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Here is advice for a film director:
ADVICE FOR A FILM DIRECTOR:
The director must also be the sole screenwriter of their own film. Sequels, adaptations, franchises, remakes, and reboots should not happen. The director's film should be his or her own original work where he or she is the sole director and the sole screenwriter. This enables and empowers the director to be much more of a simultaneous auteur, artist, and author in addition to being a film director. And the director must also be the sole producer of his or her own film that he or she is also the sole director and sole screenwriter of. This further enables and empowers the director to have much more control and final cut over his or her own film during all stages of production (pre production, production, filming, post production, and distribution).
The director must be an artist, an author, a perfectionist, and a rightist (meaning the director must always get everything perfect and get everything right).
The director must always remember this: EVERYTHING STARTS WITH THE SCREENPLAY. THE SCREENPLAY IS THE ULTIMATE FOUNDATION FOR EVERY FILM. The five elements of a screenplay are: character, conflict, story, plot, and theme. From character, you have both internal conflict and external conflict. From conflict, you have story. From story, you have plot. From plot, you have theme (what the film means; the message and moral of the film; the purpose of the film; what the director is saying with his or her film). Of the five elements of a screenplay, CHARACTER is the most important element.
The director must also remember this: the most important part about every film is THE STORY.
The director must always have extremely powerful and strong openings that pull the audience in and not only never lets them go but keeps tightening their grip over the audience constantly until the very end of the film.
The director must also make sure that the best part of every film is...THE ENDING. All excellent four star films have dynamite endings. Therefore, the director must make sure that THE ENDING is the best part of his or her own film.
The director must always make their film a perfect film, an excellent film, and a four star film. The director must always improve in their filmography no matter what. The director must always outdo and outperform their previous films.
The director should always make their film a real work of art.
The director should always make the best film of all time with all of their films. The director should always give everything they have and much more on his or her own film. If the director is worried about their future films, the director shouldn't be worried. If the director works at a level of 100 on their current film, then they shouldn't worry about outdoing and outperforming themselves on their next films. It will happen naturally. It is like aging backwards as you age maturely in years. The director must always work at a level of 100 and beyond on a scale of 0-100 on all of their films EVERY DAY.
The director must always finish under budget and ahead of schedule. This is applicable towards all of pre production, production, filming, and post production. That is the entire process. Always finish under budget and ahead of schedule.
Directors must do most of the work themselves. Anything remaining they cannot do must be accomplished by his or her cast and crew who must help and collaborate with the director to accomplish what remains to be done.
Never treat cast and crew like cattle. They are all human beings.
Always make sure your cast and crew are well fed and taken care of and accommodated during filming.
Your cast and crew should sincerely and genuinely love working for you and with you. You should keep this in mind when hiring cast and crew.
You should always hire cast and crew who sincerely and genuinely believe in every word and page of your screenplay. You should always hire cast and crew who sincerely and genuinely believe in you, your film, your efforts, and what you want and need to accomplish for your film.
You should always hire cast and crew who will be 100 percent absolutely and unquestioningly loyal towards you and your film.
It's fine for a director to tell his or her cast and crew what he or she wants, followed by the cast and crew doing the work for the director. However, the director must have an infinitely long and detailed explanation as to what to tell the cast and crew what the director wants them to do and work on. THE DIRECTOR MUST BE AWARE OF--IN FINE EXCRUCIATINGLY DRAWN OUT DETAIL--WHAT HE OR SHE WANTS AT ALL TIMES, STARTING RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF PRE-PRODUCTION, AND ALL THE WAY THROUGH PRODUCTION, FILMING, POST PRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION. THE DIRECTOR MUST DECIDE EVERYTHING THAT HE OR SHE WANTS EVEN BEFORE PRE-PRODUCTION BEGINS.
The director must always be there in person with all the cast and crew all the way through pre production, production, filming, and post production. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The director must NEVER abandon their cast and crew during these stages.
The director must always hire the production designer, costume designer, cinematographer, assistant directors, and unit production managers FIRST. The production designer, the costume designer, and the cinematographer are always in a trifecta of a harmonious collaboration with one another.
The director must always, always, ALWAYS film on CELLULOID ONLY.
During the casting process, the director must never settle for a mediocre audition from a potential cast member. The secret to getting excellent performances from cast members is to hire really excellent actors to begin with. The director should always direct the potential cast member in the auditioning process because that potential cast member should also audition how well he or she works with the director.
The director must always reserve at least 45 consecutive days, 8 hours per day, of rehearsal with the cast members before filming begins. It must be treated like a professional theatrical stage production. It is ultimately strict rehearsal. Nothing more. The director must always rehearse with the cast members every day during this rehearsal period.
The director must always require the cast members to do much more than what is required for the cast members to do during rehearsal and in terms of character development.
The director must always conduct a dress rehearsal and a technical rehearsal with the cast and crew on set multiple times before the filming of a given scene can begin.
The director must always reserve times to view dailies during the filming schedule before wrap can be called.
DON'T TAKE FOREVER DURING PRODUCTION. With all due respect, you shouldn't be like Stanley Kubrick in this sense who took 3 years to film a 3 hour 5 minute production of Eyes Wide Shut. And I love Stanley Kubrick. Everybody is aware that I love Stanley Kubrick, and I love Stanley Kubrick's films. But while accomplishing the immaculate excellent quality of a Stanley Kubrick film, you absolutely must also move at the lightning speed of ALFRED HITCHCOCK during production. A lot of this greatly depends on your cast and crew, how fast can they work, how efficiently can they work, can they get everything right, excellent, and perfect on the first try, etc. And a lot of this depends on obsessive and heavy rehearsal rehearsal REHEARSAL with both your cast and crew before filming even begins.
When the director directs a scene, the director should always stand behind the camera alongside the cinematographer, camera operator, and AC. It is encouraged that the director should also have a portable monitor at all times on set because if a mistake happens, the director can correct it right there and then before dailies.
When you arrive at the post production process, and editing begins, borrowing from the words of Orson Welles, you should have a lot of exciting fun in the editing room. It is this stage where you can essentially rewrite the film if you want. You can also make a cast member into a huge star with star power. You can dramatically alter the pacing and tone of the film. Etc, etc, etc.
Always use source music. If you hire a composer, God help you. Composing an original score is always a 50-50 chance you'll love it or hate it. If you hate it, then you're stuck with it, and you're also out hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. So it is recommended to always and only use source music from outside existing source material.
The director must always always ALWAYS distribute the film in MOVIE THEATRES during the initial theatrical release domestically and internationally! Never ever EVER distribute it through streaming platforms, on the Internet, nor "On Demand"!
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