Which is a more lucrative career: Screenwriting or Directing?

hmmm... this is based on purely non-scientific data but based on the people I know who work as writers for tv and film, and directors for tv and film... the writers work more steadily. i don't know who is actually making more money, but in my circle it's the writers.
 
I think (not sure though) that directors in TV get a better residual package.

But if you want to pick a career on pay alone, this is the wrong line of work to begin with :)
 
According to my GF ...

Bartending, working as an apple tech, teaching, garbage man - anything is a more lucrative career than directing or screenwriting :)

On a more serious note, but along the lines of getting a job in the first place, if you are talking about features, there are lots of writers that make a living off of unproduced material, but the film actually has to get made typically for the director to get paid, so as such, while opportunities are limited in both areas, perhaps even more so for directors.

Then again if you really have a career going you can do commercials and some TV ... dunno.
 
yeah, this is one of those "well if you're huge, then we could talk" kind of things. For all the people who move to LA to become either writers or directors, i'd be surprised is HALF of them make $0.01 from doing either of those things. Of the people ACTUALLY making money, again, just a guess, I'd think writers are on average making more and more often than average money making directors.

If you're Spielberg or Jackson, things might be different, but that's not what we're talking about.
 
I think there's an old saying that goes, "You can't make a living in the film business...only a killing."
 
In short: neither...

Like everyone said above, writers get paid for optioning screenplays. Cool stuff, it might never get made, but cool stuff.

Directors, you need to get something made, but then you get a very nice percentage of the film net. Which can get into very high numbers, even 1 percent on a film doing 60mil net is a lot of money.
 
On purely lucrative terms... I'd say writers make more money in general because they're able to work on far more projects than a director. Whereas a Director might receive points off one project per year, a writer could be receiving points off two, three or four projects per year. The royalties for all these projects will add up in favor of the writer over the years... this only applies to industry people.. so unless you can get past those iron gates guarded by orcs and the demon spawn army of Richard Simmons... you'll probably be better off as a teacher, garbage man, or portrayal of Tom Cruise in 'Cocktail'.
 
Drew Ott said:
How about DPs?
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DPs, camera ops, assistants; this whole area makes fairly decent money once you're inside the iron gates. One of my friends was working on the Hollywood edition of that Trump show show, the Apprentice, and the operators on that show were making somewhere around $900 a day... This guy has been operating for at least ten years so he's got tons of connections. He would do a few shows a year and then go take off three-four months at a time. He didn't have many aspirations to become a DP or anything, he just liked operating..

But I am curious as to what really top end DPs make on a narrative feature...

I've heard and it reaffirmed that most top DPs in the commercial market make upwards of 8-10k a day... I've heard that's the top end of the market and it's better than what they'll make daily on a feature. I also wonder if certain DPs are ever awarded points or rather a half point; especially when it's a close DP/Director relationship such as Spielberg and Kaminiski.
 
I heard Roger Deakins made something like $400k for his work on The Village. This was what somebody told me that they read on IMDb pro.

Geoff, what do you mean by "earning points"?
 
I think the director usually gets paid more than the writer, at least in features. It might look like writers work more, but directors are often directing commericals, and music videos and the like, in between the bigger gigs, while writers are...moonlighting for a call center. And when it comes down to it, directors are treated with so much more respect, I'm not sure you can even equate the two professions--I mean, even if writing did pay more, the total lack of respect wouldn't be worth the extra salary you might be making over a working director. I still think directors make more though. Maybe we have to distinguish WORKING writers from WORKING directors, since there may be more writers employed at any one time, but their actual per contract salary is less than a working director.
 
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Drew Ott said:
I heard Roger Deakins made something like $400k for his work on The Village. This was what somebody told me that they read on IMDb pro.

Geoff, what do you mean by "earning points"?
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If you've got 'points' on the theatrical gross or points on DVD sales revenue; then you'll be making a ton of money if the movie is a success.
 
Mattykins said:
Which can get into very high numbers, even 1 percent on a film doing 60mil net is a lot of money.
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Mattykins-
You think 600K is a lot of money on a film netting 60 million? I'd stay in school a little longer if I were you. :grin:
 
Drew Ott said:
I heard Roger Deakins made something like $400k for his work on The Village.
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wow, who knew crap was such a valuable commodity? how can i get in on this racket?

okay that was a low blow. i'm not saying his work was bad, but the movie on the other hand...
 
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