Kandahar Break

Above the Line

« Back to Above the Line

Director

David Whitney

Bio

Bolton filmmaker David Whitney, born in 1978, started producing and directing TV commercials and corporate films in Manchester, winning a Silver Award at the New York Film & Video Festival in 2005. He also directed broadcast programmes for Sky TV in Afghanistan and Russia, before moving into drama with his short film Taken Out, which led to his nomination for Best New Director at the Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival. He was also a finalist at the BBC New Filmmakers Award and the film was screened on BBC3. After helming the North West Vision funded short Love Thy Neighbour, David became a regular director for BBC’s daytime drama Doctors, and he also directed an episode of Sky One’s Dream Team before making George’s Day for the UK Film Council, starring Michael Byrne and Rob Dixon. He still combines TV drama with commercial and corporate film work, and recent assignments have seen him filming in Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait and across Europe. David’s debut feature film Kandahar Break, shot in Pakistan and Tunisia, is currently in post production and is due to be completed in 2009.

Director- Job Description

The principal creative artist on a movie set. A director is usually (but not always) the driving artistic source behind the filming process, and communicates to actors the way that he/she would like a particular scene played. A director's duties might also include casting, script editing, shot selection, shot composition, and editing. Typically, a director has complete artistic control over all aspects of the movie, but it is not uncommon for the director to be bound by agreements with either a producer or a studio. In some large productions, a director will delegate less important scenes to a second unit director 2UD.