Director

What they do

Directors start on the page, breaking the script into scenes and deciding what each one is for. With the producer they appoint heads of department, and with the casting director they sit through days of auditions and recalls. Pre-production is meetings: tone meetings, recces and tech recces, a shot list and floor plans built with the cinematographer, storyboards or previs for anything with stunts or effects, and sign-off on fabric swatches, wall colours and the right can of soup. Some directors rehearse the cast, some do not; all of them block the performance before the camera commits, choreographing where actors stand, where they move and how the dialogue lands. On the floor they work through the first assistant director, watch the monitor for whether the scene is doing what it was written to do, and give every performance note, because nobody else is allowed to direct an actor. They decide when a setup is finished, and therefore what gets dropped when the day runs short. Afterwards they lead the edit and deliver a director's cut, which producers and financiers review before final cut is signed off. The unglamorous parts dominate: reading revised pages at midnight, approving things by phone photograph, and choosing which of two compromises damages the film less.

What they decide

The calls that belong to this role and no other.

• What each scene is about, and therefore whether it survives to the final film
• Where the actors are and where they move, developed with the cinematographer but the director's call
• Every performance note; no other crew member gives an actor a direction
• Which take is the one, and when a setup is finished
• Which coverage is genuinely needed, which means what to cut from the shot list when the day is short
• The cut, up to the point where producers and financiers sign off final cut
• Casting, shared with the producer and casting director

Principles of the craft

• Decide what the scene is about before deciding how to shoot it: name the single change that happens, in one sentence, and every later choice has something to be measured against. Directors who start from a shot list end up bending the performance to fit a diagram they made before they had actors.
• Staging is the first decision, and the camera is the second: put the cast in the space, watch the scene on its feet, and find the frames the staging already implies. A room with a level change, a doorway and something to cross behind gives you three scenes; a room with two chairs gives you shot-reverse-shot.
• Coverage is a consequence of staging, not a quota: master plus two singles is a habit. If the staging puts the turn of the scene in a single geometry, you may need one frame and a reaction, and shooting the other four costs you the light for the shot that matters.
• Direct the action, not the adjective: 'be sadder' gives an actor nothing to do. 'Try it while you are still packing the bag' changes behaviour, and behaviour is what the camera records. Notes that name an action, an obstacle or a person to talk to survive to the screen.
• Be the first audience member: the cinematographer is watching focus and the script supervisor is watching continuity, so the only person watching whether the scene makes anyone feel anything is the director. Deciding that you have got it, against the pressure of a falling sun, is the job.

Common mistakes

• Shooting a wide, a mid and a close of everything, then discovering in the edit that no angle carries the turn of the scene
• Rehearsing to a fixed result rather than to a problem, so the performance is already dead by the second setup
• Talking to the cast about theme and never about behaviour
• The competent director's version: over-preparing an elegant shot list and then refusing to abandon it when the actors find something better on the floor
• Approving lighting and design decisions from a monitor at video village instead of walking to the set to look at them
• Spending the morning on an establishing shot and losing the scene's most important frame to the end of the day

How to learn it

Exercises and routes in, not a reading list.

• Stage one two-page dialogue scene three ways in the same room with the same two actors: both seated and static, one character leaving and returning, both moving and crossing. Shoot each as one wide take on a phone. Watch with the sound off and note which staging tells you who has power.
• Shoot that same scene as a master plus two singles, then as one unbroken handheld take, then as five static frames with no coverage. Cut all three. Write down which version you had to fix in the edit and what you fixed.
• Direct a scene using only actionable notes: every note must name a physical action, a change of intention or a person to speak to. Record yourself and count how many adjectives got through anyway.
• Take a scene from a produced screenplay you have never seen filmed. Write the one sentence you think it is about, make your shot list, then watch the film and compare where the director put the camera at the turn.
• Run a read-through with non-actors, time it with a stopwatch, and compare your timing to the page count. Directors who cannot estimate screen time cannot protect a schedule.