WWJD?: John Alton on "The First Director"

How do you make a movie?  It is a complex, collaborative process.  In the first lines of John Alton's  Painting with Light, he tells us just how complex the process is, right down to the moment you arrive at the studio gates:

Visiting the studio, as we arrive at the gate we meet the first director, who claims that without him there would be no shooting.  How right he is; as the gateman, he holds the keys to the studio.  They call him Traffic Director, who directs all the tourists to the different stages.

 But, John, if the gateman is a director, how many more directors can we expect to meet at the studio?

"That is nothing," [the gateman] claims, "wait till you see the canteen, it is named The Directorate."  The word payroll has been replaced by Directory--so appropriate.  As we proceed, we meet the First Assistant Director, Second Assistant Director, Art Director, Musical Director, Director of Orchestra, Dialogue Director, Process Director, Sound Director, In-Director, who has it "in" for the man who directs the picture, The Director.

Now that this web of workers, all perfectly integral to the making of a movie have at least been mentioned, next up we shall learn more about "the man whose work interests us most...the Director of Photography."  Stay tuned.