A director needs to know how to light a film

[500lb Productions]

I have just bought a DVX100b for 3,500 euro's and a secondhand cheap lightingkit, but after reading this, iam afraid its a bit silly..... almost everyone is agreeing that the director should not know lighting, but only needs to understand it and communicate about the lighting, the dont have to know HOW its getting done.

I want to focus on directing, but everytime i get too much into the technical side of it, spending weeks on reading/searching about some kind of technical aspect... I give to blame to the fact that iam just turned 20 and do almost everythin myself.

Don't sweat it.

Doing everything yourself when you're 20 will put you in a much much much stronger position when you are focusing on the talent and visual appearance as a less hands on director at 25. It will give you a much better experience base enabling you to understand your staff and think in their specialties "native language" (ie for lighting: watts, type, ND, color, scrim and for DP: lens, placement, DOF, shutter) rather than constantly being stuck translating in frustration.

One trap to avoid however, is falling into the habit of HAVING to do it all yourself because ONLY you can see your vision. At that point, your inability to delegate and manage a crew will begin to hold you back by limiting the scope and scale of production you are capable of directing.

Just because you know HOW to do something, doesn't mean you HAVE TO do it yourself, and the bigger the production the more inefficient it becomes to not delegate.

 

[Geoff_R]

At first I hated the prospect of having to learn how to do everything; lighting, sound, edting, ect. But it has actually worked out for the best because now when I work with larger groups of people I can speak their language. I can talk indepth with sound designers, editors, cinematographers and producers.

I think more and more, we're going to find people who are able to make low-budget indy films that rival hollywood films because they'll have widespread knowledge across all areas of filmmaking coupled with increasingly sophisticated equipment and technology.

 

[Jay A. Kelley]

Good leaders are always aware of the jobs and responsibilities of those they work with. Knowing how to do a lot of things means that your odds of surviving a "set breakdown with crew" are much higher.. In well funded productions this is almost never the case, but still, I feel better knowing what I know.

As a director you have three main responsibilities: Your story, your cast, and your vision. In a lot of cases directors will focus on the first two and not worry so much about the third.. Leaving that to the DP.

My PERSONAL feeling is that my experience as a DP is very valuable as a director.

Jay

 

[donkathon]

A director doesnt need to know how to light if he has a lighting guy. But if all he has is the DP, a sound guy, actors, and a grip/buddy, hes gonna have to light it because only he knows what he wants.

Like I've said before, when I start on my feature, Im not going to do that whole "get it shot in a weekend" thing. I dont care if its gonna take months... I will be scouting locations, and experimenting and planning so everything is perfect. I wont be impulsive and shoot the entire thing in one day.

 

[500lb Productions]

A director doesnt need to know how to light if he has a lighting guy. But if all he has is the DP, a sound guy, actors, and a grip/buddy, hes gonna have to light it because only he knows what he wants.

Like I've said before, when I start on my feature, Im not going to do that whole "get it shot in a weekend" thing. I dont care if its gonna take months... I will be scouting locations, and experimenting and planning so everything is perfect. I wont be impulsive and shoot the entire thing in one day.

You may be setting yourself up for a different breakdown, however: CONTINUITY.

You cast and crew may not stick it out to the end across a multi month project. Finding the perfect location for a shot may be useless if you no longer have access to the cast to shoot the scene.

Also, your own style may drift considerably given that much time, resulting in a variety of continuity problems.

Just something to think about.

 

[donkathon]

You may be setting yourself up for a different breakdown, however: CONTINUITY.

You cast and crew may not stick it out to the end across a multi month project. Finding the perfect location for a shot may be useless if you no longer have access to the cast to shoot the scene.

Also, your own style may drift considerably given that much time, resulting in a variety of continuity problems.

Just something to think about.

I always think about that. It would be a strong problem, but I mean I would spend months BEFORE finding a cast, and simply would scout and prepare with the DP. Actors always concern me, because they can backstab you and quit anytime- but, if you know the time and place, I would think they'd be there.

As for continuity, I dont like to have terribly long scenes in anything. I would get it all done in a day or two, unless the weather conditions change, and I need to rescedule later.

 

[Charli]

I think a director needs to know how to interpet a scene to understand better
how to light that scene. Does that scene call for an emptiness in tone? or
clutter? or... whatever. Once the scene has been properly interpeted by the
director, then he will know what type of lighting he wants.

If however a director is only swimming on the surface on a script, if he hasn't
really delved into the fine nuances of the story, then the lighting is a mystery.

I really think it's more about knowing what the story needs in order to figure out
the lighting. That's just me.

 

[CineDreams]

Actually, MR. spielberg knows a thing or two about lighting. he started by shooting his own films as a kid. George lucas knows how to light, he also shot his own films when he was young. So did Coppola. see anything in common? Light is one of the key creative elements you use as a filmmaker. You don't have to lug your own lights, but you should at least understand it as a creative element and even better if you can do it yourself. all good film directors can and have. Some even started as camera men.

 

[Nathan Drillot]

I'll throw my two cents in.

It's really important that a director has an eye for framing, composition, and of coarse blocking. Personally I like to learn as much as possible about cinematography, even though I consider myself a director. It most definitely can't hurt!

Take Stanley Kubrick into consideration. Now regardless if you like his films or not, he always had amazing cinematography and was always pushing the boundaries of cinematic technology (not just in cinematography, but all areas). I read an interview with his DP, John Alcott, and he said that if Kubrick had not been a director he would have probably been the greatest cinematographer in the world.

Another example would be Steven Soderbergh, who does his own cinematography (credited as Peter Andrews).

Personally I think it's CRUCIAL to understand the art of Cinematography, but it's also CRUCIAL to have a Director of Photography that you can trust. When it comes down to the day you'll hopefully never have to think about the lighting because everything will have been planned and discussed before hand.

One thing I stress to other young directors is to video board! There's really few excuses not to. Just grab a camera (doesn't really matter which one) and go out with your Director of Photography and some friends and block and shoot the movie. Then you can piece things together and see what works and what doesn't. That way on the day your as prepared as possible (cinematically) and you can feel confident enough to play around and let the actors have more space to do what they need to do.

Please take the time to check out my film, it's called "Bright Lights" and can be found at www.indiecinema.org . We shot super 16mm and video boarded the entire movie before hand. It was a major necessity because we only had 2000 feet of film for a 12min movie. I think we only did a 2nd take 3 or 4 times during the whole shoot.

Well thanks for reading

nathan