What is the Director

The Director is the person that directs the film, with the visual aspects based on the storyline of the script. They are the person with the most important role on any film set. Leadership motivational and excellent communication skills are necessary for this position.

They also have to work with timetable and a tight shooting schedule to make sure every is filmed so in post production with help of the Editor, a final product can be created.

As a Director you are up against the studio executives, the weather, time constraints, schedules, unpredictable actors, and the rest of the pieces are unmanageable uncertainties.
The director works with an array of people to help him/her create the world of the final film. A Producers, Cinematographer, Art Director, Costume Designer, Visual Effect Producer, Set Designer, Composer, and Editor are just a few of the important members of the Directors team.

The Directors has/or is given a script to direct, which he will revise to what he feels is best for the story. Once the final script is ready, the director must come up with visual interpretation for the story.

A Producer will help the Director cast the films characters.

A storyboard artist is hired to him realize the shots for every scene in the movie. This helps the director and the Cinematographer composite each shot as it will look on camera, later one when they are on location.

Experienced Artists and designers brought on, to help create the exact vision of the director, from creating sets to designing wardrobe.

Based on the Directors vision, locations where the story will take place will need to be found, a location scout will be hired to find such locations.

The Director will work directly with the actors to interpret the action and dialogue of the characters that appear in the film.

The Cinematographer will help the Director with the frame composition every shot and help them with proper lighting.

The Editors is usually one of the people that works the most with the Director cut the film several different ways from the first rough cut, until the final cut.

And when all is said and done the Director is the only one fully responsible for what ends up on the screen

Here are a few quotes by Directors about directing:

James Cameron - Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. Now you're a director. Everything after that you're just negotiating your budget and your fee.

Roland Joffe - “Directing movies resembles, playing on a multilayered, multidimensional chessboard, except that the chess pieces decide to move themselves."

Akira Kurosawa - Unless you know every aspect and phase of the film-production process, you can’t be a movie director. A movie director is like a front-line commanding officer. He needs a thorough knowledge of every branch of the service, and if he doesn’t command each division, he cannot command the whole.