Henderson daily dispatch., 1938-09-12
3rd' Installment
No. s-THE DIRECTOR.


The motion picture director serves
as a general in the field Of studio ac-
tivity. He coordinates all production
forces coverging toward the zero
hour of Shooting" He helps super
wise the final writing of the script
suggests and approves the settings in
which the picture will be made, Sc
lects his location sites, and with the
business department, cooperates in
drawing up a budget of costs.
When preparing or actually shoot
ing" he is the busiest man in the
studio, with an average. day of twenty
hours. Somehow he manages to in
terview all prospective members of
his cast, consults with the various de-
partments preparing sets and ward
robes for his picture, and the execu-
tive offices, holds sessions of his pro-
ductiOn staff to work out various pro-
blems that always arise. And, of
course, he must find time to consider
the artistic side of his work and es-
tablish the tempo, mood and dramatic
structure of his story.
Story the Thing.
He must always Keep foremost in
his mind, the fact that he has to tell
an entertaining story in action. True,
he has dialogue for explanation, but
the major part of his story telling
and the way he will be judged as a
director will depend entirely on
whether or not mis- story moves"
He must know his business, and
must be prepared Productions at
major studios run into costs Of $780,
600 and up, each, and with such q
large sum at stake the director must
know what he is doing and how his
players are going to fit their parts.
shooting" Schedule.
The most important part of pre-
paration is working out of the "shoot
ing schedule. This is a detailed ac-
count, made well in advance, of just
what scenes will be taken on GER
tain day, what actors will be used,
what sets are necessary and what pro-
perties will be needed. Despite the
fact that sudden changes in weather
and indisposition of players occur al
most constantly in the course of pro-
ducing a picture, most schedule are
adhered to with remarkable accuracy.
Some directors are VIGOROUSLY slow
and they are apt to fall several days
behind through dawdling tactics. 9th.
ers are very fast. Those latter, it
might be added, are not too popular
with their crews as every day they
save on the schedule it means just
that much less work for consider
able number of people.
- Average Day.
An average day Of director on a
feature production would run some
thing like this. He arrives at his
studio office shortly after daybreak,
studies his script for an hour to. fix
in his mind exactly what he will do
THAT day. checks the lines Of his ac-
.ors in rehearsal, gives detailed in
distractions to camera, lighting and
sound crews and generally lays out
his days tasks.
At nine o'clock he is ready to order
Camera" which means much more
than an outsider would suppose. Melo-
drama, comedy, tragedy, romance and
drama have certain set rules and the
director must see that they are adj
hered to. The. difference between a
good and bad director lies in that
matter Of adherence. ~
3T Typical Director.
Our typical director likes to keep
regular hours for his players and his
staff. For himself, he doesn't mind.
Usually when possible, he stops shoot
ing between five and six o'clock. He
subscribes to the belief that an actor
can only do so much good work in q