Is it hard to become a film director?

Question

I'm an aspiring film director. Any tips?

Answer 1

I assume you mean a successful one :)

Yes, it's very difficult. I think it might be even more difficult that trying to become an actor, becuase you basically have to create your own career. I've worked with many aspiring directors on indie and short films and you really start at the complete bottom of the barrel. Do you write? One thing is start networking now to meet writers, cinematographers, etc. You will really start by producing your own films - writing, directing, maybe even acting unless you can pull some friends in. You should also learn how to edit, becuase you will be doing this yourself too, unless your have enough money to pay an editor. Do some trial runs. Most early stage directors I've worked with have basically formed production companies with other people who fill various positions and they all work together to make the films - so eventually you have built in writers, DP's, cameramen, editors, etc.

You can move onto shorts. Just write a 5 minute script. Post an ad looking for actors and hold auditions. You don't have to pay them, just provide the basic FCC - food, copy and credit.

As you get more experience, begin looking around for local film festivals to submit to. Just keep doing this, going bigger and bigger, eventually submit to places like Sundance and then you can make features and begin looking for distributors and at some point, looking for theatrical release. As you get more successful, you'll get more notice and you'll be able to cast better actors (evenutally you many want to work under SAG contracts and employ all SAG actors, though you WILL have to pay them) and have more sophisticated films, overall.

I would also recommend reading biographies of film directors to see how they all got started. In every case though I think you will find that they all created films on their own, they didn't just end up at a studio.

It's tough. You really create your own path and in addition to being very creative, also be a great business-man - you need to be very PR savvy and network A LOT.

In any case, I am not a director, but have worked with many at all stages of careers - MFA students doing grad films who are jsut learning, people more mid-level with some experience under their belt and people who do it full time.

I'm sure there are books about this as well. Check them out. Get as much info as you can.

Good luck!

Answer 2

my boyfriends best friend wants 2 b a director. hes rly good n he spends all his time making films w my boyfriend n i n his friend in them. hes submitted his videos to film festivals and he won a couple of small time awards. u shoudl definately make a film w ppl in it who will do it for free (friends who can kinda act) start off that way n enter them into movie festivals. thats always a good way.. annnddd if u want, take some film classes at a college or sumthing

Answer 3

It helps if you get the proper degree, but you still need to make a lot of amateur films and enter them in competitions.  You have to prove you know what you are doing before a film studio will take a chance on you.   Normal progression is amateur films, then commercials and music videos, then films for TV and finally movies.

Answer 4

make a kick *** home video and send it to hollywood

Answer 5

Directing music videos! It worked for Michel Gondrey