The Director's Book
Build the master plan that guarantees the film in your head is the film you get in the can.
A Professional Preparation Workshop for Film Directors
Every great film is made twice—once in preparation, and once on set. The director who thrives under pressure isn't the one with the most talent or the biggest budget. It's the one with a plan so thorough and so personal that when everything goes wrong—and it always does—they can make fast decisions in the chaos that still serve their vision. Get the preparation right, and it carries you all the way through the shoot and into the edit.
That preparation is your Director's Book. This workshop guides you through building a master plan that reflects your directing style, your vision, and the unique demands of your film.
8 Weeks
Over eight weeks, in person, you'll think through and complete the professional preparation for your next directorial project. We’ll begin with the foundational creative questions that shape the entire film before moving into detailed preparation. From there, you’ll develop the master plan for your film—scene by scene, decision by decision—until you know your project inside and out.
There is no single "right" Director's Book. A $100 short and a $100 million feature demand completely different plans, and so does every filmmaker. The emphasis here is on building the book that fits you—your style, your genre, your instincts, your resources and the specific film you're making. No forced templates. You create the book that unlocks your best work.
This is a small, in-person workshop with limited seats—by design. Led and facilitated by Shelli Ryan, you'll develop your book alongside a tight group of serious directors, learning as much from each other's projects and problem-solving as from the work itself. It's a chance to direct your film while every idea is still inexpensive to test and every decision is still yours to make.
Workshop Facilitator
Shelli Ryan is a writer, director, and editor whose feature debut Jake's Closet earned critical acclaim and festival honors, and who has spent 15 years cutting and shaping narrative films, documentaries, and television. She built this workshop around the tool she relies on most as a director — the director's book — and the belief that the clearest path to a strong performance on set is the work you do before you get there.
Shelli Ryan
"Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind. There is no other definition of it." —F. Scott Fitzgerald
On my first feature film, Jake's Closet, I had this three-ring binder I'd spent months filling with all my notes for shooting. The constraints of a very small budget, having small children in leading roles, and a high-concept visual approach in a single location for an entire film meant there was no margin for error. Every decision I hadn't worked through beforehand was a decision I'd have to make under pressure, with limited time, limited money, and very few opportunities to correct a mistake.
The vision in my head was clear, but I already had enough on-set experience to know that all those good intentions could unravel on day one, as the wheels of production started to take over. The demands of time, performers' needs, unexpected leaf blowers, personality conflicts, and technical hang-ups can subvert the most thoughtful intentions. If I was going to pull this off and serve what the film could be, I needed to make sure I was driving the bus and not being thrown around in the back of it.
I had spent three months building my director's book, built an entire digital 3D set of the location, and storyboarded every single shot in the film based on the exact dimensions of every room. One challenge being that I had one hundred minutes of movie in the same location but could not repeat any shots. I worked from the largest questions about the film all the way down to the smallest choices in every shot, making sure each decision served the same idea. By the time my production team came on board, I knew the film inside and out—not just what I wanted it to be, but how I was going to get it there.
I thought I had made the book for myself. What I hadn't anticipated was what it would do for everyone around me. My DP was able to push back with his ideas, my art director could ask questions, and the producers all had a complete understanding of what I thought I needed to accomplish. It was only about the third day of production, when I was going over the next shots with the DP and I left my book on the table as we walked away, that I saw a bunch of crew from different departments rush the table and quickly comb over the pages, like I'd left the test answers out. Once everyone could see what was in my head, they became eager to help me achieve it. From that moment forward I left the book out on the table for anyone on the crew to look at.
Another side effect of my deep preparation was not just that I actually got about 80–90% of my shots—it's that most every decision on set was answered before it was asked. When the production gods made something impossible, my ability to solve problems and make decisions was agile and certain. At one point, it was around 11pm, and it was clear to everyone on the crew that the climactic shot in my book couldn't happen, and we were about to lose our seven-year-old lead in ten minutes. This was a moment when everyone around me started pitching ideas. It felt like chaos. We were so close to finishing, and this was the climactic zombie battle scene. Everyone was rattling off whatever shots came into their brain. Somewhere in there my AD bent down to the grass and pointed toward the house. "That's the one," I said. It fit what I was building. The camera moved, the lights adjusted, and we got two takes of our climax before the set teacher pulled the plug. I hadn't planned that shot. But I had planned the film deeply enough to recognize it.
I tell that story because all the thought and preparation I had done not only enabled me to make the right decision in a chaotic moment, but also meant I wasn't alone anymore. My preparation had emboldened all of the filmmakers on the crew to believe in me, in the vision for the film, and to bring their best work to it.
It was my first time directing a feature film, and everyone around me on the crew was a production professional. It can be intimidating knowing you are the least experienced person in the room. There was this tension on the first day, like everyone was waiting to see if they should take me seriously. Was I going to crash and burn, or could I pull it off? It took about two days for all of that to shift and a seriousness to take over. It wasn't my experience or leadership style—it was my preparation and craft. It was held in my director's book.
I'm proud of the work I did on that film. To truly test my skills and ideas, I needed my mistakes to be mine—not a result of all the forces of production, or chaos, or more experienced collaborators. Jake's Closet turned out to be the film I intended to make. None of that preparation kept the plan from breaking. It just meant that when it did, I knew my film well enough to recognize the answer—and so did everyone standing around me.
If you've ever watched the thing in your head turn into something smaller by the time it hit the screen, you know the feeling I built that book to avoid. That's what I work on with directors in my workshop in Los Angeles. It's a small room—a handful of directors prepping real films, learning from each other as much as from me. I'm not there to teach you to storyboard, or to do it my way. I'm there to help you find the method that gets your film out of your head, and to leave knowing your own craft well enough that no set can throw you around in the back of the bus.
What Else You Need To Know
What's Required
This workshop is for directors who have a film they seriously intend to make—and who bring some on-set experience, whether from their own projects or professional work, enough to know firsthand how much can go wrong. If you're serious about walking onto set ready, this is where your film truly begins.
What You'll Leave With
A working document you can take straight into prep and production—one that makes you the most prepared person on set, keeps your team aligned to a single vision, and turns crisis moments into confident, consistent choices.
Workshops In Los Angeles late September 2026
and in January 2027
If you're ready to begin the real work of directing your next film, this workshop is for you.
8 Weeks: $990
Only 10 seats available and priority will be given to director’s with approaching start dates then filled first come first serve when registration opens
Fill out the interest form to recieve registration information.