Taking A Different Path To Becoming Director

I've always felt that FOR ME, a balanced diet of education and real set experience was the key. But each person is different.

What peeves me a bit is when people hear Tarantino say "I didn't go to film school, I went to films." and think that applies to all filmmakers . For some people school doesn't work and for some it does. I've had a wonderful experience in school, but some of my friends went to school for a year and dropped out.

All of us are advancing in our careers, but in different ways. I think the key is experimenting and finding what works FOR YOU.
 
I might not be the most qualified to answer this. I've JUST started being given opportunities to direct real, fully budgeted projects, including a upcoming commercial for Intel. Its a exciting time, and having just turned 24, I'm still in a little bit of wonderment on how I've gotten to this point. Looking back however, I can see that almost everything I've ever done has in some way contributed to getting my opportunities, but along that path alot of intiative had to be taken, and it was always important to have enough confidence in myself to take the roots that I thought were important.

I'm feeling that you more or less already believe in a path that would be right for you, and it would be my recommendation that you follow those instincts. Your a visual director. As a visual director you want to learn more about the technical aspects of cinematography because it may help you get your vision to screen when directing a upcoming project. Nothing sounds wrong with that. Just take other peoples advice and note that which ever root you go, its going to be difficult.
 
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My son is taking another approach to becoming a director. He is an actor. He has stage, film and TV experience. Just turning 17, he is also a standup comedian. I have preached to him that he has to know the business inside and out. Behind the camera as well as in front. He needs to be able to write, direct and produce as well as act. He has been involved with the biz for about 8 years and gets a hell of an education on set. This coming year he is applying to film school and hopes to attend USC, NYU, Emerson or maybe a state school like SUNY Purchase. Anyway, I am glad he wants to join the biz, I have been in the Radio/TV/Film business for over 40 years and still enjoy it.
 
I heard nearly 40% of those enrolled in my film school graduate without touching a camera
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Then you are going to the wrong film school...

When you are searching out a school, don't try to take pedigree over experience. Going to NYU is no better than going to a community college with a respectable program. Make sure you can touch cameras your first year. My school required us to start making 16mm films our first semester. And I didn't go to Emerson or NYU or any of the other "Film Schools". I went to Ithaca College.

Our production season had ~120+ individual projects go up per semester. There was plenty of opportunity to jump on set with someone. We had ~80 senior thesis projects go up over the 2010-2011 season. Many of those were multiple thousand dollar projects using tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Every one of those shows had decent crews. No one I know graduated without having made at least five films. Depending on your course selection and professors (some make you make more than one small film per semester if you are just learning (ie. In Camera edits with 16mm and then an edited 16mm film at the end of the semester)) you could have made 7, 8, or 9 films over 4 years. Couple that with required crewing and crewing just to help people out.

Cinematographers always had work. Directors who wanted to direct, directed. Screenwriters did their thing (acquisitions are low, because most want to direct their own stuff). My experience was very different than DCT's. Just really look at the school, look at their program, look at their equipment, and be sure you can play with cameras from year one and actually produce projects rather than learning theory for three years.
 
ALopez said:
I figured a safer route would be to first become a cinematographer and after a few years of being established in that, start transitioning over to director.
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This may be a road. But - somehow most of the discussions here have a slight tendency to depict directing or directors as a kind of ueber-DoPs. And this is absolutely not what it is about as far as my experience goes. Funny enough I started my career believing that I would be a DoP in the future ..... and then found out that something else would interest me much more: story telling and working with actors and working with a bunch of people in a mind bogglingly complicated process.

So, what you should ask yourself is: Are you more interested, fascinated, thrilled by seeing a complicated crane shot being rigged and working with the last gadget that shoots in 123.5 bits with the famous 8:6:4 Holmeskoelln-codec (and shallow DoF) at f 0.97......? Or are you much more interested, fascinated, thrilled by watching actors perform? Asking yourself where your story-telling got stuck or where it starts to suck? Or where and why it suddenly runs free and is swift and colourful and sparkling? Asking yourself at which point your audience may start to snore or to applaud? And having fun with finding an answer to the question why your leading lady is sulking in a corner? And why your team is not responsive? And how you can change that to the better?

The question is: Are you an iron-mover who likes things made out of metal and wires and knobs and glass and buttons and else .... or are you more of a navigator and motivator in the "dramatic stream" that is a movie? Sure you should know what all the knick-knacks on the set can or can not do. But this is only a small part of what directing is about.

Only my 0.02 € of wisdom.....
 
I'd say what a DP should be obsessed about is things like composition, lighting, etc, but yes, you need large chunks of metal to get those right; in any case, I wouldn't say "I'll start as a DP and then become a director" is a lot more realistic than "I'll start as a jet fighter pilot and then become an astronaut"; also, these are some interesting blog posts, and have some interesting comments below too: http://nofilmschool.com/2011/03/is-film-school-worth-it-in-2011/ - http://nofilmschool.com/2011/05/darren-aronofsky-talks-film-school-early/ - http://nofilmschool.com/2011/05/spend-40000-short-film-in-black-white/
 
djkarn105 said:
relevant:
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/eescobar/story/advice_to_my_friends_with_100_grand/
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Very good article, especially in two aspects: Shoot as much as possible .... and maybe throw it away afterwards .... but shoot. And edit yourself and find out what you've forgotten to shoot, what you did right, how you can organise your material differently, how you can change the pace and feel, but - most important - how a story can be structured.

This is the crucial part and we will very probably learn more about this part from an editor's perspective than from an cinematographer's perspective. And if it's only the story about the meeting of a can of tuna and a tin opener.... if we can give it any "dramatic structure" somehow we are starting to get there. It's all about story telling.
 
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Becoming a DP is just as hard to do as becoming a director, if not harder. There's still only one of them on set and every grip and electric wishes they were him too. It's probably the position that takes the longest to get to. I know people who have been working their way up to that point for 20 years, and they're only DPing TV movies and the odd TV episode. You're looking at 20 years until you reach that level. But if that's your goal, then giver.

Also, if you want to be a DP then definitely go to film school and DP every single show. They'll encourage everyone to try everything, but if you can come out of film school with a whole bunch of DP credits, that's one big bonus when it comes to applying for little Craigslist DP jobs, or whatever.
 
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