Unsolicited career advice for Directors

By KO’D
Posted February 6, 2025

Hello, aspiring movie Directors in Vancouver, BC! (And elsewhere!)

If your ultimate goal is directing, I urge you to make your own feature-length movie as soon as you can.

Vancouver’s indie scene is mostly the “fund my short movie myself and hope not to lose too much money” scene; paid work is both scarce and low-. (And I fear the same is true of most places, even — perhaps especially — those places with movie-making industries.)

No amount of working on other people’s indie movies will move you toward directing your own. (The knowledge and experience you gain may, of course, stand you in good stead; that’s up to you.) If you can AD, you’ll be swamped with offers to volunteer as AD every weekend you have off from your day job. But it’s not going to lead to directing gigs.

Ironically, one challenge you face as a Director is that Canadian movie-making has always been Director-driven. With Directors crafting their own projects, there is little call for Directors-for-hire. Most Writers with a completed script want to direct it themselves. (And most Writers who do not want to direct fall into two camps: Career-aware Screenwrights whose scripts are Hollywood-ready but unmakeable on an indie budget, and newbies whose writing has not yet grown beyond what might be charitably described as “awful”. Those in between always want to direct their own scripts.)

Another problem is that there isn’t much of an indie-movie scene in Vancouver, especially not for features. Compared to Toronto or even Winnipeg, we barely do that sort of thing here. I believe indie movies are the salvation of the art and business of Canadian movie-making, and we need to do more of it!

A third problem is that most creators, desperate to have a credit to their names, make short movies. I don’t want to dissuade anyone from making short movies! A short movie can be lots of fun to make, good experience, a chance to practice skills and learn new ones, an opportunity to meet new collaborators, and a résumé-piece calling card. But short movies are unmarketable. They are not revenue-generating products. (I dislike referring to creative works as “products”, but that’s what they are in the marketplace.) They also don’t mark you as a standout in the crowd. Everybody makes shorts; there’s nothing special about that.

But if you have a feature under your belt, then you definitely level up. Most creators never make a feature, and you did! Go you! You’re in that club! Now you’ve got something to sell.

Don’t think that’s more than it is, or that you’ve “made it”! Making a feature is like buying a lottery ticket: Now you have a chance of winning the prize, whereas those who didn’t buy a ticket have no chance at all. But even with this ticket, your chances at success are about the same as your chances of winning the lottery.

Pursuant to all this, I suggest the following actions for the aspiring Director to undertake as swiftly as time allows. Don’t shoot before you’re ready, but act swiftly when you are!

1) Write, co-write, or work with a Writer on a feature-length screenplay — about 100 minutes. Make the script as good as you can! When you think it’s done, give it another draft. Most indie creators are in such a hurry to shoot-shoot-shoot that they forget to write their movies. But if an indie movie succeeds, it will be largely because of the script. We can’t match Hollywood for big stars, mind-stunning special effects, huge action set-pieces, multiple exotic locations — but we can absolutely write a screenplay as good as anything that ever won an Oscar.

2) Produce that movie yourself. Partner with other Producers who bring skills or resources to the project. But your career is already dead if you believe, “I just want to find a Producer who will raise all the money and handle all the business and leave me alone to make the movie.” Such Producers were long ago hunted to extinction, if they ever existed in the first place, which they didn’t.

3) Distribute and promote that movie yourself. Making a feature is good; making a successful feature is better. Let’s face it: No distributor or will buy or even look at the first movie by an unknown creator, unless they have some sort of introduction (eg. it’s recommended by someone they trust). Register MyMovie.com, get a $10-a-month webhost, install a free WordPress theme, connect your Shopify or even just PayPal account, and you’re in business. (You’ll have to upgrade your hosting account if you get serious attention, but by then you can afford it.) Then promote your movie and where to see it! Nobody will know about your movie unless you tell them.

4) Do it again! If you think you’ve joined the club by making a feature-length movie, just wait ’til you’ve made two. Only one-third of Directors ever make a second feature; be one of them. A career in movie-making (as a Director or in any other role) is more about building a body of work than becoming that one freak viral hit. It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

5) One specific recommendation for all wannabe Directors of screen or stage: Take acting classes. It doesn’t matter if you’re the worst actor in the class; the knowledge of how actors approach a role and what they need is pure gold for a Director. (And knowing how to perform opposite a bad actor is a good lesson for your scene partners.)

Of course, you may use all, some, or none of what I say. My free advice is guaranteed to be worth every penny you pay, or double your money back!

Break a leg with your ventures!