Director

Creative Job Roles

Director

Job Description

 Directing is the most prestigious job in my opinion in the film and television industry. You must be creative, technical minded, composed, motivated, have good organisational skills and many others which I will touch upon later. Directors control the team and are responsible for the camera shots, lighting operators, shot selection, casting, script editing, actors and work with the editors. They also must be good in the technical department and be able to motivate others. Directors must have artistic vision and be incredibly imaginative so they can put there innovation to paper and into the film to motivate and inspire others. 

Skills, Qualifications and Training needed  

To become a Director, you must be have many skills and attributes that will help you to create and develop a moving image production. Coping under pressure is key, say for example you must get a shot completed before your camera dies, you must be composed and be able to keep you nerve to get everything filmed quick enough before its dies. Imaginative and Vision is the one thing any director needs to become successful, they must be able to show what they see in their head and put it in to a moving image. Self motivation plays a big part in directing, yo must be motivated to wake up early, finish late, sort everything out, make sure everyones doing their duties and much more. Communication is a strong skill needed to be a successful director, if you cant communicate with your crew and actors in the right way, it will be hard to film and create a moving image. Motivating others is is strong skill, you must make sure your whole team is happy and going to put 110% in to your project. One major thing is flair, its rare to find someone with an incredible talent that can produce something extraordinary, but when you do, there most likely to be on there way to a very successful future. 

For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the grades you would need to get you into Uni and work your way up to become a director are;

Band 3 - 4 or more (A*- C) GCSE’s including Maths and English.

Band 4 - 4 or more (A* - C) GCSE’s including Maths and English, and 1-2 A-Levels.

Band 5 - 4 or more (A* - C) GCSE’s including Maths and English, and 2-3 A-Levels.

 To break in to the industry, the best way to do it would be from the bottom working as a gaffer boy, runner, research and other small jobs and slowly work your way up the line from there. The media industry is a young one, and usually University students are snapped up as soon as they graduate. However, getting a degree in your chosen media subject still wont take you to the top straight away. They say you still must start from a low level and work your way up to prove yourself. A good way of getting noticed would be to make short films and sign-up to a film festival or start low and try and work hard to get recommended and make friends to boost your experience. The most important thing to get you in to the industry would be experience through voluntary, paid, or work experience as employers want to see what hand on experience you have had. 

Where do they fit within the larger picture of the television and film industry?

 In my opinion, being a director is the tip top of the film and television industry but the hardest part to reach. You must excel in the topic, and have the skills and attributes which will take you to the top. Usually, Directors are on fixed-term or freelance contracts meaning they are hired purely to get the production complete then they can go to another company and start a project there. You can work on projects such as Theatre plays, Adverts, Documentaries, Short Films, Feature Films and many more. Every production company must have a Director for their project as they create the production, script, parts of editing, cameras, sound, lighting, control everyones role, and make sure everyone see’s there vision and imagination for it to work. This is why, for me, Directing is the important job role and you must have incredible imagination, flair, creativity and vision to become one. However being a Director leads to irregular working hours, working on and off locations and can be heavily pressurised in to finishing shots, scenes, and the film itself.

What are the career paths leading to and from the role?

When aspiring and wanting to become a Director, there are loads of careers paths leading to and from the role. Starting from the bottom and working your way up is the most sensible and realistic way of reaching your goal. A job such as a Boom Operator, Camera Operator Assistant, a Runner, Technical Assistant, and other small jobs can help you on your way. The best way to get noticed is obviously by doing an excellent job and also being nice, helpful and friendly and they may recommend your for other productions and to other companies. Getting high qualifications such as a degree will still mean you’d have to work your way up the ladder so as I said before, simple jobs work best and make sure you get noticed by doing the right things. Even one easy way is to ask your friends if they know any contacts, sometimes, its not about what you know but who you know so that could be an easy way to work your way up the industry. Even if you don’t make your goal and reach your dream job, there are still other jobs out there similar to it. Similar jobs to Directors is a Floor Manager, Producer, Animator and others so there still loads of opportunities out there. If you reach the Director level, After that you best thing you could do would to become a Producer, however many Directors try and stay with that job roles for as long as possible as its one of the best jobs in my opinion you could possibly have.  

For me as a film maker, my goal would be to make a piece of work that would inspire and motivate others to come in to the industry. From watching films such as The Great Gatsby, The Avengers and Forest Gump, even though they are very different films, these films motivated and inspired me to create, imagine and push in to the industry.