Film Director - How to become a Film Director

Film Director as a profession has started gaining ground in the non film industries families at a resonably fast pace. A career which was limited to few families of Indian film industry for last 100 years has broken open the shakels and become popular among yonger generation with no filmy background.

India can boast of one of the biggest entertainment industry-comprising Cinema and TV-in the world. With its self claimed Head quarter at Mumbai which is also known as Mayanagri or Bollywood in Indian parlance. Although not as famous but not far behind, we are having similar film industry in the south India too.

Film making that includes feature films, documentaries, newsreels, Promotional films, TV commercials, music Videos etc. is one of its major aspect. All these creative works involves a lot of skilled professionals in its making like Producer, Director, Actor, Screen Play Writer, Dialogue writer, Dance Director, Photographer and a whole lot of technical and non technical professionals. All these play their role in creating a piece of art like Feature film that helps to get name, fame and money for this bunch of talented professionals.

Although all the professionals have their own important  role to make a film but the most important of all these is the Director of the film. A director leads  the film unit from front. He has the responsibility to sail the project of the film making successfully which may even take years to complete. He is responsible not only to manage the material sources but also the Human resources so as to get optimum out of them.

Although Actor/Actresses take whole credit of the success of a film but in the real sense it is the Director who is responsible for the success just as a Coach of a soccer team is held responsible for the success or defeat, although it is the player that always remain in the lime light.

Thus to direct anything leave a feature film alone is not a mean task. One has to be hard working, work alcoholic and passionate of his work. He should have a high sense of imagination and foresightedness. Profession of a Director is full of pressures not only from his producer but also from his subordinates and actors. As they work on his beliefs and do what ever he tells them. Thus he should be a responsible professional that is able to work in pressure cooker like situations.

To achieve all these qualities along with sharpening his creative skill he/she has to undergo some short term courses and has to attain a lot of experience before plunging into this profession.

Eligibility to Become a Film Director

1. Educational Qualification

Though no specific Educational qualification is required to be a Director yet basic qualification of 10+2 is considered as good to have professional courses in this field.

2. Age

There is no age bar to become a Film Director.

How to become a Film Director?

To be a Director one has to follow the below given steps:

Step 1

After passing plus two and acquiring basic knowledge of various aspects of film making by informal ways one may go for various certificate and diploma courses offered by Dance, Drama and Film schools throughout the country. These school provides various course in film Directing.

However some reputed institutes with limited seats may take an aptitude test before granting admission in their institutions.

Duration of various courses

1. Certificate course is of one year.
2. Bachelor courses is of three years.
3. Diploma and Post Graduate level courses is of two years.

Step 2

After completion of his/her graduation in the relevant field one can start his/her career by joining some big film house or start as an assistant director to some senior director in the project to get some on job experience. After getting some on job exposure one can take up his own assignment of directing a movie in an effective and successful manner.

Film Director Job Description and career Prospects

Film director's job description invcludes managing material and human resources effectively to complete the project in hand in time and commerial viable manner.

Film Director salary

Film Director should be ready to work even without any monetary gains if he is being offered to assist by a good director in the industry by taking into consideration that experience is more important to him then the money he will get at the starting stage of his  career.

However Film Director salary varies between Rs.5,00,000 to Rs.10,00,000 depending upon the film house and the project he joins. After getting some exposure and working with some established directors there is no counting of money one can earn in this professions. All this depends upon his creative skill and amount of success he gets commercially with his work.