The 10 Habits of Successful Directors: MasterClass Instructor Edition

A successful director possesses many qualities that contribute to their dynamic filmmaking. Here are some common qualities that great Hollywood directors share:

• Team player. A successful film director works well with others by building rapport and knowing how to collaborate with the actors, cinematographer (director of photography or DP), and other crew members. The best directors don’t just tell people what to do. Directing is a job where spontaneity and intuition are just as important as following the script. A good director both commands and surrenders to the moment.
• Communicative. Directors should be able to properly communicate the needs of the scene to their actors. Doing multiple takes of the same scene can burn out your actors and your crew. The best way to avoid doing multiple takes for performance-related issues is to properly communicate with your actor. Create a safe environment that encourages your actors to ask questions or to voice their concerns about a scene. Your answers will fuel their confidence and lead to stronger performances.
• Patient. Actors have the difficult job of being emotionally vulnerable on camera, and as a director, you have to show them great respect. Good directors maintain a pace at which no one feels rushed. When actors feel rushed, bad acting happens. Setting expectations upfront helps build confidence, and working with the performers along the way can help draw out organic performances.
• Realistic. As a director, you have to know the limitations of your budget, your crew, and your actors. For the average film production, shooting over 10 pages a day can spell disaster for the quality of your film and the morale of your cast and crew. Being overly ambitious with scheduling is a surefire way to burn out and potentially endanger your crew. Being able to produce and follow the shooting schedule will help keep the actors and crew on track, and is a vital skill for every successful director.
• Creative. A successful director knows how to work within the confines of any budget. If you’re limited by budget, push yourself to get creative with your filming strategies. You don’t need a ton of fancy equipment to make a good film. If you’re shooting something guerrilla-style, make that aesthetic serve you and your story.
• Respectful. Screaming is a sign of poor communication. A director should be able to get their point across without raising their voices on set. This abrasive form of communication can create tension and an uncomfortable atmosphere. Respect the actors and the crew, and strive to keep harmony while on set.
• Knows how to gain control. One important role you will take on as director is orienting your actors because you will likely be shooting out of sequence. Actors will look to you to tell them where they are in the story and where they are emotionally. Successful directors let the actors try things, and give them space to fail. They allow the actors to explore their instincts, especially in the rehearsal period, and then shape their performances from there.

Movie directors have a number of similar habits that make them so efficient and productive at what they do. Build your directorial skill set by checking out the 10 habits of successful film directors below:

1. 1. Taking extra steps to understand the process. Martin Scorsese believes a director should know what it is like to hit their mark, interact with another actor, and get a sense of how one walks across a room when being filmed. They can do this by taking acting classes, or occasionally appearing in front of the camera themselves. Becoming familiar with the self-consciousness that comes from being in front of the camera will serve you well in your directorial pursuits. Whenever possible, a director should try acting in another director’s film, even if that means playing themselves. Learning to be directed by other people will offer you new techniques and a better understanding of how actors think and respond.
2. 2. Setting the tone. Director Judd Apatow recommends that you begin establishing the tone of your film in preproduction. Sometimes it’s helpful to compare your film to existing ones so the people working on it understand the world in which it exists. Is it straight realism or is it something more conceptual? Setting the tone early on in the process will help everyone working on the project, from the actors to the costume designer. Tone might continue to develop throughout production, all the way through shooting. Part of the director’s process is deciding whether a scene adheres to that tone. If it doesn’t, cut it or adjust accordingly.
3. 3. Treat directing like parenting. Actor/director Jodie Foster takes a more nurturing approach to directing actors. It’s important for a director to allow space for their actors to take risks and fail, or to take risks and succeed. They must reassure their actors that they are there for them every step of the way so that they feel safe and supported. Nurturing directors give their actors freedom while also giving them structure. When you’re directing, be clear about what your goals are for each take or each scene so the actor knows what to expect.
4. 4. Getting to know the actors. Director David Lynch likes to get to know actors to understand the depths of their talents. Many actors contain a variety of “layers.” Getting to know your actor better can help you figure out how to access those layers and bring them out to the fullest, which is one of the best ways to find the right actor for the role. “When you get to know somebody a little bit, you see other possibilities. Then, when something comes up, you know they could do that too, which is quite a bit different than the other thing,” David says.
5. 5. Building trust. Successful independent film director Mira Nair uses a variety of techniques to encourage trust and warmth between actors, no matter their experience level. For films like Salaam Bombay! and Queen of Katwe that mix actors of all ages, she relies on her remarkable collaborator Dinaz Stafford who holds extended workshops with her casts, beginning with a readthrough of the script, and then continuing with trust exercises, theater games, and voice work. She finds that such group activities help to calm anxieties, lessen the ego, and bring everyone together as equals with a shared purpose.
6. 6. Being open to collaboration. Directors like Ron Howard believe that bringing an actor into a collaborative role is a show of respect and unlocks an honesty that ultimately audiences will pick up on. When working with an ensemble of actors, start by learning about how each actor works best and do what you can to shoot in a way that best supports each person’s approach or prioritize to benefit the style of the actor carrying the scene. The choices you are making within the frame will influence the way that actors perform. Be sure you know how to get the performance you want from that actor or that the frame is not encroaching upon an actor you want to encourage to be free.
7. 7. Directing with kindness. David Lynch believes that when you need to critique an actor, you should do so with kindness. You use your words, and you use your eyes, and you send something from you to them—and they get it. A lot of times it doesn’t work out of nervousness, or some kind of fear, or some kind of just not letting go and letting that character take over for different things, or not understanding. You make them feel comfortable so they can say goodbye to their personality and take on a new one. Make them feel like it’s no problem failing and trying this thing. It’s not embarrassing, it’s a sign of courage to try things and make it real.
8. 8. Creating harmony. Spike Lee likes to begin a dialogue with his cast and settle any conflicts of approach well before the cameras start rolling; otherwise, these same issues will show up on set. Part of the dance between actor and director is to allow the actor a certain amount of space to breathe within the role.
9. 9. Working with what they’ve got. Ultimately, you work with the actors’ performances you get. You may want one thing and wind up with another. Sometimes you feel something is dreadfully wrong, but later—when you see it in the context of a cut—you realize it might work. There are things film director Martin Scorsese immediately knows won’t work but he shoots them anyway. His advice is to just shoot them because it’s part of the process for the actors.
10. 10. Taking everything into consideration. When making movies in the comedy genre where improvisation is encouraged, it’s important to keep track of the material you’re using, and the material that you’re cutting, so that you don’t lose those ideas entirely. To do this, Judd Apatow keeps a mega document throughout production to record all of the jokes that ended up being cut from scenes, ones that the writers penned on the fly just for the purpose of having extras, and jokes from previous drafts and rehearsals that didn’t make it into the final shooting script.

Become a better filmmaker with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by film masters, including Mira Nair, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Jodie Foster, Martin Scorsese, and more.