You Can Be Anything › All careers › Creative Arts & Design

Film Director

Oversees the creative vision of a film — guides actors, camera work, and storytelling.

Did you know?

Alfred Hitchcock said he was frightened of eggs. 'Worse than frightened, they revolt me,' he said in 1963.

How subjects help

A famous name

Alfred Hitchcock: British film director known as the 'Master of Suspense', who made Psycho and Vertigo.

Try it yourself: Direct a frozen stage picture

  1. Pick one exciting moment from a story everyone knows, like the wolf knocking at the door.
  2. As director, put your actors into a silent, frozen picture. Use different levels (high, middle, low), clear faces and body shapes. Keep poses low and steady: no lifting people or standing on furniture.
  3. Work on distance and eye contact: who is close, who is far, who is looking at whom? Turn bodies halfway towards the audience so faces can be seen.
  4. Hold the freeze for five seconds while someone guesses the moment. Then make the moment just before and just after, so three pictures tell the story.

Directors and choreographers arrange exactly where performers stand, how high or low they are and where they look, so the audience can read the story from a single stage picture.

Adapted from Arts Impact: Arts Foundations theatre lesson: Creating Tableau.

Also try: Storyboard a film stunt (on paper only).

Known for it in

USA, India, UK, France, South Korea

Related careers