Occupation | |
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Occupation type | Profession |
Activity sectors | Film |
Description | |
Competencies | Film directing |
Fields of employment | Film production company |
Part of a series on |
Filmmaking |
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Glossary |
A film director is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design and all the creative aspects of filmmaking. [1]
The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the budget.
There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, producers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Other directors edit or appear in their films or compose music score for their films. [2]
A film director's task is to envisage a way to translate a screenplay into a fully formed film, and then to realize this vision. [3] To do this, they oversee the artistic and technical elements of film production. [2] [4] This entails organizing the film crew in such a way to achieve their vision of the film and communicating with the actors. [5] [6] This requires skills of group leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful, fast-paced environment of a film set. [7] Moreover, it is necessary to have an artistic eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, [8] thus, excellent communication skills are a must. [9]
Because the film director depends on the successful cooperation of many different creative individuals with possibly strongly contradicting artistic ideals and visions, they also need to possess conflict-resolution skills to mediate whenever necessary. [10] Thus the director ensures that all individuals involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. [5] The set of varying challenges they have to tackle has been described as "a multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with egos and weather thrown in for good measure". [11] It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when and how they will work again, if at all. [12]
Generally, the sole superiors of the director are the producers and the studio that is financing the film, although sometimes the director can also be a producer of the same film. [3] [13] The role of a director differs from producers in that producers typically manage the logistics and business operations of the production, whereas the director is tasked with making creative decisions. The director must work within the restrictions of the film's budget [14] and the demands of the producer and studio (such as the need to get a particular age rating). [15]
Directors also play an important role in post-production. While the film is still in production, the director sends "dailies" to the film editor and explains their overall vision for the film, allowing the editor to assemble an editor's cut. In post-production, the director works with the editor to edit the material into the director's cut. Well-established directors have the "final cut privilege", meaning that they have the final say on which edit of the film is released. For other directors, the studio can order further edits without the director's permission.
The director is one of the few positions that requires intimate involvement during every stage of film production. Thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. [16] It has been said that "20-hour days are not unusual". [3] Some directors also take on additional roles, such as producing, writing or editing.
Under European Union law, the film director is considered the "author" or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. [17] Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a film director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). [18] In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through studio interference and the collective process.[ citation needed ]
Some film directors started as screenwriters, film editors, producers, actors, or film critics, as well as directing for similar media like television and commercials. [19] [20] Several American cinematographers have become directors, including Barry Sonnenfeld, originally the Coen brothers' Director of Photography; Wally Pfister, cinematographer on Christopher Nolan's three Batman films made his directorial debut with Transcendence (2014). Despite the misnomer, assistant director has become a completely separate career path and is not typically a position for aspiring directors, but there are exceptions in some countries such as India where assistant directors are indeed directors-in-training. [21] [22]
Many film directors have attended a film school to get a bachelor's degree studying film or cinema. [23] Film students generally study the basic skills used in making a film. [24] This includes, for example, preparation, shot lists and storyboards, blocking, communicating with professional actors, communicating with the crew, and reading scripts. [25] Some film schools are equipped with sound stages and post-production facilities. [26] Besides basic technical and logistical skills, students also receive education on the nature of professional relationships that occur during film production. [27] A full degree course can be designed for up to five years of studying. [28] Future directors usually complete short films during their enrollment. [16] The National Film School of Denmark has the student's final projects presented on national TV. [29] Some film schools retain the rights for their students' works. [30] Many directors successfully prepared for making feature films by working in television. [31] The German Film and Television Academy Berlin consequently cooperates with the Berlin/Brandenburg TV station RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting) and ARTE. [32]
In recent decades American directors have primarily been coming out of USC, UCLA, AFI, Columbia University, and NYU, each of which is known for cultivating a certain style of filmmaking. [20] Notable film schools outside of the United States include Beijing Film Academy, Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico City, Dongseo University in South Korea, FAMU in Prague, Film and Television Institute of India, HFF Munich, La Fémis in Paris, Tel Aviv University, and Vancouver Film School. [33]
Film directors usually are self-employed and hired per project based on recommendations and industry reputation. [34] Compensation might be arranged as a flat fee for the project, as a weekly salary, or as a daily rate.
