It's important for writers to understand what directors do (and vice-versa). One of the current top directors is David Fincher and this video analyzing what he does and how he does it is well worth 8 minutes of your time:
It's also interesting to think about how you can do some similar things when you write a scene in a novel or screenplay. For instance, how the reader pictures the scene is influenced by which actions you describe for each character, how you move the characters around, even the order in which they speak (including who has the last word).