On Directing
What is the essence of a film director’s job? Note, that this is drastically different from the infinite list of duties he must perform as the Commander-in-Chief of the army of folks whose names scroll before you at the end of the film. Any talented madman could do that.
The essence of the director’s true task is to create a world so complete, within itself, that the audience suspends disbelief. In other words, you might say, the director must convince the audience to believe? Not so. For in reality we never believe what we see on the screen is real. It’s a frickin’ movie, for Christ’s sake. It is a product of technology, no matter how you look at it. The most costly and colossal CGI scenes of galactic warfare, or the jerky black and white silent flicks of yesteryear are products of light, tricky machines and people pretending to be and do things that they are not.
This being so, why do we react as if they are real? Do we respond this way because we have a paid subscription to a streaming service, or because we have paid at the door? I think not. We respond because we have chosen to suspend belief in what we know is real. If we do not choose to suspend our disbelief in reality, as we know it to be, we hit the back button and find something else to watch, or sit grumbling in the theater munching popcorn until the damn thing is done with.
Granted, not everyone will respond to any given film. Audiences and genres vary and the quantum field of individual tastes is infinite. Yet, we would have to agree that some directors prove themselves consistently capable of creating worlds that inspire us to ‘buy into’ worlds deeply: we are inspired, we roll around laughing, we cry, we scream, are aroused, or watch the credits deep in thought and tell others “It’s really good and you should check it out.”
It is seduction so well engineered and deep that our hearts, minds, and life may be changed by something that is completely fake. In suspending our rational faculties voluntarily, we have entered into the director’s world and lived there even as we sat farting into the couch cushions or alone with strangers in a huge dark room. It is the sacred suspension of disbelief.
Furthermore, I suggest that even if the script is superb, the actors astonishing, the photography fantastic, and the editing erudite and invisible, the degree to which the sacred suspension of disbelief is attained rests in the eye, touch and heart of the director.
So what is the secret to this alchemy?
I have no idea, but I’m in love with the pursuit of it. And each time my heart says you must direct this, I do— knowing that if I fail, I will at least fool myself beautifully in the trying.