A handful of top Hollywood directors made from $133.3 million to $257.95 million in 2011, such as James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, [35] but the average United States film directors and producers made $89,840 in 2018. [36] A new Hollywood director typically gets paid around $400,000 for directing their first studio film. [37]
The average annual salary in England is £50,440, [38] in Canada is $62,408, [39] and in Western Australia it can range from $75,230 to $97,119. [40] In France, the average salary is €4000 per month, paid per project. [41] Luc Besson was the highest paid French director in 2017, making €4.44 million for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets . That same year, the top ten French directors' salaries in total represented 42% of the total directors' salaries in France. [42]
Film directors in Japan average a yearly salary from ¥4 million to ¥10 million, [43] and the Directors Guild of Japan requires a minimum payment of ¥3.5 million. [44] Korean directors make 300 million to 500 million won for a film, and beginning directors start out making around 50 million won. A Korean director who breaks into the Chinese market might make 1 billion won for a single film. [45]
According to a 2018 report from UNESCO, the film industry throughout the world has a disproportionately higher number of male directors compared to female directors, and they provide as an example the fact that only 20% of films in Europe are directed by women. [46] 44% of graduates from a sample of European films schools are women, and yet women are only 24% of working film directors in Europe. [47] In Hollywood, women make up only 12.6 percent of film directors, as reported by a UCLA study of the 200 top theatrical films of 2017, [48] but that number is a significant increase from 6.9% in 2016. [49] As of 2014, there were only 20 women in the Directors Guild of Japan out of the 550 total members. [50] Indian film directors are also greatly underrepresented by women, even compared to other countries, but there has been a recent trend of more attention to women directors in India, brought on partly by Amazon and Netflix moving into the industry. [51] Of the movies produced in Nollywood, women direct only 2%. [52]
There are many different awards for film directing, run by various academies, critics associations, film festivals, and guilds. [53] The Academy Award for Best Director and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director are considered among the most prestigious awards for directing, [54] [55] [56] [57] and there is even an award for worst directing given out during the Golden Raspberry Awards.
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film director. His films, most of which are psychological thrillers, have collectively grossed over $2.1 billion worldwide and have received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards for Best Director nominations for him. He has also received four Primetime Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.
Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English film director, producer and screenwriter. His work includes British gangster films, and the Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr.
Christopher Edward Nolan is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. He has received many accolades and his films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide, ranking him among the highest-grossing directors. In 2015, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, and in 2024, he was honoured with the British Film Institute Fellowship.
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, directing, editing, and arranging financing.
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was knighted in the 2020 New Years Honours List.
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as Regarding Henry (1991), Forever Young (1992), Armageddon (1998), Cloverfield (2008), Star Trek (2009), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
James Wan is an Australian filmmaker. He has primarily worked in the horror genre as the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises and the creator of The Conjuring Universe. The lattermost is the highest-grossing horror franchise at over $2 billion. Wan is also the founder of film and television production company Atomic Monster.
Simon David Kinberg is a British-born American filmmaker. He wrote or produced a number of films in the 20th Century Fox X-Men film franchise, and has also written such films as Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Sherlock Holmes. He has served as a producer on others including Cinderella and The Martian, the latter which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. His production company Genre Films had a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox. Kinberg made his directorial debut in the 2019 X-Men film Dark Phoenix from a script he also wrote.
Kevin Feige is an American film and television producer. He has been the president of Marvel Studios and the primary producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise since 2007. The films he has produced have a combined worldwide box office gross of over $29.7 billion, making him the highest grossing producer of all time, with Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film at the time of its release.
An auteur is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, thus manifesting the director's unique style or thematic focus. As an unnamed value, auteurism originated in French film criticism of the late 1940s, and derives from the critical approach of André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc, whereas American critic Andrew Sarris in 1962 called it auteur theory. Yet the concept first appeared in French in 1955 when director François Truffaut termed it policy of the authors, and interpreted the films of some directors, like Alfred Hitchcock, as a body revealing recurring themes and preoccupations.
