Week One

"Directing is a lifetime pursuit; subjectivity changes as the message you wish to portray to audiences changes."
                 Chris Richards-Scully.           

My lecturer for directing; Chris Richards-Scully, suggested all the Diploma students start a blog to discuss our take on the lecture and what we thought he was on about. So here goes I guess, I've never blogged before in my life so bare with me folks!
This week was mostly an introduction between lecturer and students, interesting to note Chris is a former CIT student himself from the mid nineties, and how much times have changed and how much more resources we have at our disposal according to him these days.
Chris went on to discuss with us the qualities that a good director should have, the first thing that came to mind when he ask this was COMMUNICATION. After all if a director can't convey his or her vision to the cast and crew then what's the point? I read "Great filmmakers must have excellent communication skills. They must be able to clearly articulate what their production goals are and be able to work with all team members to accomplish that goal." I couldn't have put it better, although there are many other qualities needed to be successful as a director in this cut throat industry such as:

• DECISIVENESS
• CONFIDENCE
• CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 
• PEOPLE SKILLS
• PATIENT
• CALM
• APPROACHABLE
• CREATIVE
• VISIONARY
• PROBLEM SOLVER
• PEOPLE SKILLS
• TIME MANAGER
• STAMINA
• FOCUSED 
• ADAPTABLE
• LEADERSHIP

The list could go on forever, but I think you get the picture. If you want to look in to it further on the Film Schools website there is a page outlining their top 10 qualities for a great filmmaker, worth a look. Here's the link  http://www.filmschools.com/articles/film-top-10.html .
It was interesting to hear Chris commenting about not all the "great" directors having some of the mentioned qualities, but they make it work some how. Although working with someone like that may challenging, so I guess the message here is to start thinking about which of those qualities we may have and which ones perhaps aren't our strong suite and working on how we can improve on them in our quests as young budding filmmakers.
All in all I came away from the first lecture excited and enthused about the year ahead, despite feeling a little overwhelmed by the hectic workload and ensuing madness involved with film making. I left a little more open minded to the idea of becoming a director, rather than an editor or writer. So I guess only time will tell? Till next week, watch this space...