Sometimes people email me asking: “how do I become a professional TV director”? So:

amazing ADVICE FROM 100+ other DIRECTORS

This is a lot better than just having my advice: here are over a hundred interviews with all sorts of British directors who are working right now! It’s been put together by Lewis Arnold and the NFTS, and it’s an amazing resource that shows how there are loads of different paths into the industry. 

http://www.directorsnow.com/download/

And then, for what it’s worth…

my ADVICE on how to get into the industry as a director

  • Make loads of zero-budget short films (seriously: do not spend money on them)

  • Find talented and enthusiastic people to work with

  • Learn how to do different jobs on set - don’t JUST be a director

  • Try to get a low-level job in the industry where you get paid to learn

  • Think about what work you’d need to be able to show a producer so they’d feel confident that if they gave you a job you probably wouldn’t screw it up

  • Understand that it usually takes a long time to get established, with lots of trial and error, and there’s unlikely to be one magic break-out moment. Be patient, hard-working, try lots of things, and don’t pin all your hopes on one project

a much longer version of the above

My advice is all based on my experience over the period 2008-2018 - so it’s not necessarily relevant to you, now. And anyway there are lots of other ways to go about it. Still:

  • To get a foot in the door, you’ll probably be working on the lowest-budget TV projects that are being made. So you need to have had a lot of practice making amazing videos with very little money. I’d say that making no-budget films with your friends is easier than low-budget TV because you have a lot more time, and can be much more flexible.

  • Film and edit loads of different videos - and don’t spend any money on them (though please do buy food and transport for the people helping you). If you don’t spend money then you can afford to make a lot more stuff, you’re forced to be more inventive, and it doesn’t matter if you make big mistakes. The more stuff you make, the more experience you have, and the higher the likelihood that you’ll have something good for your portfolio! Too often people wait to get funding for one short film, when they could make five no-budget short films in the same amount of time. That’s five times the chance of success.

    Your work should still look as good as possible, but a producer is more interested in your ideas than the fact you were able to spend money. You learn most from your mistakes - so make as many mistakes as you can now, while no one’s watching. Once you get established, you’re not allowed to make mistakes.

  • Don’t JUST be a director. Get experience of other roles so that you understand what the cast and crew need from a director. You don’t have to be a very good actor or writer or designer yourself, but if you understand those jobs from the inside then you’ll be better at collaborating and understanding what they need from you. In particular, edit as much of your own work as possible - that way you really understand how it’s put together, what you got wrong, and how to make it better next time. Editing is a big part of the writing process: scenes are often rewritten in the edit, and the best way to learn about that is to do it yourself. Be a brutal editor: make everything as short and punchy as you can. Show test videos to other people and invite harsh criticism: people with fresh eyes will notice big problems you’ve missed. You’ll learn to get a bit better at avoiding those problems.

  • Try and get a job where you get paid to learn. It takes years to break in (i think it took me about 8 years?), so you need a job that will make you better at what you REALLY want to do. I made some zero-budget animations, sent them to different advertising production companies, and eventually one agreed to give me work experience for a week. That week turned into three weeks, and then one of the runners happened to be leaving… and so I managed to get a job as an in-house runner for 18 months. The hours were very long and the pay was very low, but it was amazing because i got to be around directors, producers and editors a lot - and I’d be photocopying storyboards, filming casting sessions, writing other directors’ advert treatments, cutting together animatics, doing VFX tests, and dealing with filming emergencies.

    I didn’t go to film school, so I don’t know how it compares - but I suspect that learning on the job might be more useful than film school, and you get paid to do it rather than being in debt for ages. I kept making my own animations and music videos while working as a runner, which let my bosses know I was serious - and eventually they let me pitch on some low-budget music videos. I won those pitches, directed and edited the videos, and after three proper music videos I stopped being a runner and was signed as a proper director.

  • Try and work with lots of different up-and-coming writers and actors for free, because if you work well together, then you can help each other get further up the ladder. Actors need writers, writers need directors, other directors need editors. Reach out to people whose work you like online - but only if you can see how you could genuinely be useful for them. Don’t just ask for a favour. If you both have stuff to offer each other, then you could have a really productive collaboration and then everyone wins.

  • You’ll be given a job by a producer - so try and think about how you look from a producer’s perspective. If they want to give you a job, they need to be able to prove to their bosses that you can be trusted to do something cool and not screw it up. That means you need to be able to show them several short videos which showcase your imagination and verve. And also…

  • You need to be able to write a good pitch document. What is a pitch document? It’s something like this. You’ll need to get experience in finding really good reference pictures, editing mood reels, and writing some brief, clear and non-bullshitty paragraphs about exactly how you’ll make the video/advert/film good if you get the job.

  • It’s ok not to know everything when you’re starting out! In fact, you probably don’t know how much you don’t know. But you’ll learn as you go along. Your first TV job will be super-small, and pretty much the same as stuff you were already making with your friends. Then little bit by little bit you’ll work on slightly bigger projects, and get used to the increased levels of stress and complexity.

That’s it! i hope some of it was useful.

If you have more specific questions, you can email me at trak20@gmail.com. I will probably want to answer, but feel too busy to do it properly, then get really guilty that i haven’t answered, and then maybe still not answer! But you never know.