Being a Director - My Experience So Far

Rodney Petrie

Rodney Petrie

I have directed two short films so far - one in 2009 and the other just this year.

The first experience directing was interesting because it was part of a film course I was enrolled in and we had three people in my group who put together a short called Shortcut. I am going to be honest and say that in my role as director on that film I didn't do a great job. The reason? I wasn't vocal enough in communicating with the actors. I didn't possess or exude any confidence, not in an overt fashion but in a "silent type" manner.

Directing my second short film called Karma was a completely different experience altogether. I feel that I was more in control of things and more vocal - spoke a lot to the actors in pre-production about their roles, the story, character motivations etc. and the differences between acting on stage (they are theatre actors) and film.

I still have made mistakes but overall I feel that my role as director was performed in a much better way than on my first short film.

I still have a lot to learn as I go forth into my future productions (I have another short currently in pre-production, shooting this September) and I look forward to overcoming the challenges I know will come my way.

To those directors on this board who are in the early stages of their career - what have your experiences been like so far?
 
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I can't really give advice as I don't think I've had enough experience. But I'll just give you my point of view. I think all you need to have confidence is prepare. If you prepare hard enough and if you know 'exactly' what you want and are able to recognize when things aren't happening as you want them and you immediately correct it, then the people around you will know that you know what you're doing and fall in line. You don't really have to learn to be confident, it'll be automatic.

Even then you'll have some people who think you don't know what you're doing because they've worked in big productions with big directors, you just kind of have to not pick a fight, but to just make sure that they do what you want them to do. They will eventually listen to you as everybody else is also listening to you. Mob mentality will prevail on set, in a good way if you know what you're doing, in a bad way if you don't.

Cheers,
Aveek
:)
 
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Well, I would rather consider myself a DP, but I have directed a short film just 2 or so weeks ago and that was pretty big. It had WW2 elements and i'd call it a period drama..

The thing about directing is, that I am not the director who a) overshoots and b) commands people around massively.

What I did for this shoot, was get together with our lead actor really often and talk to him a lot about the film. This way, on set there were only slight adjustments to make. The thing that trueindie brings up with people who have worked in big productions saying you don't know what you're doing hasn't happened to me. I had some pretty talented people on set who worked on big stuff, but never had anyone talk crap.

They all respected my opinion as a director. I am very open to other creative influences though. I just don't want them to be thrown in, I want people to tell me personally!

Phil
 
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Each film is going to give me different challenges and choices to make and I look forward to experiencing this because I believe that working your way towards something, making mistakes and learning from them, trying different approaches and methods is valuable.
 
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On set you really dont have to command everyone around. You speak with primarily your DP and your 1st AD. They are the ones who pass everything on along to the rest of the crew.

Your primary focus should be on the Actors. You need to give them the right motivation so they are not 'acting' but instead, they ARE the characters. "Insert more about acting here".

Just tell your DP what you want for the next shot and let him take care of that.
 
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I'll second what James said. A good AD is so valuable. Other than that I'd say there is no such thing as over-preparing. I've found the director sets the tone for the entire production. If you're personable, know how to make friends and are a good communicator, things can be fun like they're supposed to be. If not, well...the fish stinks from the head down. I've heard some people say it's necessary for a director to blow up at least once in front of the crew. Doesn't that seem crazy? Oh, and never let 'em see you sweat!
 
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The next production I'm directing is going to involve filming at a tourist attraction location and over two days of shooting, one day for the actors alone then the second for extras scenes and any other scenes of the actors that were missed or were planned that weren't going to get finished on the first day.

The scope of this is definitely bigger than my previous short film. It is going to be a challenge and it will be time consuming especially in post-production - I am looking forward to it though!
 
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I am a sponge for information on filmmaking and watching the behind the scenes featurettes and the shorts I have worked on are my film school. I did take part in two film courses where I live and learnt some valuable lessons.

From each director I admire I analyse their techniques, philosophies as well as their approach to filmmaking and because it is then absorbed and retained I can then use that to my advantage.

But actually getting in and doing instead of just theory is also important because there are things you can learn only by experiencing it yourself.
 
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