don't think creativity can be taught, it can only be cultivated. Some people have an innate vision, grand ideas with a great handle of the technical side, but they can't effectively communicate it. A great director needs some killer interpersonal communication skills to go along with a great vision, and not everyone can develop those skills. Technique is something that can be learned all day long, but you can't teach vision or a deep understanding of human nature combined with an ability to connect with it.

So, in short, I think directing skills can be acquired enough to get a job "done", but what separates a director who simply gets a job done from the one who can get it done with greatness, is a unique innate vision (which can't be taught) combined with the ability to communicate effectively and understanding the human condition.

Video Production

[Rolf Silber]

Look at it this way: All of what has been stated in this discussion can only be - in the better case experience based - speculation. If we'd be able to answer the OP's question, we'd be for sure on the short list for a Nobel price for neuro-science. What we can do though is to juggle our experiences and interpretations. In the end any position we take will probably be a telling truth more about ourselves and our way we see life than the truth of the matter. But that's okay, me thinks.