GUEST EDITORIAL: Skills You Need To Become a Film Director

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Skills You Need To Become a Film Director

by Lewis Robinson

Being a film director means bringing your vision to life, sharing a meaningful message, and making a connection with your audience. It is a fulfilling line of work, but like every other job, it requires you to develop certain skills. If you would like to direct movies but aren't sure that you have the necessary qualities, here is an explanation of what you need.

Leadership

The director is the ultimate authority on a movie set. Every decision that gets made during production has to meet with your approval. You need the ability to make decisions, troubleshoot problems, and inspire confidence in those around you so that they will be willing to follow where you lead. If you are unsure of your abilities, there are leadership training programs that can help you develop the necessary skills.

Organization 

On a movie set, there are many different things happening at any given time. Certain things have to happen before others can take place. As a director of a movie, you have to be on top of everything that is happening and schedule it so that it happens at the right time. If there are delays, you need to compensate for them. It means managing your entire team, which can be a cast and crew of thousands. You need to be detailed and organized to pull it off.

Flexibility and Open-Mindedness

As a film director, your job is to lead, to make decisions, and to organize the proceedings. It is not to micromanage everyone on set and tell them how to do their jobs. It would be impossible for one person to oversee every job on set at the same time. That's why your job is more to choose the best and most talented people for your team and then delegate responsibilities to them. You need to trust people to do their jobs and listen to suggestions. Different perspectives yield valuable insights, and the ability to listen to the talented people around you can make the end product that much better.

Communication Skills

As a director, you have a message that you want to get across to the audience, a theme or a vision of some sort. You are trying to communicate that vision in such a way that it connects to the people watching. If your method of visual communication is not effective, the meaning will be lost.

However, you do not only use visual communication skills to reach the audience as a film director. Because you work with a large cast and crew, you have to be able to verbally communicate your instructions clearly to everyone on set. The more precisely you are able to convey your wishes, the easier it will be for your cast and crew to fulfill them, and the closer your end product is likely to match your vision.

Creativity

To be a film director is to be an artist with a distinctive, recognizable style. You need to be able to think in a way that is unique and creative, and you also need to be able to harness and channel that energy in a way that is productive.

Eventually, you may reach the height of glory as a film director. However, it doesn't happen without a lot of hard work and the help of many other people behind the scenes, as well as some in front of them.