Working with Directors

"Is a director someone who expects a round of applause when the sun rises in the morning? As a forcing ground for self-delusion, greed, plagiarism, vanity, hindsight, malice and treachery, the cinema has few equals."
                                                                        -  Frederic Raphael 

I've written and directed three films as well as way to many commercials, several documentaries and filmed and co-produced an award-wining short film which I also wrote. I feel for each side of the table after all writers and directors have to deal with producers and actors.

An aspiring feature director once asked me if writers should be allowed on set or not. That question answers ; if they have to ask the answer is probably no. Good directors who have a realistic level of confidence welcome writers while bad directors don't want anyone there who might be a threat to their little fiefdom.

Where arguments arise is most often in who owns the screenplay and I don't mean who paid for it. Many directors seem to feel it's their story and there interpretation. Good directors aren't afraid to have the writer there or to ask the writer some questions. They will even have the writers on set.

I've worked on both features and had good directors and bad directors.  Video and TV are different as the writers are the kings of the castles. Video directors may also have some power but it all comes back to the writer. I was working on a TV set in Vancouver where it always rains.  I usually didn't need to anything, just hang around.

Then, a crew member approached me as we both looked out in the rain as the others were building the next scene. The member looked at me and smiled and said "It's all yours." I felt good.

The best directors I can say are brilliant are anywhere from 1935 up to the end of the 70's. The films today are more interested in making explosives and creatures. I think you should see movies with directors like John Huston, James Cameron, Preston Sturges, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola and some indies like John Sayles and David Lynch. All were writers before being writer/directors.

Today's directors seem to be the same, same movies, same ideas and get lots of them over and over again. There was a time when every movie that came out didn't make copies.

But for the most part directors will go to you when they're not sure; your the only "creative" person behind the camera besides the DP. I get along with the crew, in fact after I left the TV commercial world my first job at the age of 34 was as a P.A., a production Assistant who does all the lowly jobs like copying scripts or getting special food for the star.

Since I knew a lot about cameras, sound and movies they didn't mind me around. Directors tend to give notes on characters and conflict; some will want to go deeper while others need to understand the characters better. This is a tough fix, because what if something you wrote doesn't work. As you've seen it can lead into some real fights.

Sometimes it's worth it. I had trouble with a director while filming in Mexico and this could be a problem but I had the producer on my side. 

It always gets finished anyway.