What should I focus on...

Aschu

Aschu

Well-known member
This question sucks because I feel it's vague, but hopefully someone has some input for me.


I am obsessed with the film process, as many of the people here are. I love every aspect. The problem is I feel like I spread myself thin. On my projects, I direct, work the camera, set up lighting, do all the post work and normally write.

I want to be a director. I understand that writing is key. But what about the rest? Should I really be spending hours and hours learning how to use after effects and photo shop? I spend all this time on all of these things, but feel like I only touch the surface of each.

Just sorta lost right now.
 
Well, my background is in editing and I've spent years learning premiere, photoshop, final cut, avid, etc..

Do you only want to be a director and just "direct"? Since you're also involved with the other parts of the film process, that can also help in directing.

No matter how much you learn about everything, you can never know everything. Learn the necessities and improve where you feel weak at.
 
To be a good director, you need to understand the resources available to tell the story and what the tradeoffs are. Every single thing in a movie is a compromise. A basic working knowledge of all aspects of the process is invaluable.

Spending the time and energy to become really proficient at any of them is a whole different matter. Like most things in life, with diligence and effort, the first 80% can be acquired relatively quickly. That last 20% that defines the master is something else entirely.

Perhaps the most important skillset of a great director is the ability to recognize and channel greatness in others. Life is not fair, there is simply not enough time to be even really good in all things. To be great, you must choose. But you all ready knew this . . . .
 
Really good points, pixelated. I mean, that's how I feel, I know basically a little bit about everything. I have a producer's knowledge, which helps me direct too. But I don't know that last 20%.

I can definitely edit simple projects and do a good job, but I may be a heck of a lot slower than an expert like Rockman. I may even be able to achieve 85% of the results that Rockman can on let's say an average corporate video or something simple like that, but he may do it three times faster than me! Because I keep finding every way to do it wrong first, LOL, then finally come upon how it looks best.
 
to be a director you need to study form and content and the disciplines essential to unify and execute both – composition, working with actors, story structure, working with actors, pacing, color, space, meta-strategies, and yes, working with actors, etc. now, you do not need to know the technical side of operating a camera or managing an edit thru post production, but by doing it yourself you will learn the "art" of these disciplines. one thing I see absent from your post is the opportunity to really learn and understand the language actors speak. and i think that's vitally important. second only to knowing how to tell a story.
 
I would suggest getting a basic technical background. Though not necessary it will help you out allot with your DP relationship. I have had a director who wanted me to run backwards with a RED machine gun style in a CU down a busy street with an 85mm lens. He also refused to rent more CF cards for the RED so this would mean having the extra bulk of the hard drive and praying it didnt skip. Directors that only think about the end product and dont think about how to properly get to it are not good directors at all. I would disagree with your statement saying that writing is the most important. Tons of directors dont write their own stuff. I would say keeping the film a balance of 60% art and 40% business is the most important quality in a director. Also having your own vision of a script wether you wrote it, co wrote it, or bought it and taking it from start to finish.
 
I'm trying to quench my thirst for knowing all things all the time like many of us on this board. I realize I need to stop reviewing cameras/editing info until I have my scripts ready to shoot. So I am concentrating on story...on writing...on emotion, etc. Once I get the scripts ready to shoot then I will focus on storyboarding/cinematography. Then get back to the cameras and editing platforms. Focus on the sequential steps if you want to do all things.
 
lairhair said:
I would suggest getting a basic technical background. Though not necessary it will help you out allot with your DP relationship. I have had a director who wanted me to run backwards with a RED machine gun style in a CU down a busy street with an 85mm lens. He also refused to rent more CF cards for the RED so this would mean having the extra bulk of the hard drive and praying it didnt skip.
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Orrrrr you could just know to trust your DP and you wouldn't have to learn anything! :grin:
 
I think it's valuable to learn learn technical aspects of film production if for no other reason than it's instructive to be around film-making.

As to what disciplines, a lot of people say writing, a lot of people say DP, I say both and editing. Here's why. Filmmaking is predominantly about telling stories visually. Writing is about the story, photography is about the picture, and editing is about putting it all together.
 
RyanT said:
Orrrrr you could just know to trust your DP and you wouldn't have to learn anything! :grin:
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That's more or less how I went honestly. Found a great DP, trusted his vision and tried to explain what I wanted to see, he corrected me where necessary or at least questioned me where necessary, not telling me how to do my work but asking me questions to clarify what I was thinking, and it forced me to be a more detailed thinker and see things through his eyes. I also took careful note, on three shoots with him, of what types of things he does, how he moves the camera, his visual ideas, and those are now part of my vocabulary and arsenal. I don't care what DP I work with now, I have a clearer vision of what I want just based on that alone. I know what's possible and know some extra techniques that work, and I can show anyone else how to do them and why I want that, etc.

