Becoming a Film Director

Series Summary

Becoming an indie filmmaker is a more attainable dream now than ever before. Home technology allows ordinary folks to shoot a movie, edit it, lay down music for the background, and even create a movie trailer. However, selling the finished product involves a lot more. There are storyboards to draw, scripts to write, and funding to obtain. The tricky part is getting a studio to notice. In this free video series, a director and filmmaker provides tips for the aspiring filmmaker. Learn how to become a filmmaker, how to make 3D movies and how to make an action movie. Find out how to come up with movie script ideas, how to become a film editor, and learn documentary filmmaking techniques. Discover what it takes to make a movie with these filmmaking tips.

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Jared Drake and I'm going to talk to you about how to become a film director. Really all you need to be a film director is a camera and an actor or a subject. You know the term director is so loose. It's anybody that tells a story in using film or video. So if you want to be a film director, go out and get yourself a camera and you can call yourself a film director. If you want to be a good film director, the most important thing you have to do is just practice. You gotta shoot, you gotta edit. If you're sitting around and you're bored, pick up your camera, tell a story. Doesn't matter what it is. Now a few things you can do to improve your skills as a film director is one go to film school. I went to film school and it paid off in a lot of ways. A lot of people think you go to film school and you walk out and you get multi million dollar movie deals handed to you and that does not happen. So don't go to film school expecting to all of a sudden make it in the industry because that's not what it's for. Film school is a place to go learn and grow as a film maker. To throw all of your creative talents in the mix with like minded individuals or unlike minded individuals and learn from that. That experience is invaluable. So one way or another, you need to have that time in your life to know who you are as a film maker. To know your voice, get in touch with your voice and really just learn the trade. The key to become a wanted film director, meaning somebody that is actually valuable to productions, just having their name along attached a project is valuable to that production is to do something that's successful. You know have a feature film that plays well on the festival circuit or sells big to some distributor or is a sleeper. It can be an independent movie that you shoot with friends and family, yourself. But to have something that is critically received well goes a long way in building your name as a film maker. And then once you have a name, then your agent, your manager, they can use that to sell you to studios and say hey we've got so and so here. He's open these next few months. We notice you guys are going into production on blah blah blah. And there you go. So but it all starts and it all goes back to knowing your voice and getting in touch with your voice as a film maker and understanding the craft. So that's where you've got to start."