How and Why to Become a Director

An interesting article I found while surfing the web. Ever wonder just how to become a director? How do people get their foot in the door? What do directors do? What's the best advice for an aspiring filmmaker?

I found this article with some really good information and fun facts about the job featuring writer/ director John Dowdle.

Some interesting excerpts:

If a man wants to become a movie director, how should he best prepare? Do you recommend going to film school?

Film school is a great way to jump start a sense of film language. Making shorts and then showing them to people is invaluable in that sense. But I don’t think film school is necessary. I know a lot of very talented directors who learned by just doing it.

I do think it’s important to learn to write, though. Having a good sense of story is invaluable. I believe nothing is more important than that.

How did you personally get your foot in the door of the movie-making business?

I made a movie. And nothing happened. And then I made another movie (“The Dry Spell”). And it got into some festivals and got our names out there a little bit (I say “our” because I work in tandem with my brother Drew). And then we made a third movie (“The Poughkeepsie Tapes”) and it got into the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007, and it caused a bit of a stir. MGM bought it, and a producer named Roy Lee heard of us and offered to let us pitch ideas to him for a remake of the Spanish film REC the same week. We were up against much bigger filmmakers, but we gave it everything we had and got the job. That film became “Quarantine.”

It took me 13 years of destitute poverty to start making a living making films. Before that, it was pretty brutal at times. I was almost evicted a dozen times. I once had to pawn my entire collection of jazz cds so I could take someone out for a business lunch. I once sold my car to make a short. Stuff like that.

HERE'S THE LINK TO THE FULL ARTICLE:

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/05/20/so-you-want-my-job-film-director/