How do I get started? (Directing)
- Thread starter opasepu
- Start date
depends what kind of directing you want to do. if you want to direct commercials or music videos, get a cheap camera and shoot a lot of stuff. if you want to direct features, i say instead of buying a camera, take some writing classes, write a 5 - 10 page short, storyboard it, rent a camera for a weekend, and make a short. even if you're not a good writer, you have to be able to judge good writing, and writing is free to practice.
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Michele Seidman
Well-known member
seems you got great info here and i am not a director...
Yeddi gave GREAT advice and ways to focus and set your goals and filmman makes a VERY valid point.
i have been told by DGA directors who taught classes when i ran the college film program that if you want to be a union director here you need X amount of hours working as a PA, then X ammount of hours working as an AD, then you get to direct.
at the same time...make a great film on your own and someone will buy your way in to the union so you can make a directors guild approved project!
but not being a director i would suggest you listen to those who have done it first!
Yeddi gave GREAT advice and ways to focus and set your goals and filmman makes a VERY valid point.
i have been told by DGA directors who taught classes when i ran the college film program that if you want to be a union director here you need X amount of hours working as a PA, then X ammount of hours working as an AD, then you get to direct.
at the same time...make a great film on your own and someone will buy your way in to the union so you can make a directors guild approved project!
but not being a director i would suggest you listen to those who have done it first!
Kangaskhan
New member
This advice has helped me as well. Thank you!
Mattykins
Cute Member
First things first - go to college. For anything. It doesn't matter. Go to college. And don't be stupid.
I am currently working with the former president of development at Viacom right now with a script I have in development. And he has told me that there hasn't been a single person he has encountered who is doing well for themselves in the film industry who hasn't been to college. That is from 20 years at Viacom. Go to college. Have a back up plan in case you don't live the life you anticipate living. You will always need to pay your bills.
And being realistic - thousands and thousands of films are made each years. Of those, only a few hit the big screen. Of those, only a few make back their production budget. And of those, only a few exceed their budget and do well.
To direct: start learning. Just do it. A mistake here and there is great so long as you learn from it. Start freelancing in any position on sets. The more you work in the industry, the more people you meet, the more sets you see, the more you understand.
There are thousands of ways in. Best advice is to give it your all each time you are on set.
I am currently working with the former president of development at Viacom right now with a script I have in development. And he has told me that there hasn't been a single person he has encountered who is doing well for themselves in the film industry who hasn't been to college. That is from 20 years at Viacom. Go to college. Have a back up plan in case you don't live the life you anticipate living. You will always need to pay your bills.
And being realistic - thousands and thousands of films are made each years. Of those, only a few hit the big screen. Of those, only a few make back their production budget. And of those, only a few exceed their budget and do well.
To direct: start learning. Just do it. A mistake here and there is great so long as you learn from it. Start freelancing in any position on sets. The more you work in the industry, the more people you meet, the more sets you see, the more you understand.
There are thousands of ways in. Best advice is to give it your all each time you are on set.
jpbankesmercer
Director Mod
Of course I would advocate everyone to get an education but I find this a sweeping statement and nieve. Filmmaking can take many paths and of course its very hard to make a steady living from it within the first 5-10 years (the establishing timeline), going to college and learning different skills can protect you during the hard days-months-years but it can also lead you from the path.
Just my opinion.
Jp
Mattykins
Cute Member
Well take it or leave it. I'll take his experience over opinion.
I'm not being mean or naive. But filmmaking as a business and life isn't just going out and making a movie. College won't move you off a path to being successful. Not going to college in this day and age is one of the more stupid decisions one can make. People who have a degree in something get paid much more, have better jobs, et cetera.
Fact.
But this isn't about the merits of going to college. If you think college will stray you from your "path". Don't go. Do what you think is right. No matter what people on an internet forum say.
Go out there and make a film. Then you are automatically a director or film maker. Success is a relative matter.
I'm not being mean or naive. But filmmaking as a business and life isn't just going out and making a movie. College won't move you off a path to being successful. Not going to college in this day and age is one of the more stupid decisions one can make. People who have a degree in something get paid much more, have better jobs, et cetera.
Fact.
But this isn't about the merits of going to college. If you think college will stray you from your "path". Don't go. Do what you think is right. No matter what people on an internet forum say.
Go out there and make a film. Then you are automatically a director or film maker. Success is a relative matter.
