How to Become a Movie Director

Video Transcript

"Alright folks, in this clip I'm going to talk to you about how to become a movie director. There are a couple of different ways you can do this, the first would be to go to film school, you'll spend four years learning about the movie making process from top to bottom, you'll hopefully come out of there with a little collection of material that you can use to get your job in the film business, and it's really the best way to learn the trade, in terms of just an all inclusive environment where you are exposed to the film making process and for four years, and so it's a great way to learn. Whether you go to film school or go the independent private route where you just teach yourself, you need to put together what's called a reel, a collection of your best work, so you need to do a lot of work, you need to work on short films, music videos, you need to volunteer for any and all projects that come your way and do your best working on those projects and compile a large collection of material that you can then put into a reel. And a reel is basically a one to two minute edited video of your best material, back, to back, to back. The clips are really supposed to pop off the page and get people's attention, it is essentially your calling card as a director. So once you have your reel, you start submitting it to different production companies and different agencies, and from there it's basically working your way up the run. You'll- some people will hire you for a job, some of them will be rather relatively small at first, like music videos, other short films for film festivals, maybe something for television. But once you get your first job under your belt, it'll inevitably lead into the next if you do a good job. So make sure you know your stuff, make sure you're prepared, make sure you have a good reel, make sure you're professional, and then from there you're well on your way to becoming an established and successful film director."