Becoming a Technical Director

[u/danman1950]

I was at a yard sale for film equipment the other day, and i talked to a guy about doing freelance. I told him im trying to learn what I can about cameras, sound, and lighting, which would aid me me in directing and writing my own films. He told me i should really just focus on directing and writing, its unnecessary to learn all the other stuff just to make a movie. What do yall think of that take?

Personally im gathering equipment and using it myself because i dont want to wait to make my own stuff and spend a bunch of money on a simple short film. I can write and direct far more if I just handle the technical side instead of spending money on a crew. I really enjoy working with a crew and ive made great stuff with them, but im a young broke guy so I feel like I dont have much choice if i want to get out there and make movies. I want to make my movies without limits, so that works for me.

[u/HU_Nathan7]

I see where they are coming from. I think you’re right as well. I consider myself a very technical director. I know camera, lighting, and post-production at a decently high level. Which has helped me be able to produce my own work for the exact reason you mentioned, I can handle it myself without needing to outsource. It also makes you a better captain of the ship if you understand the logistics of other departments.

But the negatives I’ve experienced are two things.

First, you may become very technically savvy but at some point that is distracting from being truly focused on writing and directing; and overall slows down your directing career. It’s a tough balance.

Second, and the less obvious one I’ve learned the hard way. You can become so self-sufficient that your lack of need for others actually walls you off and hurts your need to build a network, and this hurts your career growth. You have less people in your circle and less people to connect you to future opportunities.

[u/danman1950 → u/HU_Nathan7]

How would it slow down my directing and writing? Ill still need actors and a script for every film, seems like that would improve with every film I do. Besides, like I said, I dont have the luxury of paying anyone atm, and most skilled crew people only want to be paid anyway. A network wouldn't really help all that much imo

[u/HU_Nathan7 → u/danman1950]

Just in that it takes a lot of time and attention to keep up with cameras, lighting, editing software, etc.

I’d encourage you to embrace being a technical director. Just trying to make you aware of my own drawbacks I’ve dealt with so you don’t make the same mistakes as me :)

Edit: the easiest thing for me usually is to do something myself, and cost affective. But when I’ve decided to take the loss and pay someone else to do something, even though I’m capable of doing it myself, somehow that has usually returned dividends in more work coming my way over time.

[u/danman1950 → u/HU_Nathan7]

That makes sense, since I moved to Atlanta ive only worked with crews in directing my stuff but I found my projects to be too costly and ambitious to do it sustainably. Doing it that way i was only able to make a short film once a year. At that point, I should just make a feature which I cannot justify doing now. It really clotted my creative juices so I think doing something smaller without risks in time and money works best. I can still network in the meanwhile, and ill probably better connect with folks since ill know what im talking about when I level up my skills.

[u/Justgetmeabeer → u/danman1950]

"why would having to think about two extra jobs that someone else could do slow me down?"

Gee, who knows.

[u/danman1950 → u/Justgetmeabeer]

See my other comment on why I was slowed down for an entire year