What is a DV Director?
A DV Director is a role that sits between the Associate or Assistant Producer and the Producer/Director. The DV Director often works on location alone, or with a Runner, filming the elements of a show that the main Producer couldn’t get.

What is the Job?
The role of the DV Director is to get ideas off paper and on to the screen. The job involves working closely with Designers, as well as Researchers, in order to divide jobs into informative chunks worthy of filming. On the shoot, it is the DV Director’s job to ensure everything is running smoothly, and make sure that everything is running to time.

A DV Director is often a self shooter as well. A self shooter is an individual working in editorial (Researcher, Producer, Director, etc.), who also shoots content and occasionally edits.

Key Skills

• Creativity
• Able to cope well under pressure
• Good communication skills
• Ability to think on your feet

Salary & Working Hours
The salary for the role of DV Director can vary from job to job, depending on how large the production is. However, it is a mid-level job and therefore salary is likely to range from £800 to 1,300 per week depending on your experience.

How To Become a DV Director
To become a DV Director, a University degree is not essential. Whilst a degree in a related subject may provide you with a bit of background knowledge, getting first-hand experience in the industry is likely to be more beneficial. This experience can be gained through getting entry level jobs, internships, or through work experience.

Common starting points for becoming a DV Director are usually as a Runner, or a Production Secretary. These lower level positions can lead to research positions which sometimes involves DV camera work. You may even start out as a 2nd Camera Operator, in which case advancement to a DV Director role will be through showing your team that you can independently shoot a good story if left alone. You will have to show that you are able to shoot for the edit, with sufficient cutaways and supporting shots.

Where Can It Take You?
Being a DV Director can provide you with the option to progress to many other creative roles such as Producer/Director. The role itself requires a lot of work to get to and so its likely that by the time you reach this position, you’ll already have progressed well in your career and pathways to other roles will present themselves.

Become a DV Director
If you are ready for the next step in your career, why not take a look at the current DV Director vacancies on our jobs board? You can view our latest vacancies here.