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Yeah that's retarded, you do NOT need a college degree to succeed in film, you need creativity, drive, resources, and talent. I got a degree but it isn't particularly useful to film, to say the least. A college degree is basically worthless anymore unless it's in a specific field, anyway, high school degree if you're smart will pay as much as a blank college degree, like sociology or whatever. I mean you're going to make $10-12 an hour either way. You'd be better off not bothering with 4 wasted years of college unless you really know what you want to do.
A lot of this advice I think is useless, no offense, but it's basically just people parroting what those in the industry at the top would love everyone to think -- work hard as a PA or some crap, you may make it one day. Good luck, nobody makes it that way, ever. Name one major director who has ever started off doing that kind of crap. It doesn't happen. Nobody is going to be like, "Boy you sure brew a mad cup of coffee" or "You sure move around c-stands great," so then "You'd make a great director! We have an opening on a major TV show for a director, you should totally do it!" Explain to me in REALITY where this line of thinking actually makes any sense whatsoever. If you want to direct, it's quite simple -- you direct. If you don't have the resources to direct anything you won't be a director. I'm sorry that's the cold, hard facts. Directors direct. It costs money or takes a lot of time getting favors so you can accumulate a good reel that competes with other struggling wannabe directors. Even that is absolutely no guarantee at all. A bunch of award-winning shorts, still no guarantee of getting any sort of meaningful directing gigs, but at least you have a chance. Being a PA on peoples' sets is a waste of time. I can tell you I learned everything I needed to know about the smooth operation of a set from 2 months of school, some books, and doing my own projects. I didn't need to PA on anything to figure that out, and you don't either. It's a waste of your time. Nothing could be a worse idea in my opinion -- selling your name so small, being someone's tool basically on this set. If you want to sell yourself as a director, BE a director, and don't be anything else either. Not gaffer / grip / director / PA or something. If you must, work out of the industry in a better paying job, then direct on the side, at least then people will rightly CALL you director, and you will be director.
I'm not a grip or anything else because I've only worked as a director / producer, so nobody knows me as anything else, nobody calls me and offers me $75/day to go grip their crappy student films, because they know not to waste my time -- they won't call me unless it's a big project or they have real money to spend. And that's how it should be. I don't want people thinking of me as some peon on a set. If you intend to make it one day and get the big bucks then you better build a big name, and the way to do that isn't to be prostituting yourself out for $50, $100/day on lousy projects where you won't learn anything except all the ways other people suck at filmmaking. You're better off finding ways to do your own projects.
It's so ludicrous, it's like saying that you can learn how to be a great race car driver if you change the tires on the race car or if you hand a water bottle to the driver or if you do his marketing. No, you can't. I don't care if you're "around" the race car driver and see what he does, you still don't know ANYTHING about racing cars from the driver's point of view. Same with directing. Oh wow you're a grip, you saw someone direct, well woopdie doo-da, that doesn't mean you know anything more about what actually goes into directing. So the people here who said go and out do it are correct.
But then again I'm a maverick in that sense, I don't believe in being someone's slave, I see enough of those in Hollywood, none of them ever make it. The people who make it are bold, they seize big opportunities, and they have the confidence and balls to think they can pull of great feats. They're not gripping on sets for 5 years because they are "still learning and waiting for the chance to direct." Real directors direct. Posers sit around and make up excuses for why they're not quite ready or why their silly, nonsensical path will somehow put them into what they want to do eventually.
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mburgh
Active member
Great Directors without college: Griffith, Welles, Ford, Hawks, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Lean
Backgrounds: Griffith, Ford, Welles, theatre/acting. Hawks - everything. Hitchock, Lean - tea boy to editing. Kubrick - Still photos to shorts to self-produced to great films.
Directors with college: Scorsce, Spielberg, Coen Bros.
If you want to direct - get a camera and start. If you want to live in L.A. and be part of the industry, drive out, go on a set and become a P.A. If you want to learn enough to be a director, read everything, see everything, experience life. John Huston didn't start directing until he was 40. First film: Maltese Falcon.
Backgrounds: Griffith, Ford, Welles, theatre/acting. Hawks - everything. Hitchock, Lean - tea boy to editing. Kubrick - Still photos to shorts to self-produced to great films.
Directors with college: Scorsce, Spielberg, Coen Bros.
If you want to direct - get a camera and start. If you want to live in L.A. and be part of the industry, drive out, go on a set and become a P.A. If you want to learn enough to be a director, read everything, see everything, experience life. John Huston didn't start directing until he was 40. First film: Maltese Falcon.
JonathanLB
Carbonite Member
Directors with college and you include Spielberg? Uhh, no. Spielberg was a college drop out. He just graduated from college recently! LUCAS graduated college, from USC, Spielberg did not until well after he was already widely considered the greatest director of all time.