What makes a director successful

Directors must have a deep inquisitive nature. The job of governing involves processing an enormous amount of information, often of a very technical or specialist nature. Curiosity to extend beyond your own comfort zone is essential. Directors only ever act as part of a collective board. Lone wolves do not thrive in boardrooms. It is essential to be attuned to your fellow directors, able to listen to hear and to seek to understand what motivates yourself and others.

Clearly today there are a number of critical common skills including financial governance, and understanding of risk and compliance obligations and broad governance expectations. Company directors need to be lifelong learners who are prepared to continue to build and hone these skills as the external environment changes rapidly around them. She shared with us her insights on the skills mix and the importance of intellectual curiosity for all directors.

Understands Real Human Behavior. A great director can anticipate how someone might react in a real-world situation and transplant that into the fiction of his story. Especially if the director is young and relatively inexperienced, he or she tries to experience the world and examine human behavior in order to learn. Understands Film Conventions.

The great director understands various film conventions, from the most broad genre to the very specific grenade explosions in film versus reality. Understands How Humans Learn. The great director understand that film story arcs and stories in general mimic the process in which humans learn deep personal flaw, inciting incident, ensuing struggle, a realization, and finally, change or growth , and applies that to his or her films in order to create believable characters and moving stories.

We all have room to learn and grow. Additionally, you should go out of your way to find and spend time around people who have the above qualities. The people you spend time around affect you greatly. Get out there, learn to be a better Human, and make great films. UPDATE: Since the film industry is changing, it is more important than ever that filmmakers that want to direct their own work and make money from it need to understand the following key skill… Audience building.

For the modern indie filmmaker, knowing how to build an audience is an absolutely essential skill, because the harsh truth is that most people never make it to mainstream Hollywood success. Filmmakers have always been subject to middlemen in this industry, but affordable equipment and the internet changes that. All the tools are there — we just need to learn how to use them.

This involves understanding how to tell stories for a niche audience, build excitement around your content, and design a method for selling your films to your audience. So if you are interested in learning how to build an audience and make income from your filmmaking work, I personally vouch for the skills taught in the Film Audience Accelerator course by Rob Hardy. If you want to hear my explanation on why this is one of the best set of skills you should learn right now, you can go here.

If you want to skip that, go straight to checking out the Film Audience Accelerator course. Stay strong and focused, fellow Storyteller. Co-founder of Occulus Films. I love working with teams to create compelling and engaging films and commercial video content. Email address:. Note: I have an important update at the bottom of this article, so keep reading to the end Personal Attributes 1.

Storytelling Skills Sign up to receive updates and helpful tips! First Name: Last Name: Email address:. Sign up to receive news and updates. It only takes a click to unsubscribe. No comments so far. A Managing Director needs a voracious appetite for all aspects of the creative process. From trawling the dry data with the strategists and getting goosebumps at the reveal to fighting for the powerful work that has social trending potential, an MD must be the champion for transformation and innovation.

While creative mojo can easily be lost under the weight of responsibility, anyone looking to succeed in this role must never forget the lifeblood of the agency. Strategic vision. An ability to analyse information and distil it into single organising principles is the difference between nice ideas and memorable campaigns. MDs need to apply rigorous forward thinking into all brand communications. The creative process can easily be assumptive, ideas need to pass through a framework of data and reality without crushing their spontaneity.

These are often difficult journeys that reply on a highly directional mind. Few people have the heart of Mother Theresa, the brain of Stephen Hawking, the passion of Da Vinci and the moves of Kasparov, but Managing Directors must be almost Olympian in their abilities.

Wherever you are in the management tier, question how you deliver on these skills. Everyone knows instinctively their hidden weaknesses and preferred strengths, an MD must be ultimately self-aware.

Understand your motivations to feel fulfilled, empowered, engaged and effective. Assess how you add value as a leader, work on optimising your transferrable management skills to open up opportunities beyond your comfort zone and into an array of creative marketing organizations.