Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1373617
J U N E 2 0 2 1 I 2 1 On April 13, the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee hosted the online event, Family Matters: An Evening with Directors from HBO's Succession. Directors Shari Springer Berman, Kevin Bray, Mark Mylod, Andrij Parekh and Robert Pulcini spoke about the work of bringing this award-winning program to the screen in a conversation moderated by Director Fisher Stevens. The evening opened with a welcome by Eastern Region Special Projects Committee Chair Raymond DeFelitta and DGA Assistant Executive Director Michael Berger. Then, Stevens took the floor to introduce the evening's panelists. Following screenings of clips from the show's second season, Stevens discussed the challenges of directing Succession with each of the panelists. "I described our process of really just trying to capture moments," said Mylod when asked about how he conceptualized filming large ensemble dinner scenes. "There is no moment where you say okay, there is your closeup. That doesn't really exist on our show. And the actors have all responded to it brilliantly. There's a symbiotic relationship between cast and the camera, and also I think a mutual trust." Parekh noted that the show's organic shooting style creates opportunities for different kinds of scene coverage. "It's an amazing way to work. It was very freeing to know that it was as much about reactions as it was about spoken lines, that we don't have to have every line on camera, … knowing that you might be delivering things that have holes in it just by virtue of the way that it's shot." Berman described the show's rehearsal process as a balancing act. "It totally depends on the actors that you're in the scene with and how emotional the scene is. … to figure out how to get enough rehearsal so that everybody feels comfortable but not too much so that some of the actors feel overworked and it's not going to be fresh." "The thing that I found really different about Succession is that all the feeds are live," said Pulcini. "They don't just leave a TV screen on and say, 'We'll worry about that later in post' ... Every scene has to be approached with, 'Where are we with the news being leaked, what's on the screens, how are we with the characters reacting to it?' That was the trickiest part of it for me, tracking those two simultaneously." "You are not privy as the filmmakers to what's about to happen," said Bray, discussing the improvisational aspects of filming, "and you try to manifest that in the shooting style. … What it's about is you bringing your individuality, or whatever little things that you enjoy and you might want to see when you're shooting this show, and then that gives it its individuality." Succession tracks the lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control. The series earned Director Adam McKay the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series in 2019 and garnered Mylod a DGA Award nomination in 2020. Image - First Row: Directors Mark Mylod, Kevin Bray and Andrij Parekh Second Row: Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman and Fisher Stevens (moderator). See the video of this event online at www.dga.org. See more detailed descriptions, additional photos, podcasts and video, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Events Roundup Family Matters: An Evening with Directors from HBO's Succession An Eastern Region Special Projects Committee Virtual Event Maureen Bharoocha discusses Golden Arm Director Maureen Bharoocha's comedy, Golden Arm, tells the story of Melanie, a nice girl baker who must trade whisks for barbells after her best friend Danny ropes her into taking her spot at the National Ladies Arm Wrestling Championship. On May 2, following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Bharoocha discussed the making of Golden Arm in a Q&A moderated by Director Lucia Aniello (Rough Night). During the conversation, Bharoocha spoke about the challenges of working within a tight 20-day schedule to make the feature. "There were certain things that were constricting like the tournament sequences," said Bharoocha. "We actually only had three days in that space to shoot everything and that ended up being like one fourth of the movie. What actually ended up happening is we had two cameras a lot of the time and I asked for a third camera and they were like, 'We can't afford it. We'll just make it work.' And I'm like, 'I can make it work but we won't have as much coverage as we need.' So, I ended up paying for it myself. Having that third camera really helped." Bharoocha's other directorial credits include the feature film Fatal Flip, the movie for television, I Am Watching You and episodes of the series F'd and Uh, Hey Dude. She was also a segment director on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Bharoocha has been a DGA member since 2016 and participated in the Guild's 2019 Diversity Initiative. Photo: Directors Lucia Aniello (moderator) and Maureen Bharoocha discuss Golden Arm. photo by Elisa Haber