Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1507954
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 3 I 2 5 DGA Podcast Series : The Director's Cut The Director's Cut, the DGA's official podcast features conversations of Directors talking to Directors about bringing their projects to life. These include some of the recent events listed in this issue, as well as other recently posted episodes such as: • Lisa Cortés on Little Richard: I Am Everything • Adele Lim on Joy Ride • Davis Guggenheim on Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie • Eva Longoria on Flamin' Hot • Chad Stahelski on John Wick: Chapter 4 • Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Karyn Kusama, David O. Russell and Valerie Weiss on Creating & Talking Tone with Your Team Director Tim Story (right) speaks about the making of The Blackening with Director David E. Talbert (moderator) in LA. These podcasts are posted on www.dga.org, or you can search for The Director's Cut or DGA podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast, and stay tuned for many more great conversations! See more detailed descriptions, additional photos and podcasts, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Screenings Q&As Director Emma Seligman's comedy, Bottoms, tells the story of best friends PJ and Josie, two gay teens who take the unusual approach of starting a high school fight club to meet girls and lose their virginity. They soon find themselves in over their heads when the most popular students begin to beat each other up. On September 10, after the membership screening in New York, Seligman discussed the making of the film during a Q&A moderated by Director Gene Stupnitsky. During the conversation, Stupnitsky called finding the right tone the main job of directing and Seligman agreed. "I think tone is always like the hardest, especially for comedy. You're like, 'Which joke pushes this above the limits of this world? How much should we care about the characters before it starts to become like a drama?' I stress about tone more than anything. You're the only one that's like, 'No this is starting to feel totally off.' We started out even more absurd and just tried to balance it as much as possible grounding the characters. When we were in the edit, that's where I had the final thoughts of, 'OK I love this joke, but it makes us like now we're in a farce and we're not grounded anymore. So, we gotta' get back down to our version of reality.'" Photo: Director Emma Seligman (right) discusses the making of Bottoms with Director Gene Stupnitsky (moderator). Emma Seligman discusses Bottoms photo by Marcie Revens Director Ondi Timoner's documentary, Last Flight Home, is a heartbreaking and complex memoir about her elderly father in his final days. Utilizing home movies interwoven with new footage, Timoner introduces the world to Eli's extraordinary life of wild achievements, tragic loss and enduring love in this stunning account of a courageous family confronting life and death, and a man's decision to exit the world as he lived in it, on his own terms. Following the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee's Documentary Series screening at the Guild's New York Theater on August 18, Timoner sat down with Director Susanna Styron to talk about the making of her highly personal film and spoke about the lasting impact the film would have on her family. "We felt like we were walking a plank to this inevitable conclusion of losing Dad and the filmmaking got more and more important to everybody because there would be something left of him when he was gone. Ironically, the cameras didn't separate me… they made me more present. They made me feel safe that I wouldn't miss a word that he said." Photo: Director Ondi Timoner (right) discusses the making of Last Flight Home with Director Susanna Styron (moderator). Eastern Region Special Projects Documentary Series Screens Ondi Timoner's Last Flight Home photo by DGA Staff