Department guide · Directing
Directing, and the half of it that is not shot design.
The internet has a great deal about directing and almost all of it is about images: lenses, blocking diagrams, coverage, how a famous shot was composed. Very little is about the part directors spend their days on, which is talking to actors, holding a tone across a schedule, and deciding faster than the information arrives.
This leans towards performance and process rather than visual style, because the visual half is already well served and the other half is where new directors fail. It is for first-time directors, for actors moving behind the camera, and for anybody who has been given a day with actors and does not know what to say to them.
Where to start
Learn the actor’s language first.
01
Start with how actors work
Most directing failures are translation failures: a note that means something to you and nothing to a performer. Reading actor-facing material, written for actors rather than about them, fixes this faster than any directing course.
02
Then learn to run a rehearsal
Rehearsal is a structured process with exercises and a purpose, not a chat. Free material on directing exercises gives you something concrete to do in a room, which is exactly what a nervous first-time director lacks.
03
Then the machine around you
A director who does not understand the schedule, the departments and the assistant director’s job is a director who loses the day. Two hours of production overview fixes that.
Famous directors are often poor teachers of their own process, and inspiration is not instruction. Watch the masterclass platforms for morale, not for method.
The list
Free, checked, and every one of these links out.
Team Deakins (opens in a new tab) · Free · podcast · anyone
Long conversations with directors, cinematographers and crew about how decisions actually get made. The most useful free directing education available, and it is not filed under directing anywhere.
StageMilk (opens in a new tab) · Free articles, monologues and scene work · paid classes · directors who have never worked with actors
Exercises, scene work and the vocabulary actors use. Half of directing is a language you are not taught, and this is the cheapest way to start learning it.
BBC Writers (opens in a new tab) · Free · produced British scripts · material to rehearse
You cannot practise directing without a scene. These are free, properly written and were actually made.
Film Courage (opens in a new tab) · Free · YouTube · long interviews
Long interviews with directors on process, casting and rehearsal. As with writing: search a name, do not browse the channel.
In Depth Cine (opens in a new tab) · Free · YouTube · talking to a DoP
Shot design reasoning. It teaches you the questions rather than the answers, which is what a director needs from camera.
Crash Course Film Production (opens in a new tab) · Free · 15 episodes · first-time directors
The machine you will be standing in the middle of. Directing without understanding the departments is how first-timers lose a crew.
ScreenSkills — directing and assistant directing profiles (opens in a new tab) · Free · no account · UK grades
Including the AD ladder, which is a real route to directing and is rarely described as one. The 1st AD runs the floor; understanding that job is most of learning to work with one.
Every link here goes to the owner’s own page, in a new tab. How we treat other people’s work · Last checked September 2026.
Money on it
Rooms and people, not videos
Directing is the discipline where paid video content is least useful, because the skill is interpersonal. Spend money on access to actors instead.
An acting class, as a participant
Not as an observer. There is no substitute, nothing on the internet approaches it, and a local theatre class is often cheap.
Paid, often cheap
A day in a casting room
Sitting in on a real casting session. The fastest way to learn what a performance choice looks like under pressure, and it is more often arranged by asking than bought.
Usually arranged by asking
The books below
Directing is the one discipline where books still beat video, because the subject is judgement rather than procedure.
Paid
The books
Three, and the first is the most useful book in this library.
| Book | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Directing Actors — Judith Weston | How to give a note an actor can use. The most useful book on any page in this library, in any department. |
| Making Movies — Sidney Lumet | A working director explaining every stage of his process, plainly. Short, unsentimental, written by somebody who made fifty films. |
| Film Directing Shot by Shot — Steven D. Katz | Visualisation, coverage and staging, with diagrams. The standard reference for shot design and blocking. |
Where you are
The same list, sorted by what you have already done.
| If this is you | Do this |
|---|---|
| Never been on a set | Crash Course first, then an acting class. Understand the machine before you try to steer it. |
| You have a first day | Watch the 1st AD, not the director. That is the job that is actually running the floor. |
| Building a career | Weston, then direct a scene with actors every month. Nothing else moves the needle. |
| Changing department | The AD ladder is a real route and is rarely described as one. Read those profiles. |
| Running a department | Rehearsal time is the only resource you control. Budget for it and protect it. |
The grades
What each rung actually does.
1st AD
Runs the floor and runs the day. Understanding this job is most of learning to work with one.
Any word on this page you have not met before is in the glossary, in UK terms.
Where the gap gets filled
With actors, a crew, and a schedule that does not care about you.
Direct something small, with real actors, on a real schedule, with somebody experienced watching. That is the training. Everything above is preparation for it.
The production simulations put a director in front of a full unit with a call sheet and a day that will not be extended, which is the pressure that changes people. The story course covers the development half, and it is a great deal cheaper to learn that a script does not work before you shoot it.
