First Time Director. Gil Bettman
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school is to find a classmate who they loath and detest and then make that classmate like them. It won't be fun or easy, but as Zemeckis used to tell me whenever I would start to whine about the difficulties of getting ahead in the film business: “If it were easy to get in the club, Gil, everybody would be in the club.”
Crewing Up
Though making a film is like fighting a war, it can also be compared to building a cathedral. As the director, you should be the driving force behind the construction of the cathedral. So you, as director, could be likened to a bishop who has convinced a king to put up the money to convert your vision into a physical reality. In this context, the king is the producer or the studio. The writer is the architect. He draws up the plans. The cinematographer is the head mason. The line producer and the production manager are the construction bosses. But the actual building is done by a myriad of laborers, most of them stone masons of one sort or another. Although you, the director, are charged with the responsibility of making the cathedral a work of art, the actual work is not done by your hands. As anyone who has studied the glass or the stonework of any great cathedral can tell you, to a large extent, the beauty of the whole is dependent on the beauty of each individual part. The cathedral could never be considered a work of art unless all those on whom the bishop depended to carry out his vision — from the architect down to each individual stonemason and glass worker — was, in his own right, a great artist.
I have always found that the first time director buys himself some very valuable insurance if he makes some key contributions to the process by which the crew for his film is hired. Sometimes this is not an option. In episodic TV, the series usually is run by the producer and/or the star. They hire the crew for the duration of the series. The directors rotate in and out every second, third, or fourth show. Under these circumstances, the director is a kind of queen for a day and the cinematographer may actually run the set. Hollywood or New York directors who work out of the country or out of their home state (unless they do so on a regular basis) are not going to know crew people in Texas, Canada, or the Philippines.
But my experience breaking in as a rock video director and then later as a low budget feature director in Los Angeles taught me that those who were hiring the crew, whether it was the producer or the line producer or the UPM, were always happy to have me lend a hand when it came time to hire all the department heads as well as all the “little people.” The logic of this approach is undeniable. Most of the great directors who are so thoroughly bankable they get everything they want to make a film — who never have to compromise on anything — never compromise when it comes to hiring department heads and/or crew. They know that their film will not be great unless they get great people on their team to attend to all the details that they cannot attend to. The director is responsible for everything, but he cannot actually do everything. He has to delegate. All those directors who have the power to do so, delegate strictly to those whom they know they can trust. As a first time director you will not be given this kind of veto power over the crewing- up process. But you should do your best to have as much influence as possible.
Since hiring crew falls under the job description of the line producer or the UPM, they always have a roster of their own people to draw from. But if their people are good (and you better hope that they are), then many of them will be working and unavailable. Or they may not be willing to compromise and accept the wages of your budgetarily compromised film. Under these circumstances, suggestions are usually welcomed. To this end, I have always saved all my crew sheets from every shoot I ever worked on. And if I had the good fortune to work with any crew person who was a standout at what he did, whether he was a PA or a cinematographer, I have always entered his name and phone number in my Rolodex, under his job title.
As soon as you come on board as the director, sit down with whoever is hiring the crew and casually suggest that you go over his choices for the department heads: the director of photography, the art director, the editor, the wardrobe department head, the hair and makeup person, the prop master, the special effects man, the stunt coordinator, and the graphic effects designer. Try to feel out how open he is to your suggestions. He may welcome your input or he may be completely opposed to it. Whichever, follow his lead. Yes, crewing up is important, and a first time director can only help his cause if he provides some key input into the process. Yet it is definitely not so important that the first time director should risk getting into an adversarial relationship with the line producer or the UPM or whichever one of the higher-ups is doing the hiring.
In almost all instances, the director participates in the hiring of the cinematographer. This only makes sense. The harmony and efficiency of the production is almost entirely dependent on whether or not the director and the cinematographer can get along with each other as human beings while collaborating as artists. Truly, it is as if the cinematographer and the director paint a picture together. The director must rely on words to tell the cinematographer what to paint. The producer and the higher-ups would be buying themselves some very cheap insurance guaranteeing that their set will be a happy and productive place if they hire a DP with whom you, the director, have collaborated with successfully in the past. You have got to hope that they understand the special nature of your relationship with the DP, and will respect your wishes when it comes hiring time. If they can't, or don't, politely and persistently try to enlighten them. If they are beyond being enlightened, after a week or ten days, you have to give up, even though your relationship with the DP is arguably more important than your relationship with the producer.
As a rule, successful cinematographers get ahead by getting along. Their careers are not going to flourish unless they have the people skills to amicably resolve differences of opinion between themselves and the many different directors — all with different work habits and personalities — with whom they are going to have to collaborate on their way up the ladder. Pedro never even introduced me to the DP on Crystal Heart. He just told me his nickname, Vasaleo, which means vaseline in Spanish. The nickname said it all. This guy was as smooth as they come. He was cheerful, completely unflappable, flexible, always full of ideas, but ready to incorporate mine. I had no trouble working with him, and it was to Pedro's credit as a producer that he knew filmmaking and Vasaleo well enough to know in advance that this would be the outcome.
If the producers are so incompetent they are going to force you to work with an intractable DP, this is going to be the least of your worries. If they blow it at this important juncture, then it is (tragically) more than likely that they are going to make bad decisions in two other areas that happen to be much more crucial to the success of the film: the rewriting of the script and the casting of the actors. Unfortunately, there is very little you can do to remedy this situation.
CHAPTER 1 | SUMMARY POINTS
• As a first time director, many of the crucial decisions will not be left solely up to you — especially those that impact the budget. But if it's purely a matter of taste and doesn't dramatically affect the budget, it should be your call. If it is your movie, it will be a better movie.
• The director sets the tone of the workplace. Stay positive, because you are going to need every bit of optimism to make it through the battle ahead. Be your own best cheerleader.
• The director is responsible for everything, even that which he has no control over.
• The director should never be heard laying blame or making excuses. It is not his place. He should have anticipated everything and made all the right decisions. Even if disaster befalls him, he should have had a back-up plan that saves the day.
• Prepare and then prepare some more. There is no such thing as being over- prepared.
• If you are going to direct a film which relies heavily on some realm of filmmaking that you are new to — whether it's something as old hat as song and dance numbers or stunts, or something as cutting edge as 3-D CGI graphics — then before you ever set foot in the office, study the nuts and bolts of that process so you can walk the walk and talk the talk.
• As a first time director, you should never risk one iota of whatever trust and goodwill exists between you and your producer. The only way for you to get ahead with your producer is by getting along.
• Very few first time directors get a second chance if they cannot get into