Philip Anderson Lord and Christopher Robert Miller are American filmmakers. They are the creators and co-stars of the adult animated sitcom Clone High, and the writers and directors of the animated films Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and The Lego Movie (2014), as well as the directors of the live-action comedy film 21 Jump Street (2012) and its sequel, 22 Jump Street (2014).
Margaret Elizabeth Ellison is an American film producer, entrepreneur, and daughter of multibillionaire Larry Ellison. She is the founder of Annapurna Pictures, established in 2011. She produced the films Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Her (2013), American Hustle (2013), and Phantom Thread (2017), all of which have earned her Oscar nominations. In 2014, Ellison was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. She also received a Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the musical A Strange Loop.
Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American filmmaker. He is a recipient of four NAACP Image Awards and four Black Reel Awards, and has been nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award.
Jason Ferus Blum is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, which produced the horror franchises Paranormal Activity (2007–2021), Insidious (2010–2023), and The Purge (2013–2021). Blum also produced Sinister (2012), Oculus (2013), Whiplash (2014), The Gallows (2015), The Gift (2015), Hush (2016), Split (2016), Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016), Get Out (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), Upgrade (2018), Halloween (2018), Us (2019), The Invisible Man (2020), Freaky (2020), The Black Phone (2021), M3GAN (2022) and Five Nights at Freddy's (2023).
The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The DCEU also includes comic books, short films, novels, and video games. Like the original DC Universe in comic books, the DCEU is established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
The following outline serves as an overview of and topical guide to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe that consists of films and television series from Marvel Studios, television series from Marvel Television, and other media, based on characters from Marvel Comics publications.
WandaVision is an American television miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. It is the first television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise, and is set after the events of the film Avengers: Endgame (2019). It follows Wanda Maximoff and Vision as they live an idyllic suburban life in the town of Westview, New Jersey, until their reality starts moving through different decades of sitcom homages and television tropes. Schaeffer served as head writer for the series, which was directed by Matt Shakman.
Star Trek 4 is the working title of an American science fiction film in development at Paramount Pictures based on the television series Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry. It is intended to be the 14th feature film in the Star Trek film franchise and the 4th of the franchise's reboot films. There have been several different iterations of the film in development since 2015.
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries is an upcoming American television miniseries created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+, based on the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness. A spin-off from the series WandaVision (2021), it is planned as one of the television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios alongside 20th Television, sharing continuity with the films of the franchise. Schaeffer serves as head writer and lead director.
They must work with producers, writers, cast members, crew members, designers and other professionals in order to implement that vision
You have to be a diplomat. You have to marshal a whole load of creative people, who often don't get on with each other, and your job is to stop things turning into a bun-fight.
directors work under a lot of pressure, and most are under constant stress to find their next job.
Although directors are in charge of the creative aspects of a show, they ultimately answer to producers. Some directors also share producing duties for their own films.
The director is bound by financial conditions, which however should not hinder him from developing his own artistic signature.
Realizing that an NC-17 rating could hurt business (some theaters and newspapers won't show or advertise NC-17 movies), Mr. Verhoeven cut 47 seconds of the most graphic sex and violence.
Many are experienced actors, editors or writers
In the Fiction Film bachelor studio students learn the basic principles, techniques and procedures of film direction and production
Classes supporting this area discuss and rehearse: preparation, shot lists and storyboards, blocking, protocols of dealing with professional actors, reading scripts, the construction of film sequence
We operate from a purpose-built studio facility in Harrow, with two sound stages, a set construction workshop, and extensive post-production facilities.
An intrinsic element of the education, alongside the transfer of organizational and technical skills, is to provide the students with insights into social contexts and relationships
The directing studies 5 years of study : a first cycle of 3 years and a second cycle of 2 years.
The students' final project is a film produced on a professional level and presented to the public on national TV.
If you're a student and making your film within a film school then you should be aware that some film schools will retain the copyright in the films that you make during your enrollment
Many successful film directors, including Oscar-winning Best Director of 'The King's Speech', Tom Hooper, began their careers in television, which provided the platform to progress through the industry.
The DFFB cooperates with the Berlin/Brandenburg TV station RBB and ARTE and produces 3 short films of 30minutes lengths for RBB and 10 short films of 5 minutes lengths for ARTE