Film Career · Director
Nucleus Director
Director · Directors Guild of America
- Union
- Directors Guild of America
- Day rate
- ~$22K–$24K/wk
- Experience
- 8–25+ yrs
What does a Nucleus Director do?
A nucleus director leads within the director department, answering for its output while managing the people and logistics behind it.
On union productions the position falls under Directors Guild of America, which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in director are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.
What does a Nucleus Director make?
- This is a department-head chair, toward the top of its department's range.
- Directing pay ranges enormously: DGA scale is roughly $22K-$24K a week on features and $45K-$70K an episode in TV, but established directors negotiate multiples plus backend.
- Roughly $150K to $5M+ a year across the range.
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
Government wage data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can translate a script into staging, shots, and performance
Soft skills
- You can lead a crew, hold a budget, and answer for the department
- You are as comfortable managing people as doing the craft
Career progression
The role advances the way most director careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Nucleus Director?
The path here is internal: the director department promotes this position from within, based on a track record built in its junior chairs. Start at the department's entry level and let the work argue for you.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Directors Guild of America contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.