Becoming a film directer... what is the best way?

[ski]

I only know a little about this, I wanted to write music for film for awhile and spoke with many composers/people working in LA. These are the things I learned about being a film composer, I would imagine they are at least somewhat applicable to directing.

Networking is huge (especially for a director, you will need many people to work for you for free or cheap as hell to get started. Get involved with other people in the industry as much as possible.

Moving to LA is almost essential if u want to make anything many people will see.( ..just my own opinion is that Bangkok films could greatly benefit from some westerners working on them) but I have no idea what it is like getting into films in Thailand.

Its extremely difficult to do. Many people who are doing it are basically born into it and it is a [censored] ton of work with little reward outside of your own satisfaction unless you make it big.

Also from everything I've heard in LA you gotta get a good amount of credibility before you start sending in screenplays to studios.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

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The director's main job is to direct actors. Beyond that, it's a matter of what he wants to control and how much control the studio will let him have. If you're directing Deuce Bigalow 3, you're basically going to show up, tell the cinematographer more or less what you want, but let him set up everything, give some feedback to the actors then go home. When the shoot is over, some editor will put the thing together and maybe the director will make some suggestions if he feels like it. Compare this to someone like Kubrick who was a control freak about every aspect of production.

KKF, becoming a director is a lot like winning the WSOP. You have to be experienced and good at what you do, but ultimately you just have to be lucky. Oh, and good at networking, but that doesn't fit the WSOP analogy.

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This is so so wrong.

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why?

[Huh?]

KKF u start these directing threads in some form or another every other week? Why not just go buy a book or something

If your directing DB3 you wake up at 5/6 am and work your ass off all day until prob like 10/11pm or later.

Your dealing with makeup/set design/your line producer/your dp/the actors/your first ad/your crew/your shot selection for the day/your shot selection for the next day/your budget/the dailies/and like a million other things.

KKF if u really want to direct feature films--u need to be a decent to good screenwriter. I'd say it is very unlikly you will ever direct a feature film thru a non independt means without being able to write a quality script that studios want to buy/make.

Of course you can always go the route of working in music videos and commercials for 5-10 years until your in the upper tier and then MAYBE you get to direct a movie.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

I definitely agree that understanding the technical stuff is an important aspect of making a film, and I have purchased several books off of amazon about this that i havent gotten around to yet. Broad based titles like "Set lighting for television" and "Film lighting". I dont know how much these books are worth, maybe someone can specify.

And of course the advice to pick up a camera and go shoot is always a good one.

Things like "You must move to LA" sound untrue to me. There are films made in all different languages accross the globe.

For instance, I was even considering making a TV Show in Thai Language and airing it on the internet. If its good, and gets popular, I might get a deal to direct something on television. Hopefully, I will be able to atleast bring in some advertising money if it is popular on the internet.

Studying film and learning the technical stuff is a given, but I was hoping this thread would steer in the direction of... What is the best way to take your shot after you have that stuff down?

from my limited research it seems to me like many guys put too much effort into the technical stuff, and not enough effort into creating a good story.

if any of you are familiar with the short "broken", this is a perfect examaple. They make a short that looks very good on a very small budget, but there is no plot and nothing at all interesting about the story. So what have they showen perspective producers except that they are good at technical stuff? Maybe the producer will get them a job doing something technical, but he wont be putting them in the directer's chair.

[KneeCo]

slightly paraphrased from one of Bogdanovich's many interviews with Orson Wells:

Bogdonavich: Tell me about the director.

Wells: A director has the easiest job on set, if you give a crew a script and say 'you need to shoot these 20 pages today and tomorrow', you can go home.

Peter Bogdanovich: How can you say that?! All the technical knowledge, subtle storytelling, true directing you put into your movies.

Orson Wells: Oh, you mean a good director.

[WhoIam]

Creating a film that looks great but sucks or is boring is the number one sin and amateur and student films. Creating characters that are too quirky or odd to be believable is probably number 2.

Reading books about lighting isn't going to be very helpful by itself and will be boring as hell. You need to actually play around with them and see what works and the results you get from changing things. This is kind of like reading a bunch of books on hold 'em and then sitting down at a 10/20 game thinking you can beat it.

My advice is to buy a decent camera and make a short film called "Portraits of Bangkok." Just go around the city shooting architecture and other random [censored] and edit it in Final Cut to some music you like. The film will most likely suck, but it will let you know if you can tolerate the whole and often tedious process of film production.

[KneeCo]

Oh, and to answer the OP,

Film school.

[Huh?]

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I definitely agree that understanding the technical stuff is an important aspect of making a film, and I have purchased several books off of amazon about this that i havent gotten around to yet. Broad based titles like "Set lighting for television" and "Film lighting". I dont know how much these books are worth, maybe someone can specify.

And of course the advice to pick up a camera and go shoot is always a good one.

Things like "You must move to LA" sound untrue to me. There are films made in all different languages accross the globe.

For instance, I was even considering making a TV Show in Thai Language and airing it on the internet. If its good, and gets popular, I might get a deal to direct something on television. Hopefully, I will be able to atleast bring in some advertising money if it is popular on the internet.

Studying film and learning the technical stuff is a given, but I was hoping this thread would steer in the direction of... What is the best way to take your shot after you have that stuff down?

from my limited research it seems to me like many guys put too much effort into the technical stuff, and not enough effort into creating a good story.

if any of you are familiar with the short "broken", this is a perfect examaple. They make a short that looks very good on a very small budget, but there is no plot and nothing at all interesting about the story. So what have they showen perspective producers except that they are good at technical stuff? Maybe the producer will get them a job doing something technical, but he wont be putting them in the directer's chair.

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producer's don't get directors jobs...agents do. You don't have to know all the technical stuff..that what yr crew are for.

Your going to create a Thai TV show so maybe you can direct tv? I can't tell if this entire post is all one big joke or if your actually serious cuz 90% of the stuff is all over the place and you don't seem to have any idea of what u actually want to do.

[Blarg]

That's why he should just do SOMEthing. Read those books he got, for instance. Grab a camera and go out and shoot something, anything. Don't too so much planning that you don't wind up actually doing anything. Just go out there and make a big friggin' mess and start learning.

[Huh?]

Figure out your goal and then find the best steps to achieve that goal.

I want to direct feature films within the next 5 year so I put myself on the best path to achieve that goal. Simple as that. Then you just have to get there thru hard work.