Don't be fooled by the red carpets and bling-bling of movie premieres, a film director's life is far from glamourous. As we found out from Maia Horniak, it's more about making sure the story gets told the way you want it to.

Lights, camera, action!

A film director is responsible for how the movie looks. He or she needs to have a clear idea of how they want to tell the story and communicate this to everyone involved in the production. A typical day might involve; guiding the actors to get the performance you need, organising the locations where the action takes place or making the final decisions on lighting, camera angles or soundtrack.

You have to be able to work with a range of experts; camera operators, sound engineers, actors, editors, cinematographers, lighting people, and be able to make decisions on the spot if necessary. "You've got a lot of people working and they've all got their own individual thing to do, so you have to constantly be thinking five steps ahead," says Maia.

Often, things don't go to plan and that's when good problem solving skills are vital. "It's kind of like a trapeze artist, you know, on a rope trying to figure out if it's the best way to go," says Maia. "It can be scary but it's a thrill… it's kind of like an adventure, so it's quite exciting."

Once upon a time

The adventure started at an early age for Maia. Her first experience on set was acting alongside her mother when she was seven years old on a film called Howling Three. "I played the child of a werewolf, which was my mother," she says. "So I spent quite a lot of time on set watching everything as a child."

She also learnt that the film industry is far from glamourous: "I grew up with an actress as a mother and I saw that you don't always get work, so I knew that it wasn't all going to be Rolls Royces and star-studded dresses."

As a teenager Maia decided that acting wasn't for her, pursuing photography instead. She made her first movie when she was 16, which featured in that year's Art Express. Then, with a few more movies under her belt, she applied to a film school overseas and hasn't looked back since.

It hasn't been all directing since leaving film school. She's worked as an assistant to producers, directors and actors on set. Maia says this is all valuable experience: "I think that the more you know how other people work on films, the more you can be a better director because you understand how other people do their jobs."

Love your work

Another way to hone your story telling skills as a director is to watch lots of movies and see how others do it. "Michelle Gondry, who did Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind… I would have liked to have made that film!" says Maia. Her favourite directors are: French director Jean Pierre Jeunnet (Amelie and Delicatessen), Terry Gilliam (Brazil) and Danish director Lars Von Trier (Dogville, Dancer in the Dark).