After a lot of discussion within the group, we eventually came to a unanimous decision on who will have what jobs for this project. We came to the conclusion that: I will take the role of director, as I have the leadership skills, the determination, and the fact I work well with all the other members of the group. Becky will take the role of editor, as she has the determination to try something new, and gets to grips with new software and challenges fairly easily. Martyn will take the role of storyboard as he has experience in the sector and has immense artistic skills. Finally, Leonie will take role of scriptwriter as she has unbelievable writing abilities and will get the work done to perfection before the deadline. Camera duties will be shared.
Last year, I took the role of editor within the group, in which I feel I took the role seriously, and done the work to a high standard, and co-operated well within the whole group, and contributed well throughout. I chose to take this role as it is a new challenge, unknown territory even, and I hope to take this role and perform to a higher standard than last year.
A director will have to interpret a script very carefully, work out the exact representations of each character, and be able to translate this so the script and storyboard both match each other, both to a professional standard. A director must be able to direct everyone and everything within the production, actors, settings, make-up artists, everything, and they are the key character in the production of any film. Without a director to organise everything, there is no film. They have to be able to turn an actor, into a character as well. They also have to make decisions regarding if there is too much footage, what will have to be cut out, with assistance from the editor of course. They have to decide whether a storyboard and a script are adequate and that they go hand in hand in addition, and whether the film is able to flow with ease. They have to make decisions on where and when to shoot the film and what would happen in the case of something happening at the last second. Professional directors will have completed a program which is done through a film school and will have either a bachelor’s degree or associates degree in film and video production.
Every little detail that comes up on camera will have to be added in by the director, he/she has to be one with the camera, and when filming outside, with a camera that changes exposure, it may do this up to 7 times a shot, so there may be a sudden bright or dark spot within a shot, and this is something else the director has to take into consideration when deciding where and when to film a movie. The same problems occur if the camera changes immediately from dark to bright light, as it has to take time to adapt to the new surroundings.
A whole scene is rarely done in one shot, only in very few circumstances are they done like that. In almost every case, like it was last year, they will be done in many shots, however, some shots will have odd lighting, or something not right, which will make that one shot stand out for all the wrong reasons, making that whole piece look really unprofessional. As the director has to be one with the camera, they should have to learn the advantages and disadvantages of each camera available, and learn about their limitations, and make good use of all the advantages of the camera, and shun out all the disadvantages if possible. Camerawork is not the only technical factor that a director has to be aware of, they also need to be able to position one correctly, take lighting into consideration, timing with the soundtrack, as well as work very closely with the film producer, and in this case it will be the same as the director.
The director will get more credit than almost anyone for a film, as it will say ‘A DIRECTOR’S NAME film’ more than once throughout. Throughout the whole production process they will have to be able to visualise the entire film before any filming or editing begins.
Sources:
http://degreedirectory.org/articles/Film_Directing_Become_a_Film_Director_in_5_Steps.html
http://www.illiteraryfiction.com/movie-director-and-camcorder-auto-mode
http://filmguide.wikia.com/wiki/Film_director
