Directors Journal

Directors Journal

Why is the director valued greatly within the production?

During the making of any production, it is required that one individual has the prime role as the director. Directors are important as they are practically the leader of the production, guiding group members towards the right path as well as ensuring that the group manages to produce a successful media product for their target audience. The director is often in charge of things such as; gathering actors and actresses, planning costume materials and props, preparing and authorizing location and actor release forms. However, most importantly, the director is there to assign members of the groups with their job roles and the work they need to complete as well as making sure that everybody is up to date and that camera equipment is booked and sorted, alongside arranging shooting dates with the cast.

What makes you suitable for the role?

During previous coursework productions, I have constantly had the role of the editor as that is my strongest skill when it comes to creating short films. However, in this case, I decided that I would take over the role of being a director as I am a fairly dominant character that likes to be organised and has constant motivation and commitment towards any task challenged to carry out. I often like to be in charge, making sure that everything I do is planned ahead, having a successful outcome. I have great leadership skills, which means that I am able to manage a team, working together with numerous people as well as being able to work independently when necessary. Therefore, I believe I have the potential to fulfill this role as well as being an editor too. As I am also an editor for this production, I thought being a director too would allow me to plan my shoot dates whilst calculating the time I would need to edit too. Therefore, being a director would give me the opportunity to be more organised, making sure that everything is completed on time, giving me a simpler role when editing.

From the start of the production, I was assigned as the editor whilst another member of the group had the role of a director. However, after changing production ideas and groups, he left which then led to me being the dominant character, planning shoot dates, finding our actors and being the leader of the group. Therefore, I decided that I would assign the role of the director, as things began to fall in to place once I had taken over this role and did my job correctly. I assigned the camera person with their job and explained to them what they needed to do during the making of our short film.

What did the role consist of?

I made sure that all equipment was booked out in a week advance to make sure that shoot dates would be productive for the cast. I did my research on different potential characters for the film, managing to gather two back up characters too, in order to maintain on track. I then went over the script and adjusted it numerous times to make sure that every shot and location was relevant for our film. However, as a director, it is important that you are not too dominant and overtaking, so that your group members also feel a part of the group and that they have a significant role too. I made sure that I ran my decisions through the camera person before carrying them out to make sure that she was comfortable and satisfied with my choices.

I was able to help myself through editing as I had the role of a director too, making sure my work was always progressing and that adjustments were always being made to receive the best outcome possible. I planned my editing sessions in advance and also booked out the mac book pro in order to be able to edit more at home, rather than relying on school hours.

Were any problems encountered?

Being a director does have its cons at times. This is because, everyone is trying to strive to be the best they can be, making communication within the group hard at times due to disagreements and misunderstandings. As well as this, the director is responsible for partially ¾ of decisions made, so, if something is forgotten at the shooting sessions or something is filmed wrong, it is the directors’ fault. Other than this, I enjoyed having the role as a director as it allowed me to develop my leadership skills as well as making sure my organisation skills were consistent, as a team player and whilst working independently.