Directing and Producing for Television, 5th Edition

chapter oneIntroduction

The most important thing about being a director is having a job.

—Eric von Stroheim

I begin this book with von Stroheim’s quotation because I once heard that the first thing you read is the thing that sticks with you the most.

The Director’s/Producer’s Job

In order to get and hold jobs, you will surely have to get along with others. We do not work alone. Directing is an interpretive rather than a creative art. Writers, painters, composers, sculptors, and architects are all creative artists. Creative artists work alone. They work alone on a blank screen, a blank piece of paper, a canvas, with clay, maybe even carving out a hillside … whatever. If, however, they are interpretive artists, a composer, for example, ultimately ...