The Industry and Me

What is a director?

A director is the person behind the movie. Without a director, the film would have great difficulty being formed and created. A director makes the calls on what will be and will not be in the film. The director’s job is to bring the scripts to life and will also help the script writer and the script editor to get the clearest vision for their film. It is vital that a director has a clear and well-constructed idea of what they want to end product to look like and they must decide if they need to reshoot scenes to attract potential audiences. Directors also have to make sure the film is finished for a certain date. So then it can be edited in time for the film’s release date, meaning time is one of their worst enemies. Directors must also be aware of the budget of their project and must be careful not to go over it. As well as this, the director must be able to get the actors motivated whilst they are filming and will give them advice on how to improve on a scene. Directors also must know who the target audience is and how to direct the movie according to the age target. Directors must remain calm throughout the several months that they are directing across and must always have the communication skills with other staff members to assure everything is running as smoothly as possible. The salaries of directors depend on how big of a project they are working on and how much experience they have with the roles and responsibilities of being a director.

A director doesn’t just direct the actors in front of the camera. Directors have to have an understanding of every single department, including lights, sound and editing. If anything, the editor and the director’s relationship is the most crucial on any film set. Both the director and editor have to work alongside and have to put their complete trust in each other. The editor must work with the director’s outline of the film and this can lead to disagreements and arguments about how the film should look. The director has a clear image of how they want the film to look and will do their best to make sure their vision becomes a reality. Every person within the media industry is aware of the news. Whether this global, national or even just gossip. A director has to know what is currently trending within Hollywood and the film industry to maximise the film’s success as well as the crew’s success.

Hollywood is a heavily male dominated industry. Names like Spielberg and Burton come to mind when talking about directors but hardly anyone knows of any female directors. Since the Oscars started in 1929, only five women have ever been nominated for an Oscar in the directing category. These include Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig. In 2009, 80 years since the Oscars started, Katheryn Bigelow was the first ever female director to win an Oscar for The Hurt Locker. With Hollywood directors mostly being straight white men, it brings up the point about other directors. In theory, these white male directors usually make films with a straight white male character. For instance, Nolan directed the Dark Knight trilogy, starring Christian Bale, a straight white male to play Bruce Wane, a straight white male. With this heavy impact, Hollywood are producing the same type of films every year. Hollywood needs more variation. It needs women telling the stories. It needs LGBT directors telling stories. We need more people of colour telling stories. It needs more people who go against the white male stereotype that heavily dominates Hollywood.

(SLIDE FOUR – HOLLYWOOD)

Every Hollywood film will have a big budget. Hollywood is the largest film industry and along with that follows The Big Six. The Big Six is a collection of studios that produce the most income. The studios include Disney, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Image, Columbia Pictures, Century Fox, and Universal. These six studios are responsible for some of the highest grossing films.

Despite being a media giant, Hollywood can still have issues. It is hard to come up with an original idea for a film, novel or television show as chances are everything has already been thought of. This leads to similar plots, characters and scenarios in films. Superhero films will always have a storyline where good has to fight evil and the superhero has a hidden identity. This is a problem which runs through both DC films (Warner Bros) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Disney). Horror films that are produced by Hollywood’s studios will always have a predictable storyline. Audiences soon get fed up and feel as if they have seen the film already if he storylines are similar. This makes it harder for any of the studios in Hollywood to come up with an original idea as it can always be compared to other films. The films will all have a general and predictable plot and a cliché narrative. This is why we need more directors and fresh ideas in Hollywood. If the same directors keep using the same outlines of plots, we, as an audience are going to be consuming the same ideology every time we watch a film.

As a female wanting to go into the industry as a director, my inspirations vary in terms of storytelling and visualisation. Two of my most influential directors are Patty Jenkins and Greg Berlanti. Patty Jenkins directed the blockbuster hit, Wonder Woman. The film itself is a milestone in modern cinema. Although it isn’t the first female led superhero film (Catwoman in 2004), the film itself. The film was the highest grossing superhero origin story to date. As a girl, being able to see female superheroes have their own films is one of the most empowering things to me. Greg Berlanti is an openly gay director who directed the 2018 coming of age, Love, Simon. The film is an adaptation of the LGBT novel, Simon Vs the Homo Sapien Agenda. The film was the first ever film by a major studio to have a gay character as the main character. This film alone changed how the LGBT community was looked at. The film’s impact alone was important. People were openly coming out and talking about their experiences with coming out and finding themselves. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of my favourite films of all time and that film was one of the reasons I want to into directing. The narrative and the cinematography are what attracted me to the film. For me, it is the film that got me into the genre and the coming of ages themes in the film.

Why do I want to be a director? I want to be a director because I want to be able to have a platform where I am able to express myself through a medium of art. I want to be able to make something and direct something that I can be proud of. From a young age, I have been fascinated with the art of film and how films can mean different things to different people. There is a sense of freedom whilst directing and I want to be able to show my passion through my work. Being creative is one of my favourite things and I am constantly finding new ideas. I am always ready to write down my new ideas so I can development them further. Another reason I want to go into directing is because of the lack of female directors compared to male directors. The film industry needs more women directors. Referring to the timeline from previously, only one woman has won an Oscar for Best Director. This is 2018. More women should be winning these types of awards. I want to be able to make a difference through the power of film and that is important to me.

I know what I want to do in the distant future but what I do with these few months and years are crucial if I want to make it. I want to throw myself into this role as much as possible and learn through practical events and research. During the Summer, I was asked by a friend to direct his music video for him and his other friend. We travelled around Manchester with location ideas in our minds. I had already developed ideas on how the music video looked and we shared ideas. We spent three hours shooting the music video. This gave me an insight into what it feels like to direct different forms of media. Previously, I had directed a short film, a documentary and a music video but this felt different as I was going further on location and I had to construct my own research into the song and locations instead of working in a group. Since leaving high school, I have attended drama schools and received four qualifications in drama. This gives me an advantage from behind the camera as I a m able to coach the actors.