Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/618780
dga quarterly 23 No two indie directors see things in the same way, but they all have a vision. Excerpts from 10 years of stories capture their passion. LENA DUNHAM The It Girl Dunham doesn't see directors as all- powerful figures who know everything. "[The filmmaking process is] insanely collaborative. It's OK to be clear on the set that there are things you don't know. You have to rely on the expertise of your dolly grip or your focus puller. I interviewed ADs by asking what an AD does. "I started with the assumption that I wanted to see what was going on [on the set], so I put the camera where I could do that. I just made sure you could see all the characters. "I try to make a camera choice that will be powerful but won't dictate. I don't want my actors to have to do intense choreogra- phy. 'I want you to be more frame left' is a note I would never give." STEVE McQUEEN The Grim Truth "Every single scene we do, we've talked about way, way before," says McQueen. "It's like getting ready to prepare a meal and having all the ingredients, then chang- ing it around a little bit. It is a discipline but it also gives you tremendous freedom. Also there's a foundation to pull you back if you get lost, which is good. It's exciting. "I like the idea that everybody, from the electrician to the grip to the makeup and costume department, feels they have some- thing at stake with the film—that they are a part of it like anyone else," he says, adding that even on a film like 12 Years a Slave, in which slave characters are routinely shown being humiliated, horsewhipped, and in one scene, lynched, people would still show up on the set on their days off. "We're a community. We are always talking together, discussing [the film]. On hard days, when you're in an environment that is extraordinarily supportive it feels cathartic." ALEX GIBNEY The Real Story "I think of documentaries more like nonfiction books. They have a great sense of journalistic inquiry but they're carefully considered aesthetic achieve- ments, which mix both the personal with the breadth of the story you're telling. "[With Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,] I think we crafted the narrative so that it draws viewers in, even as you're get- ting into very complicated territory. Creat- ing a sense of mystery allows the viewer to start investigating, and once the viewer is investigating, then everything is working. "There's a part of the process that in- evitably transforms a film from what you thought it was going to be to what it is. You have to embrace what it is or it's at the film's peril. There comes a time in the cut- ting room where you think, 'Oh my God, we're never going to get there. We'll never solve this problem.' That used to cause me almost paralyzing anxiety. Over time I got used to the idea that it's okay not to know. You will know, you just don't know now." "I try to give notes that are clear. And I just try to give emotional reasons for what's happening on screen. Great things can come from people having fun." PHOTOS: (LEFT TO RIGHT) FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES, JESSICA MIGLIO/HBO, TIMOTHY GREENFIELD-SANDERS