Would you listen to a very shy, self conscience film director?

R

rebbons

Like if you worked for someone who was very shy and self conscience. He/she wasn't articulate, so he/she had a book full of about 500 pages of ideas and concepts for the story because he couldn't explain his ideas properly through words.

Would you work for someone like this? Or as a crew member do you want a charismatic director that is a whole lot more confident than the rest of his/her crew?
 
Some people are more confident than others. That's ok. But as a director you would need to have confidence in yourself and in your vision. If you believe in what you are doing, you only need to convey that to others. You need to be able to communicate with people. Of course, you would also need the confidence to pull your team together if they're not towing the line...

But if you can't do that, not all hope is lost. You can always hire an 1st AD to do that stuff for you!
 
rebbons said:
Like if you worked for someone who was very shy and self conscience. He/she wasn't articulate, so he/she had a book full of about 500 pages of ideas and concepts for the story because he couldn't explain his ideas properly through words.
Shy = no problem.
500 pages of ideas & concepts = inability to put resorces into a coherent sequence = bad.
Couldn't explain ideas properly through words = disaster.

WTH?

Is the cast & crew supposed to decipher and extrude a cogent story from someone needing AADD meds?
Pfft.
GL with that. :lol:

Would you work for someone like this?
No.

Or as a crew member do you want a charismatic director that is a whole lot more confident than the rest of his/her crew?
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P!ss on charisma.
I need someone that knows WTH they're doing or at least wanting out of people.

This isn't just in filmmaking; this is any team leadership role which is exactly what a director is. They direct.


I pick option C: A leader.
"Actor, I want you to say this and to move from there to here.
DP, I want you to move the camera left to right below shoulder level to get the X in the frame as well as the principal.
Grip, give the actor more highlight from above and behind when he/she gets to the mark.
Actor, we need two good takes the way it's in the script, then we can do it one way how you wanna do it."
 
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I'm on a project at the moment where the director doesn't really know what she wants. I wouldn't call her shy, and there are a few other small helping factors, but overall working with a director who hasn't really thought about what she's really doing for each shoot has proved quite frustrating for most crew members. Literally every day we have rescheduled everything. Yesterday we only got sent the call sheet two hours before call time. Like I said there are a few other contributing factors, but one of the main ones is the inability to communicate her vision very directly.

Basically everything Ray has in blue reflects how I currently feel on this set, it's only because I'm still relatively new to sets and learning a tonne still that I haven't been pushed further into frustration.

It doesn't help that the first AD isn't amazing either unfortunately, so if you're shy definitely find a first AD with who you can work extremely well with and they have the ability to communicate your ideas.
 
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rebbons said:
Like if you worked for someone who was very shy and self conscience. He/she wasn't articulate, so he/she had a book full of about 500 pages of ideas and concepts for the story because he couldn't explain his ideas properly through words.

Would you work for someone like this? Or as a crew member do you want a charismatic director that is a whole lot more confident than the rest of his/her crew?
Click to expand...

The real question is the competency of either person.

A charismatic director who is head strong and confident can convincingly lead his team off a bridge into oblivion.... or the quiet shy one knows what they want and how to accomplish it, just doesn't have the confidence to speak up nor the words to sum it up quickly. Neither is optimal, though the former can lead to trouble that cannot be fixed, even with an experienced crew behind them. With the later, especially with the correct crew offsetting the directors flaws, the crew can still steer the ship to a successful ending.
 
OP, not to get personal but I assume that maybe you are self-conscious and somewhat shy. That's not a question - you don't need to answer that.

Anyway, as others have said confidence helps greatly.

You can still be a good director and be self-conscious and somewhat shy but you 100% have to rise above those things at work, particularly the shyness. As a director you have to engage with people - you can't hold back and watch your work being taken over by others, or it being a disaster because the set lacks leadership.

So work on those things. Work on engaging people, talking to them. Do it now. Don't wait till you are directing. And get lots of filming experience. You can't direct if you don't know what you are doing. Having great ideas and being very creative is one side of directing/film making, the other is knowing your vision and what needs to be done to realize it. With experience, your confidence should grow.
 
No, not really.

I'd prefer to listen to a director that can have a strong vision and can speak up. A director shouldn't mumble and be unsure of what they want. If you have 500 pages of ideas and you can't communicate with people, there's going to be some issues. Unless you have a massive budget, the film will fail.
 
rebbons said:
Would you work for someone like this? Or as a crew member do you want a charismatic director that is a whole lot more confident than the rest of his/her crew?
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No. I would not work for someone like this. No, I do not want a
charismatic director that is a whole lot more confident than the
rest of his crew. And no, no, no, I would not want to be a part
of a project with a director who has a book full of about 500
pages of ideas and concepts for the story because he couldn't
explain his ideas properly through words.

As a crew member I do not want to communicate with the director
through a book full of about 500 pages of ideas and concepts; one
who cannot explain his ideas properly through words. No way would
I (as a crew member) want to read about 500 pages of ideas and
concepts for the story.

As a crew member I do not look for charisma, but I do look for someone
who can communicate through words what they want me to do on set.
 
I don't want to work on a set where we're constantly going overtime because the Director can't communicate what they want and/or are too shy/indecisive to make quick decisions and keep the day on track.

As an AC, I won't read through 500 pages of book to figure out who to keep sharps on.

As a DP, I want to be able to discuss ideas with words, rather than pictures or books.

On the other side of the coin, I don't want to work for someone who is more confident than everybody else - indeed the Director must be confident, but also trusting in, and have confidence in their crew, rather than being over-confident
 
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I think we're missing a key element here -- money. Pay enough, anyone here will put up with most anything. Besides, this guy seems more organized than some restaurant managers, and people are out there working for minimum wages.
 
IndiePaul said:
OP, not to get personal but I assume that maybe you are self-conscious and somewhat shy. That's not a question - you don't need to answer that.

Anyway, as others have said confidence helps greatly.

You can still be a good director and be self-conscious and somewhat shy but you 100% have to rise above those things at work, particularly the shyness. As a director you have to engage with people - you can't hold back and watch your work being taken over by others, or it being a disaster because the set lacks leadership.

So work on those things. Work on engaging people, talking to them. Do it now. Don't wait till you are directing. And get lots of filming experience. You can't direct if you don't know what you are doing. Having great ideas and being very creative is one side of directing/film making, the other is knowing your vision and what needs to be done to realize it. With experience, your confidence should grow.
Click to expand...

This. And others.

Did you hear the Good News? If you're self-conscious enough to ask this question, if you're...or how about let's say this, if you're self-aware enough to ask this question, then you have the potential to address this shortcoming in yourself and to change it. Not that being shy is a shortcoming per se, of course. But, as has been pointed out, it is a shortcoming for a director. So that doesn't mean give up. It means, hey, I'm self-aware enough to realize that it's a problem, and so that equips me with the self-knowledge that I need to work on what I need to work on so that I can better do what I want to do --direct films.

See it as a means to your ends. I need to work on this timidity thing, this anti-social thing, this worrying about what others think of me thing, whatever it is, in order to achieve my goal of making a film.

Do you really want to let it defeat you?

Don't.

Life is short. Then we're dead. Gone. No do-overs. As far as I know, no one's immortal. So go for it. Don't live your life in fear. <---That's a link. If you haven't seen this film, do yourself a favor and see it. It's a charmer.
 
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A good DP and 1st AD will help you significantly in the on-set part, but you need to make clear decisions and have a clear vision in all facets of the production.
 
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