We know how to become a director, but how do you become a film director ? We try to answer this question !
Young filmmakers there are, but young women directors, much less. In the cutthroat world of broadcasting, which is dominated by men, is there a way for more to women than to men in order to succeed in this environment ? For success to prevail. For actresses, Blanche Gardin claimed with a lot of humor when the Caesars 2018 that he had to bedtime, will he have the same way to be behind the camera ? No, of course not.
In the same way for a single business
The simple truth is that there is absolutely no difference between a producer and a director. Each path that can lead to become a director and may also lead to be a director. The difference will come from society and from the world of cinema that will make this path more rare and the finish line further away. Apart from this, schools such as the FEMIS or the ESSEC business school, the licences like that of the performing arts at Paris 8, the BTS, the degrees DESRA and DESFRA and all other means that may exist to walk the same way for one or the other sex. And happily ! Can we go to imagine schools for women and schools for the men ?
On the other hand, it is after that it gets tough. One failed to say that all of these methods give the same chances to each and every one, but this is false. The truth is that a man is more likely than a woman to succeed in this area. How must a woman ? Hang on, and prove much more than the other, again and again.
Resources
How to make a movie
The best books to learn how to make a movie
A complicated situation for the filmmakers
Women filmmaker, it’s there. Only, these last will have some very big productions in the hands, and will often remain hidden – despite themselves, of course – behind the men. There is, for example, that 7% of films broadcast on the public service that are made by women. The other figure is quite impressive, by 2016, according to a study there were only 20% of films made by women in France. This shows the difficulty for women to impose, and this is where that is going to be quite the challenge. And it’s important to realize that France is one of the very good students in Europe, with one of the highest rates.
If there is only one woman to have received an Oscar – Kathryn Bigelow – this is not because they are less talented, but because they are less present in this environment closed to women. But we may thankfully see that this is changing, particularly in France, where by 2017 there was, for example, four women who were in the running for the Césars for best film.
A changing situation
More and more women directors succeed today to win in France and to mark the box-office. Between Mia Hansen and Maïwenn and other Valérie Donzelli, or Rebecca Zlotowski and Emmanuelle Bercot, a new generation is born. And none of it has followed a path purely female to become a film director. They may have had more luck than others, or of talent, but they are hung and successful as a man, releasing a new spot that did not exist before.
There may however be a few “tricks” which may facilitate a career as a director. For example, write your own scenario and put it in the scene afterwards, as with Julia Ducournau. Attend to the important people also helps, even if this advice applies to everyone. Be an actress before becoming a director gives an importance that studios can’t refuse also, as we had already been able to explain, with Angelina Jolie for example. Pass by the tv is also a good idea, this allowing for the suite to gain experience and to get noticed, such as Lynn Shelton
To become a film director, he just has to remember eventually that it is the same way that to become a director, but that the road will be harder and longer, especially after the study has finished. The best method to make this voice more easy, however, remains, and will remain for a long time, to change the society and the world of cinema.
Not so simple indeed ! But the only hindrance to a woman to become a film director, it is the world that surrounds it, and absolutely not its means or itself. It is necessary to arrange so that the distance of travel to get to the finish is the same and that man and woman have equal opportunities.
It will also need to fight for that woman and man touch in the same business in this profession, because if the variances in wage for equal skills are well known, they are even more marked in the cinema. A filmmaker is going to win by 42.3% less than a director. You really cling to want to do this job !
Of the measures put in place
Things how fortunately now changing, with, for example, a positive discrimination put in place by installing specifically of the women behind the films of super-heroines – although this is also a bit sexist, and seems to let them believe they are incapable of taking care of a film of super-hero man, if one makes this distinction – as was the case with Patty Jenkins and Wonder Woman for example.
There has also been a call from the minister of culture, Françoise Nyssen who demand more diversity and gender balance within the committees of the section of the festivals, to ensure the presence of more women selected, far too absent lately. If you show up, you will have more chance to be selected than before. And there are a lot of festivals where it’s worthwhile to apply.
So for women who want to become a film director, hold on tight, don’t let anything pass, and be sure that one day it will all pay off. The problem does not come from you, and things are changing. And if to become a film director it is the same method as for Becoming a Filmmaker, then read all our files and articles !