MFJF map · UK
Directing a feature film: the job, the people and how directors get made
The director is responsible for the film that ends up on the screen: not the money, which is the producer's, nor the schedule, which is the 1st AD's, but the whole thing the audience feels. Part collaborator, part general. The buck stops here. And nobody is hired as a director: they make things, step across from a department, or write.
How a director is attachedBefore a frame is shot
Three ways on to a project, and they lead to different careers. At the beginning you are in the first group or in none of them.
PrepAbout sixteen weeks on a funded feature
The director is in the middle of every part of it. If the director cannot say what the film is about in a sentence, nobody else can either.
The shootA hundred decisions an hour
There is no typical day, and yet a shooting day has a shape. Your primary focus on the floor is what is in front of the camera; the weeks of prep and a good 1st AD exist so that you have time to coax performance.
PostWith the editor, then the rest
The edit can be about compromise when the producer's idea of the film is not yours. In the final stages you are in a room with executives making sure everyone is satisfied.
The four relationshipsThe ones that carry the film
Some directors want to be shown choices; some want to make every choice. Either way the lines stay open, because in a few weeks these people make decisions in your name without time to ask.
How directors get madeNobody hires one
In every other department there is a bottom rung. Directing has none. There is no defined path and no apprenticeship; there are exactly three somewheres directors come from, and most used two.
