See also: The Art of Direction

Pat Heigham

I am reminded of a story that a cameraman told me:

A video shoot down a London street – two characters with dialogue – the Director apparently said to him: "Do the close-ups at the same time – and I want it all to be cosmic!"

A single camera!

What ever happened to Director training?

An article posted on the web:
http://www.tvbeurope.com/bbc-partners-dwp-offer-5000-traineeships/ 

 Bob Auger, Jeff Booth

It seems that these days it only takes nine weeks to teach trainees all they need to know….   Really, as long as that?

 
I could wax lyrical about the number of editors I have come across who know 2/3 of <blank> all about TV or film.

Albert Barber

Quite agree. I did some mentoring, and the guy who was being paid for the course, with lots of expensive gear, had only dabbled with anything that even close to professional stuff. I complained about the so called students who were being supported by the Media Trust and got a sharp reply and no support as they were all on a government sponsorship. 

Depressed by the whole thing I haven’t done any since. 

It makes me very **** angry that money is wasted in the name of good works and political rhetoric.

Tony Grant

Many years ago I was told the story of an Italian film producer/director working here in the UK just after WW2, whose command of the English language left something to be desired. Thus, many people took the mickey out of him unmercifully, so that one day he lost his rag and screamed, ‘You think I know f**k nothing about directing, but I’m telling you I know f**k all!’.

Patrick Heigham

I’m pretty sure that was Director Michael Curtiz (Hungarian American) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Curtiz who was also credited with the ‘..bring on the empty horses…’ used by David Niven for the title of one of his books.