A lot of things must take place for a viewer to sit at the movies and enjoy a film. Carrying out an audiovisual project involves many resources -economic and human-, planning, and time. Each of the members of the project fulfills a particular and essential role for the completion of the work, but there is a character whose presence on the film set is of the utmost importance: the director.
What is their responsibility? They must be able to lead the work team making the final decision as to each part composing the project - costumes, photography, actors, sound, among others - so that each element flows harmoniously, and a single idea is expressed on the big screen. In other words, they have the highest hierarchy in decision-making and a huge responsibility to make everything work correctly. During a shooting day, they must make multiple decisions in extremely short times, always keeping their ultimate goal in mind.
The director must perfectly understand the cinematographic language, which can be defined as the way a movie is told. The idea is that it conveys their own vision, their own point of view about the story they will tell, and plan in advance on how to make it. For that, they must deeply know the characters, their stories, dictate how the shots, the takes, the tones, the intensity of the performances, the music that will accompany the scenes, the sound -or the absence of it- will be. They also decide together with editors which scenes will be part of the final cut, rhythms, and sequences. Each decision will have a positive - or negative - impact on the film, so the pressure is very big.
It is one of the most difficult roles to fulfill. Therefore, we can only admire great directors such as Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Yorgos Lanthimos, Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton, Clint Eastwood, Pedro Almodóvar, among many others.
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