Like what are their exact roles and responsibilities in the pre/post or even during production?
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In the most basic terms I can think of:
Directors turn writers words into imagery.
So, a director will receive a script to work on. They will be involved in pre-production, which is determining how the film will look and feel. Various other heads of departments are brought on to help create this look. Think production and costume and location designers. Director will either dictate or discuss, depending on their style, how the film should look and the other heads of the departments will go off to work on achieving this look.
During filming, the director is the one on set who calls the shots, who makes the decisions, who calls cut, who says who goes where and what does what. They are responsible for everything you see in the final shot. They also tell (or work with) the actors *how* they should be acting in a particular moment. That’s when you hear about different takes being used. The director decides which take of acting is going to end up in the final film.
When it comes to Post, the director is there to oversee any special effects, how the editing should be cut and how the film should be paced, the music and sound effects are done mostly in Post so there’s lots of tweaking and testing and listening to produce a final sound mix.
About the only thing directors *aren’t* actively involved in, which I always find really strange, is marketing and cutting trailers.
I used to wonder just how much of an influence a director has, then I saw a couple of gifted actors in a really bad film. It seemed to me that it wasn’t the storyline or dialogue, the actors themselves just didn’t appear very convincing, rather wooden. So if better performances weren’t evoked or the issues weren’t resolved in post production it seems the director was responsible.
It varies a bit between productions but in general the director is responsible for every artistic aspect of a film (as opposed to producers who are responsible for all the non-artistic aspects).
Any creative or artistic decision about the film is made by the director or someone the director has delegated the decision to.
Directors are usually one of the first people brought onto a project (often initiating it) – they have an idea of what they want to make, and they find a producer to make it happen. They may choose a writer or story, they will pick the tone of the film, the style, what it is filmed on, they may be involved in choosing their production team, involved in casting, picking locations (and choosing how much is filmed on location v on a set), they may end up personally approving concept art, costumes, set design, prop design and so on, all before any shooting happens.
During shooting they are responsible for staging (where people stand, how they move), camera angles, lighting, how the actors act (so give actual directions, on set, to the actors). Once shooting is over they will oversee the editing process, the sound design, music, visual effects etc., and will be in charge until the final edit of the film is done.
Now often they won’t do all of this themselves; they will delegate a lot of it depending on the production, the director, what else they’re working on and so on (and will have any number of assistant directors, second unit directors to help out). But in general they are responsible for the decisions and are “in charge.” They are pretty much the “first involved” and “last to leave” a project from conception until the final edit is locked.
There is some variation – particularly with big, studio-led films, where the producers (i.e. the studio) might have a specific vision and override the director (which is why we sometimes get a “Director’s Cut” of a film) – sometimes the directors are Ok with this and accept it as part of the job, sometimes it causes problems and the director ends up leaving/being fired (this happened with a few of the Disney-era Star Wars films, for example, where directors were switched out due to having a different idea for what their film would look like than Disney).
It also works slightly different with TV series, where often you will have a show-runner who is mainly responsible for writing the show but they will have a different director for each episode; each director will see through their episode from initial concept to final edit, but will be working within the limits of the overall show (so a fixed writer, cast, crew etc.). Each episode needs its own director so production can move smoothly from one episode to the next, with different parts of the crew working on different episodes at once.
OP, just to add to what others have already said, it would be useful to look at a real Hollywood script for a movie you know well.
You’ll suddenly realize the chasm between what a script describes and the final product. A 5 minute fight might be just be “They fight.” in a script. Dialog can seem robotic and lack the tone of the desired performance. Transitions, angles, physical action…
Scripts are very much written to be interpreted. Directors are in charge of that.
To put it simply, they “see” the movie in their head before it’s shot. Their job is to communicate to all departments and instruct them so the setup shots can match the visuals in their head. This process also continues in the editing room.
lets just talk movies
if your question is more craft related, the director breaks down the script both visually and for performance, deciding how they want each character beat to be performed (or at least having a starting place before working with the actors). this means having a deep understanding of who these characters are at every point in the story, planning what tactics and behaviors each character will be using to escalate a scene (the script will have a general intent, but its the directors job to sort the precise details of the performance).
Once the story beat breakdown is done, in any sane world the director does boards and works with the DP to sort out what the look is, what lenses to use, how tight or loose they want the camera’s eye line to talent etc. They also work with all other departments to align their crafts to a unified vision for the film. Some directors are super involved in all these stages, some just hire people they trust or like and let them do their thing.
In post production they are the one making most of the creative calls (within the requirements of the studio) working in conjunction with the editor, sound designer, sound mixer, colorist etc.
basically the director is the captain of the ship.
now in TV its usually different, as the showrunning executive producer is really the captain of the ship. directors in tv are mostly there to get the performances out of talent and ideally elevate the writing within the visual language of the show.
Think of a movie production like a business. The Director is the CEO who has an overall vision and direction he wants to take the company/movie. He hires and delegates responsibility to a bunch of different people like DP, sound, set design, costume design, casting, etc.
Each department has tasks that move the film forward, much like different departments in a company play a role in moving the company forward. They are all working towards a singular goal, with the director/CEO over seeing everything.
For example, a director of photography (DP) or cinematographer is in charge of actually setting up the cameras and the filming process. He sets up shots according to what the directors is looking for. So the director can say, I want this scene to have a gritty and cold feel to it. The DP knows what types of angles, film and lenses to prepare to get that tone. He will also work with the lighting director to make sure the lighting plays a part in getting the tone on film.
Sometimes directors will act as their own DP in order to get their exact vision on film. Tarantino is one of the more well known directors who acts as their own cinematographer.
Almost all directors have a signature style or feature that make their movies very distinguishable. Directors have such an influence over how a movie is made that they are sometimes more important than the actors. Movies would turn out to be completely different depending on who directed them. A really fantastic example, we have now had 4 different modern Batman directors. Think about how much variation we have had from Burton to Schumacher to Nolan and Reeves. Even the contrast between Burton and Schumacher shows how much influence a director has over the final product.
Some more examples of signature styles:
John Woo always has a slow motion scene involving doves flying away. He also has a tendency to create drama in action sequences with a Mexican standoff types setup where the protagonist and antagonist hold each other at gunpoint and dialogue back and forth. Slow motion diving shots are also a staple signature.
Edgar Wright likes to use quick cut shots of insignificant action to transition between scenes and create humor. He also loves to synchronize on screen action with the soundtrack.
This is something that I have really gotten into in the last 10 years or so, trying to identify the impact a director had on a movie.
For more on this, check out this article and Google more like it:
https://collider.com/great-visual-trademarks-of-accomplished-directors/?newsletter_popup=1#edgar-wright-fast-cuts
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