The director of the film is one of the first creative talents brought on board for film productions, and is usually lined up very early in the process. In the movie industry, the director is second in the chain of command, and answers primarily to the producer. While most directors are given a great deal of creative license for telling the story as they envision it, they seldom have total control over all decisions.

Decisions as to who has ultimate control of creative issues, business and financial issues, and the final cut of the film are generally negotiated and contractually bound at the time a director is hired. Directors who understand financial constraints and diplomacy are generally in the best position to work effectively with producers whose primary function is to deal with the business side of filmmaking.

The Fine Print

If you're directing your own film, you won't need to be as concerned with contractual issues regarding artistic license in the making of your movie. If you're working with a director, you'll need to make certain that all agreements regarding final artistic control of the film are in the contract. Even if your director is your closest friend or relative (especially if that's the case), you'll want to make sure the details are in writing.

The worst-case scenarios with directors generally involve creative disputes, budget overages, or falling seriously behind schedule. Creatively, if you become concerned that your director doesn't fundamentally understand the film you want to make, or if he appears to be making a different movie altogether, you'll need to have the recourse to either set him in the right direction or replace him. Also, if your director is burning through the budget too early in the production or the shooting schedule falls behind, you need the power to control the problem.

Know Your Stuff

The director is a storyteller whose number one priority is to know the script, fully understand the story, and recognize what makes that story work. Because of this, many directors work in close collaboration with the screenwriter during preproduction, given that the writer invariably has a personal vision of what the story should look and sound like. What sets a great director apart from all others is not only his grasp of a film's concept, but the methods he employs in bringing that vision to life. This includes setting the tone for the entire production and all the cast and crew involved. Every director has his own sense of style, moral and ethical code, industry opinions, and work ethic.

Style and Guile

As a director, the way you conduct yourself and orchestrate your players will become an intrinsic part of your film. A calm approach to directing will help maintain a calm crew. A humorous approach will create levity. A hands-off approach will encourage and nurture creativity in your cast — or it will breed chaos. If you lead well, your cast and crew are sure to follow, and the more organized you are in regard to the script, shots, setups, and all aspects of production, the better your film will be.

Directors tend to fall into two categories, those with a personal approach and those with a viewfinder approach. The more personal style is reflective of a director who pays close attention to the actors, guiding them, with either plenty of advice or limited instruction, to achieve optimal characterization. The viewfinder director is an individual who is less focused on actors and more focused on the camera, special effects, and techniques that will give the film a more stylish appearance. The ideal director is one who combines both approaches to strike the perfect balance.

Previsualizing

Directors by their very nature are dreamers, and dreams can often be hard for others to visualize. Previsualization breaks the script down into the visual elements of each scene. This is most commonly accomplished with storyboards and floorplans. Major productions usually recruit storyboard artists to draw detailed images of each shot in each scene (see Chapter 11).

These boards have the general appearance of comic strip panels. Artistic talent is helpful for storyboarding, but is not a prerequisite for creating useful drawings. For low-budget productions, the same effect can be created with relatively simple sketches. Storyboards need to be drawn in the same ratio as you're shooting the final film so that all of the elements in the storyboard drawings will translate to the screen.

Each panel should be drawn from the perspective of the camera and indicate the position from which the camera, and ultimately the audience, is viewing the shot. Indicating camera perspective is crucial to compiling the list of shots that will be done from each camera setup. The storyboard panels should also indicate how the scene will be lighted.

After the storyboard is completed with every shot and camera position identified, the storyboard can be duplicated for restructuring as a shooting storyboard. This is created by cutting apart the sequential storyboard and pasting it back together in the order of shots to be made from each camera position. Floorplans are drawn as an overhead view of each scene that shows the placement of cast members, crucial set dressings, cameras, and camera angles. Good floorplans are essential for setting up each scene, arranging and fine-tuning the placement of lighting and cameras, and putting your set dressings and cast into position for each camera angle. Storyboards and floorplans will help minimize the number of camera setups necessary for each scene, and will ultimately reduce the time required for setting up lighting and cameras.

The Shot List

A shot list is exactly what the term implies, a list of every single shot that will be made from each camera position in every scene. This includes the shots taken after lens changes from each position for closeups, medium shots, and wide shots. The storyboard and the floorplans are crucial for developing the shot list, and the combination of all three of these elements will provide information that will help determine the shooting schedule.

The shot list for each scene is grouped by camera positions and lens changes from each position. Typical shots include:

• ECU: Extreme closeups focus on sections of a face, such as the eyes, mouth, and nose.

• CU: Closeups show the face and shoulders.

• MS: Medium shots show the face and body from approximately the knees and up.

• WS: Wide shots show an entire body.

• LS: Long shots show the entire body with its surroundings.

• XLS: Extreme long shots show characters with a broad view of their background and surroundings.

• POV: This refers to the point of view of specific characters as shown by the camera, and what the character is looking at.

Changing lenses during a single camera setup provides a variety of screen perspectives that range from extreme closeups to long-shot views of a scene. The shot list also gives you a checklist for the end of the day to make sure you've got everything covered before moving on.