Directors craft motion pictures, television shows, music videos or commercials and control a filming crew’s artistic, dramatic and technical aspects. Their main job is to visualise a screenplay and guide cast members and crew to ensure that vision is realised. For the most part, directors play a key role in selecting actors and key technical members, as well as putting together the production design.
45hweek
Unpredictable
Nights, weekends, holidays occasionally
A director’s hours and working conditions do vary on a wide variety of factors. For a veteran director, there will be the pre-production, production and post-production phases.
Pre-production involves sitting in meetings, casting actors for roles, discussing the screenplay and creating a plan for production, which can be done in a studio and during regular business hours. The production part usually takes place on-location, which will require a lot of hours to film various takes of the same scenes. Post-production, again, can be done in a studio with doable hours.
Essentially, a director will not maintain a normal 9am–5pm, Monday–Friday schedule. It can be physically exhausting and mentally demanding.
$34k
$72k
$160k
Annual salary estimates are based on percentile wage data collected through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey of US workers.
Undergraduate
DVM / VMD degree
4years
To become a director, you will most likely need formal training, which can either be obtained through a two-year college programme or a four-year university degree.
Although some of the greatest directors in film history never attended formal studies, the industry has greatly changed, relying on more than just a camera and a vision. You will need proficiency in a whole host of tools, from camera equipment to sound recording tools to editing software.
It should be noted that you do not necessarily need formal training to be a director. You can always shoot an independent film, submit it to film festivals and build a portfolio that way. Mostly, however, you will need to begin at the bottom of the technical ladder and climb through the ranks that way.
12%
16.5k
2.2%
Many directors typically start as production assistants, camera operators, assistant directors and directors of photography. With experience, you could land the opportunity of a lifetime as a director of a film or TV production from a successful studio. This takes a few years and a stellar portfolio.