Steven Spielberg's TOP 5 TIPS to become a film director, Part 3 of 3

I know I said I would finish off this 3 part article series about Steven Spielberg last week but I've been very busy working on my upcoming movie Bend & Break and a few other personal projects.

However, I'm back and I'd like to discuss Steven Spielberg's last two tips on becoming a film director.

4. Push Your Limits

“Human beings have a need to get close to the edge, and when filmmakers or writers can take them to the edge, it feels like a dream where you're falling, but you wake up just before you hit the ground,” says Spielberg.

Until 1993, Spielberg's palette of film work was mostly rooted in the world of make-believe. From a monstrous man eating shark to a lovable alien, Spielberg had not really ventured into any film projects that tackled tough, provocative, real life issues. Like a serious real life drama.

All the changed when Spielberg decided to push his personal and professional limits and direct Schindler's List.

“Schindler’s List changed my life completely,” said Spielberg

Steven Spielberg had the personal conviction and courage to tackle the difficult issue of Jewish concentration camps in Nazi Germany World War II. Stretching himself beyond his limits earn him a Best Director Oscar for his work on Schindler's List and respect from his filmmaking friends and peers.

5. Follow Your Passion

“The only time I’m totally happy is when I’m watching films or making them,” says Spielberg.

What else can I say. When you think Steven Spielberg,you automatically think movies. More than any other determining factor: talent, contacts, money or resources. Your passion is paramount.

All great human achievements on this earth both past,present and future are born from passion. Those who have a passion for something are willing to do whatever it takes. When you are willing to do whatever it takes...you can be,do or have anything you want.

“I’d love to build a company that will continue to make movies well beyond me someday,” says Spielberg.

Having a successful movie career without going Hollywood

First, let me be clear that I am not anti-Hollywood or against those who choose to relocate to Hollywood. I lived in Hollywood/LA for 3 years and did some acting work there and it is quite a fun city to live in.

However, with this article I would like to explore the alternative to going Hollywood and how it is possible to have both a critical and commercial successful film career without making The City of Angels your permanent home. Let us take a look at three successful filmmaker, who have all made some decent movies over the years while remaining outside the Golden State.


M. Night Shyamalan

Works and lives: Philadelphia

M. Night Shyamalan, is a two-time Academy Award nominated Indian filmmaker and script writer who resides and works primarily in the United States, known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that usually climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies (and staging his plots) in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was raised. Shyamalan released his first film, Praying with Anger, in 1992 while he was a New York University student. His second movie, the major feature film Wide Awake, made in 1995 but not released until three years later, failed to find financial success.
Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed 1999's The Sixth Sense, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. He followed The Sixth Sense by writing and directing Unbreakable, released in 2000, which received mixed reviews. His 2002 film Signs, where he also played Ray Reddy, gained both critical and financial success, but The Village (2004) was a critical disappointment whose box office fell hard after a strong opening weekend, and Lady in the Water (2006) performed even worse. His latest film, The Happening (2008), did financially better than his previous effort but was also panned by critics; in its entire American run, it grossed only slightly more than Signs made in its opening weekend.


Guy Ritchie

Works and lives: London, U.K.

Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and Filmmaker. The profits that he made from directing these promos was invested into writing and making the film, The Hard Case (1995), which is a twenty minute short film that is also the prequel to his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Sting's wife, Trudie Styler, saw The Hard Case (1995) and invested into "Lock, Stock..." (2000), which was written and directed by Guy. Once "Lock, Stock..." (2000) was completed, the hard task of getting it distributed then came about with ten British distributors all turning it down before the film eventually got the attention of Tom Cruise. It was distributed by a North American Distributor, Columbia Tristar

His second feature film was Snatch, released in the year 2000. Originally known as Diamonds, it was another caper comedy, this time backed by a major studio following the previous success of Lock, Stock. The cast featured such Hollywood big names as Brad Pitt, Benicio del Toro and Dennis Farina, along with the returning Vinnie Jones and Statham. Similar to "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" in featuring a complex and inventive storyline in which the characters weave in and out of each others' lives, the film also plays with time, depicting events from various perspectives and recalling such classic crime films as Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.


David Cronenberg

Works and lives: Toronto, ON

David Paul Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the psychological is typically intertwined with the physical. In the first half of his career, he explored these themes mostly through horror and science fiction, although his work has since expanded beyond these genres.
In 1999, Cronenberg was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame. In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2006 he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Carrosse d'Or.Two of his films, Dead Ringers and Spider, were voted for in the 2002 Sight and Sound Poll.
Cronenberg has appeared on various "Greatest Director" lists. In 2004, Science Fiction magazine Strange Horizons named him the 2nd greatest director in the history of the genre, ahead of better known directors such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jean-Lu Godard and Ridley Scott. In the same year, The Guardian listed him 9th on their list of "The world's 40 best directors". In addition, in 2007, Total Film named him as the 17th greatest director of all-time.

