Print Article Write Review Tell a Friend

7 Career Paths to be a Film Director
Author: Mei Galang

A Film Director job is to direct several aspects or the overall production of a motion picture. A person who wants to pursue a career of being a film director needs to have an artistic awareness; long patience, good communication skills, can motivate and exercise authority over the whole production. His main responsibility is to make sure that the artists are all ready to act and shoot. A director also read and study the script and eventually apply an artistic representation and criticism. He plans the set design, costumes, lighting and camera effects and selects the cast from screen tests and auditions. He also coordinates the taping, instructs cameraman for the shots, edits the film. He adds some effects for the shoots and coordinates the overall activities of the whole production including the crew, cast and technicians.

Here are 7 career paths to be the next Steven Spielberg or James Cameron:

1. Come up with any potential contacts within the film industry. Working as an apprentice under a current director for films, TV commercials, music videos or feature films will help you boost your connection.

2.Attending a film school can help you gain both theoretical concepts and industry contacts. Some of the top film schools are New York University, the University of Southern California, the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California Institute of the Arts and the University of California at Los Angeles.

3. You can apply for entry level jobs on movie sets such as production assistant. Working hard and/or finding the right friends can help you move up the ladder. Because there is no such job abruptly as a director, you should try hard to achieve it with your professional skills and talents.

4. You can use TV commercials or music videos direction as a stepping stone since many film directors started in that field. A good example is American director David Leo Fincher who directed Rick Springfield's "Dance This World Away"(1984), Madonna's “Vogue”(1990) to Nine Inch Nail's “Only”(2005). Then on 1992 he entered film direction through the movie Alien, which was followed by his collaborations with Brad Pitt such as “Se7en”, “Fight Club” and the upcoming movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

5: Develop a good eye in capturing the right angle and views. A roll of a photographic film with a series of frames to be visualize using a movie projector, with professional quality can be very useful for your training as a director.

6. Shooting a short films, in a 10 minutes long black and white resolution, on your own. You should find your own actor and write your own script to construct your experience and put it proudly to your resumé.

7. Update your industry contacts regularly especially the directors, producers and actors. Having a constant networking leads to more opportunities. Be friendly and make sure to know who's in charge so that sooner or later she/he will be very helpful to your career.

Stay involves in as much as many film productions as you can. You should be creative and persistent because to become a film director it is not easy as you've always imagine. Continue to build your industry connections and be updated on the upcoming productions and possible job openings.