What do they do?

A director is chiefly responsible for how successful and watchable a movie is. From research work on a movie, to taking decisions about who stars in it, to scouting for locations... S/he has to worry about everything. For a movie like Avatar, it took James Cameron years to find the right technique to create the wonderful world of the Na’vi. VFX, short for ‘Visual Effects,’ went a long way in making the film a trailblazer of sorts in the world of animation. To make the Na’vi as realistic as possible, faces and bodies were ‘rigged’ – connected to computers, which made the mythical creatures simulate human movement. A lot of photographs and scans of real actors were used and these details were incorporated into the digital characters. It was Cameron’s movie throughout, but more than 900 people  across different locations got together to make it the science fiction epic that it turned out to be.

Skills Needed

• Excellent creative skills
• Great imagination – to create a world of fantasy or something which can keep children engrossed for hours
• Ability to transfer the (script) writer’s thoughts and feelings to the big screen
• Good with research – in case a period film is being shot
• Good team leader, who can motivate actors, technicians and others on the sets to deliver their best
• Good financial skills. To make a movie within the given budget and ensure finances don’t spiral out of control

How do I get there?

Doing a course in animation or filmmaking from a top institute in India or abroad helps. Assisting a well-known director later can also give you a good idea of how a movie is to be made.