My Role as a Director

"Directors are responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film under the film producer. They often develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look, in other words they make their vision come to life. They are responsible for turning the script into a sequence of shots. They also direct what tone it should have and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. Film directors are responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting with the help of the cinematographer, and set design with the production designer. They will often take part in hiring key crew members. They coordinate the actors' moves, or blocking, and also may be involved in the writing,financing, and editing of a film.

The director works closely with the cast and crew to shape the film. Some like to conduct rigorous rehearsals in preproduction while others do so before each scene. In either case, this process is essential as it tells the director as well as other key members of the crew (director of photography, stunt choreographer, hair stylist, etc.), how the actors are going to play the scene, which enables them to make any necessary adjustments. Directors often use storyboards to illustrate sequences and concepts, and a director's viewfinder to set up camera angles.

The director also plays a key role in post-production. He or she works with the editor to ensure that the emotions of the scene and the close ups, mid shots and wide or long shots appropriately reflect which character is driving the narrative. The director also advises on the (color) grading of the final images, adding warmth or frigidity to the composition of the shots to reflect the emotional subtext of the character or environment. The director will sometimes participate in the sound mix and musical composition of the film. Promotion wise, if a director is well known his name and image is used to promote the film alongside the stars of the film, but having an image is not the primary function of a director, as they are judged off of their creative talent and ability to run a production. It is the second most powerful "behind the scenes" profession, behind the producer."

Wikipedia's summary of director I felt more connected to in the second film more so than the first one. I always referred to the original storyboard and worked closely with the storyboarder regarding and discussing shots and general cinematography. However, I felt I did most of the above things more in the second film more than the first.

I composed a plan of what to do and how much time we would spend doing things when we found out we had a limited amount of battery to work with. I gave my input on the script and we reviewed lines before filming, and pre-discussed and choreographed the fight scene in the script, and discussed what lighting and mood we were looking for in the shot we were taking so that the rest of the group understood. I suggested that the focus of the camera should stay on Tim, as from a narrative value, my character was a ghost - never really there and not always the focus. I made use of the natural lighting by filming exaggerated shadows and other impromptu decisions such as including foilage in the shot.


I gave out most of the acting instructions where necessary, including but not limited to where and when to enter or exit the shot, minor mannerisms that contribute to the realism of the situation e.g breathing into hands, and scene where Tim falls over. I considered what shots were appropriate and which ones weren't, and made sure to include a variety of both long shots and closer shots, making use of the landscape, and minor decisions from whether to pan in which direction in the shot, or whether or not we would employ the use of a slow or quick zoom.

I made judgements on what would work best with the rest of the film and which gave the right mood. I didn't compromise on any takes I wasn't happy with and was very careful to avoid continuity errors where possible. One example of this was remembering there were other pedestrians in the shot where I walk out of the residence in the first film, who would not be behind me in the second. I had the scene shot again with fewer noticeable pedestrians which worked better with the next shot we took. Another example in the second film was to cut out the clip of a climber's helmet in post production that we didn't notice whilst filming - despite waiting for them to get out of shot.

On the first film I didn't play much of a hand in the post production at all - Wizzy and Yoni came in on a friday and did the editing. On the second film I wanted to see the post production myself and arranged the timeline. The film clips in total came to over 7 minutes and I shortened it down to just under 4. I suggested altering the storyline slightly under the impression that the film strictly had to be 2 minutes long, and if we shortened the clips down too much, they would not have length enough to create any sort of dramatic effect. That decision had some mixed feedback, but clearly more criticism than necessary. I decided to let it go and see if the film could be shortened enough, and whilst it didn't have the lengthy shots and dramatic effect I filmed for, we had enough footage to work with and it came out well. 

I browsed for sound effects from the BBC library such as wind, footsteps and other sounds that we may have ended up using or not using altogether, and gave my opinion on what music we should use before making a joint decision with the editor on what track to use. I then asked the storyboarder whether he wanted a track, to which he asked do we need one? I respected his input as a storyboarder, but I felt at least the first half of the film with no dialogue would have been good with music.