Responsibilities and Duties of a Film Director

Responsibilities

• Give precise feedback to cast and crew so that they can accurately portray the production that the director wants.
  
• Be responsible for the look and sound of a production and its technical standards so that the film is produced to a professional standard.
  
• To read over the script and make sure it makes sense, this therefore helps the actors to portray the character in a detailed and faultless manner.
  
• They can decide if the actors need to do a particular take again.
• Have the final say on when and how each scene should be blended into the next to give the scene the correct meaning and/or to keep the scene going with the momentum of the film.
  
• Responsible for handling most of the budgetary concerns for the film.
• Getting the right people for the job.

Duties

• Directing the shooting timetable and meeting deadlines.
  
• Hiring cast and crew.
  
• To meet the film producers and get an idea of when they want the production to be completed so that they can organize a suitable schedule.
  
• Deciding on where the production should be filmed to give the production the correct location to keep it professional.
  
• To create an overall vision through which the film eventually becomes realized through the use of storyboards etc, this helps keep the film crew and cast motivated to reach the overall vision whilst producing work of the highest quality.
• To tell the actors how to stand and move so that they help portray the correct behavior and help realize the overall vision.
• They might also explain the characters motivation for a particular action or back story so that they understand the character more which will make the acting more believable.
• They also try to push the actors to their best so that the standard of the production is what is required for the overall vision of the film.
• Organizing the film crew so that they know what they’re doing and so they can do it to the highest standard, therefore creating a better overall production.

5 Skills you need to be a Film Director

• Motivation to keep the consistency of the work to a high standard and to help lift those you work with.
• Communication skills so that the film crew and cast know what to do specifically and so that it creates a more understandable working environment.
• Patience with the other members of the cast or crew so that they don’t feel under so much pressure that they can’t do their job correctly.
• Professionalism so that the production comes out with a good standard and so that other members of the cast or crew keep working to their best ability.
• Reliability so that you can earn the trust of those you work with which creates a better working environment.

Uses of a Shotgun Microphone

Shotgun microphones are mainly used to catch the dialogue of a certain scene. To use a shotgun microphone you have to direct the mic part of it towards the person who is speaking, this is because the side of the microphone hardly picks up sound as its meant to be used to record a main sound.

Also if you intend on using a shotgun microphone outside in windy conditions you can use a sort of windshield to stop the wind or rain from interfering with the sound. This just fits around the mic and will help keep your recorded sound/dialogue clear.

To set up a shotgun microphone you must have (obviously a shotgun microphone) a boom pole for the microphone to stand on, batteries, headphones, a Zoom H4n recorder and a XLR cable which connects the mic and the recorder. Once you put the batteries in both the shotgun microphone and the Zoom H4n you turn on the Zoom H4n by holding the slider down on the side of it until it starts to load up and put the headphones in it, whilst this is happening you then connect the microphone and the Zoom H4n together by using the XLR Cable. The cable has two ends which have the nicknames “Male and Female” the female end of the cable connects to the shotgun microphone whereas the male end connects to the Zoom H4n. After this you can then extend the boom pole to the necessary height for your intended recording. Once the Zoom H4n is turned on and loaded you alter the sound (button is on the side) to between -12 or -6 however -6 is preferably the better option if you can get it. Finally once you can hear the person you’re recording through the headphones you can start to record.

Camera shot sizes

 Today we studied the different type of camera shots, to do this we were shown a diagram of different shots on a person to guide us. To try our knowledge of this we got into pairs and took photos in different shot sizes.

There are also many more Camera Shots that are displayed in the diagram below:

Potential Audio Problems

Music

• Music could distort the films meaning and give the wrong feeling to the audience, this can be prevented by having a clear idea of the genre/theme of the recording you are about to do and use music that represents this.
• Music mixed too loud or too low could ruin the atmosphere of the media piece therefore careful planning and preparation of the music software you are using can help prevent this.
• Music not licensed therefore makes a lot of music (especially from big artists) un useable however licenses can be received through contact with the artist or their representatives.
• Expensive to get licenses for music.
• Getting an artist to create you music takes a lot of time and it will have to be recorded over and over until you get the perfect recording.
• Free music is well known and boring therefore creating less of an impact on the audience.

Background/SFX

• Sound effects might not be realistic for the scene so it could give off the wrong vibe and confuse the audience or make it appear cheesy, also you should only use sound effects that are stereo typical of the recordings genre.
• Sound effects might not enhance the screenplay which in turn makes them pointless and could get tedious for the audience, to counter this don’t go overboard on the sound effects.
• Sound effect could be on the wrong level and disrupt and make the scene disjointed or un-professional.

Dialogue

• Microphones can pick up too much background noise and overwhelm the actual dialogue been spoken in the recording. This can be prevented by knowing the correct locations for the intended bit of recording needed.
• Microphones record too high or too low which makes the recording of poor quality, this can be prevented by having the knowledge about which microphones are the best for the situation you are recording.
• Additional dialogue makes the recording unrealistic therefore keeping all of the scripted dialogue on screen makes the recording more fluid and enjoyable for thoroughly more professional.

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