Having worked with a number of DPs now, I know to trust a good DP that I hire, but I also know more about how to make my vision a reality. You have to start out hiring great people and trusting them, unless you want to start directing when you are 40 and know enough to give specific instructions to average workers. I prefer to surround myself with great people -- they make me look better! ;)

Directing is such a tough process, at the highest level, because you must know so much about so many things. You have to understand film history, you really do, I don't care who says otherwise, the best directors have an acute appreciation of film history and understand why great films worked, and how they can basically add to cinema's tapestry and not just rehash old material. I spent many, many years studying film and writing about film, thousands upon thousands of pages of film reviews. It was a full-time job for me even while in college, so I felt constantly busy just learning. And yet my knowledge is so far off from what I wish it were even still because I love cinema!

Aside from that, the people who said editing are completely right. I'm of the formalist belief that films are created in the editing room, not while being shot. Of course it's important to have good footage, but I think if you can't figure out how it all comes together, you're missing the point. I won't hand off anything to be edited and just excuse myself from the process. That's ridiculous. I've heard editors who wouldn't want to work with a director who is hands on. I think they are basically unaware of the process of filmmaking or have huge egos, bigger than they think I have for wanting to be there for the editing ;) I don't sit there and tell any editor how to do their job. They are professionals and will do better than me. But I do like to be there for questions and input. I often sit there for 12 hours, and go an entire hour without even saying anything related to the material. If it's a good editor who knows me, they basically know what I like, I don't have to tell them. But I like to be part of the process and describe what I feel for the scene, what I think the flow should be like, what I want to emphasize. I do not give technical input. I don't say, "That cut needs to be 4 frames sooner" or nonsense like that. I like to watch the editor work and usually only at the end of a scene perhaps give a bit of input. But I want my stamp on the process from pre-production through post, no exceptions. I won't make anything away from that creed. Leave that to people who are not fans of the auteur theory of directing and don't believe in formalism ;)

By observing the editing process so much, though, I started to think so much more about how I shoot things, how they come together, and basically it helps me understand what I need to get on set so that my editor has the materials needed to make everything cut properly. You figure out early on when you're still an amateur why cut-aways and inserts save your life, lol, but then you get into more sophisticated things that you didn't really know could be done in editing, and when you realize that, they save you time on set and make your life easier. How you could be a great director and be blissfully unaware of how the editing process works, I have NO idea. That would be seriously impossible. You'd be a lot better off having no idea how to write a screenplay, honestly, because you just can't be that ignorant of editing.
 
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I'd like to mention something about a director having to be a writer that some might consider. Danny Boyle stated in an interview that he is NOT a writer, but he likes to work with them. This is certainly something to ponder for those who believe you NEED to be a writer in order to be a director.

In case you want to see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A90TdG5Enrs
 
Yup

Yup

You definitely don't have to be. If you can't write very well, which I'm sorry is the case for about 95% of people at least, you really should team with someone who is a good writer and just focus on the directing aspect. You can help develop some ideas together perhaps, but leave the actual writing to someone else. Nothing is worse than awful screenplays, lol.

That being said, I wouldn't be all that happy directing someone else's writing. I want to tell my own stories, that's why I came to Hollywood, not to adapt someone else's ideas to the screen. If I was paid enough money of course I'd do anything along those lines, because I'm sure it'd still be a good exercise, but it wouldn't make me happy to be doing that full time.
 
Well that's the thing. I'd likely only direct someone else's work if they shared my enthusiasm for a similar story, or if we came up with it together. Or if I cam up with the idea and had someone else write it. I just don't really enjoy writing. I'm a fairly good writer but I don't like it.

It's just that I keep reading "a director is first and foremost a writer," and that's not always true.
 
Yeah

Yeah

I agree, no that isn't always true.

But I think you have the right idea, too. I mean, there was a time period actually for a long while where I thought my ideal situation would be to come up with the idea, maybe a rough treatment, and have someone else write it into a screenplay. But now that I've really gotten into screenwriting, I enjoy it a ton, and I can't imagine not being the one to write my own scripts now. That took a long time to get there, though, and it was like pulling teeth at first. It has gotten easier and easier, but it's still a tough process, the revisions are what I find the most difficult because just getting out the rough draft is fairly easy. Revising it enough to be happy with it is another monster, hehe.
 
See, I am feeling the same thing. I want to be able to direct my own stories, not someone elses, but I struggle with writing screenplays. I do hope to find someone who is on the same page as me so we can come up with ideas together and then they will write it, but I can oversee it too. I guess that is what film making is though, a collaborative effort.
 
I think when people say "you need to be a writer" what they mean isn't that you need to be able to sit down and write a screenplay but that you need to have an understanding or story arc, character development and dialogue.
 
djkarn105 said:
I think when people say "you need to be a writer" what they mean isn't that you need to be able to sit down and write a screenplay but that you need to have an understanding or story arc, character development and dialogue.
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I agree with this wholeheartedly, I do not consider myself a writer in terms of sitting down at a computer and hashing out a story. But I am involved in the writing process adding my ideas and pushing my partner who actually writes to dev deeper into the story and characters. I will never be the one who sits and types or writes it all out, but I will be there to shape the story and put in my own ideas.

So in my mind it is my story just as much as the "writers". Furthermore don't forget depending on who wrote it and your relationship with that person you can very easily make it your story on set as a director. And depending on who edits they can easily make it their story in the edit bay.

I am firm believer in do what you like to do and do it as well as you can. If you love to direct and someone will allow to bring their story to life why not? Just my 2
 
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