Now that I live in Toronto I often look back to the few years a spent in Los Angeles to reflect on what I did not do right that lead to my less than successful stay in Hollywood. Three things always come to me were, I lacked vision, an action plan and stick to itness. I do not know the three above mentioned directors personally but I would be willing to bet that they all had at least three things in common that had a dramatic impact towards their success.

1. They had clear career goals
2. They were tenacious and relentless
3. 100% committed to your career

If you have these three characteristics as a filmmaker then you will enjoy a successful film career no matter where you live. Not only that but Hollywood will find you and come knocking at your door.

From my whole experience I would say move to Hollywood because you want to, not because you think you need to.

TOP 5 - Movie Directors who didn't go to film school

Do you have a burning desire to be a film director?

Have you made one or two films but you maybe doubt your ability to make directing a viable career?

Here is an article that details five super successful movie directors who all have one thing in common they didn't spend a single day in film school. They learned and became a master at their craft from simple trial and error, self-study and unshakable self confidence and belief in themselves.

5. David Fincher
Fincher is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and music video director known for his dark and stylish movies such as Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher eschewed the film school route, getting a job loading cameras and doing other hands-on work for John Korty's Korty Films. He was later hired by Industrial Light & Magic in 1980, where he worked on productions for Twice Upon a Time, Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Set on a directing career, Fincher joined video-production company Propaganda Films and started off directing music videos and commercials. Like Fincher, other directors such as Meiert Avis, David Kellogg, Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Neil LaBute, Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Paul Rachman, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, and Alex Proyas honed their talents at Propaganda Films before moving on to feature films

Oscar History: 1 Nomination

4. Peter Jackson
Mr. Jackson is a three-time Academy Award-winning New Zealand filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogy adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien. He is also known for his 2005 remake of King Kong.
He won international attention early in his career with his "splatstick" horror comedies, before coming to mainstream prominence with Heavenly Creatures, for which he shared an Academy Award best screenplay nomination with his partner Fran Walsh
Jackson has no formal training in film-making, but learned about editing, special effects and makeup largely through his own trial and error. As a teenager Jackson discovered the work of author J. R. R. Tolkien after watching The Lord of the Rings (1978), an animated film by Ralph Bakshi that was a part-adaptation of Tolkien's fantasy trilogy. After leaving school Jackson began working as a photoengraver at a newspaper company in Wellington, and shooting a feature-length vampire movie that was later abandoned before completion.

Oscar History: 8 nominations, 3 wins.

3. Sir Ridley Scott
Scott is a British Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe, Emmy Award and BAFTA Award winning film director and producer known for his stylish visuals and an obsession for detail. His films include Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster and Body of Lies. At age 28, Scott made a black and white short film, 'Boy and Bicycle, starring his younger brother, Tony Scott, and his father. The film's main visual elements would become features of Scott's later work. After directing over 2,500 TV commercials, Ridley finally made his feature directorial debut at age 40 making The Duellists. Can you believe that? 40 years old when he made his first feature film. If that is not inspiration for you, I don't know what is. You're never too old to become whoever you want to be.

Oscar History: 3 Nominations

2. James Cameron
Mr. I'm the king of the world is an Academy Award-winning Canadian-American director, producer and screenwriter. He has written and directed films as disparate as Aliens and Titanic. To date, his directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$1.1 billion domestically, unadjusted for inflation. Cameron is noted for his films¡Xwhich are often highly innovative, artistic and financially successful¡Xas well as his fierce temper and confrontational personality

Oscar History: 3 wins.

1. Steven Spielberg

Where should I start?
Steven Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. Forbes magazine places Spielberg's net worth at $3.1 billion. In 2006, the magazine Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. Time listed him as one of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. At the end of the twentieth century, Life named him the most influential person of his generation. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years his movies began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for 1993's Schindler's List and 1998's Saving Private Ryan. Three of Spielberg's films, Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993), broke box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, unadjusted gross of all Spielberg directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide.

Oscar History: 12 nominations, 3 wins.

Everything good that can be said about Spielberg has probably alright been said so the best compliment I can give this Hollywood icon is that I saw "Jaws¨ when I was five years old. Now I'm thirty-four and still get a little freaked out when swimming in the ocean, all because Spielberg made a timeless and classic shark thriller.

I hope this article leaves you with the belief that the most important characteristic needed to become a successful movie director is determination. Not schooling, not money, not being a child prodigy and not your contacts.

I would like to end this article with a quote from James Cameron.

"I think the most important thing if you're an aspiring film-maker is to get rid of the 'aspiring'... You shoot it, you put your name on it, you're a film-maker. Everything after that, you're just negotiating your budget."