DGA Monthly

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 4 I 6 5 Membership Screenings Q&As listed in alphabetical order by Director. See more detailed descriptions, additional photos & podcasts online at www.dga.org. DGA Screenings Q&As Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer's comedic-drama, Goodrich, tells the story of a man who must finally learn how to be a dad after his wife enters a 90-day rehab program, leaving him on his own with their nine-year-old twins. With his life upended he must get the assistance of his largely ignored daughter from his first marriage. While discussing the making of the film during a Q&A moderated by Director Max Minghella, Meyers-Shyer spoke about the process of test screening the film. "Because we aren't a studio film, we did not get to do a lot of test screenings. I find that putting a movie in front of your audience is the most important thing you can do because, especially with comedy, you want to say, 'Did they laugh? If they didn't how can we recut that so they do laugh?' So I put together a lot of screenings myself. Sometimes friends and family, but sometimes I would email my dentist's office and say, 'Anybody want to come watch this film?' I want movie goers to give their opinions as well." Hallie Meyers-Shyer discusses Goodrich Photo: Directors Hallie Meyers-Shyer (right) and Max Minghella (moderator) discuss the making of Goodrich following the Los Angeles DGA screening on October 20. photo by Elisa Haber Director Jason Reitman's comedic docudrama, Saturday Night, takes us back to the evening of October 11, 1975, when a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers would change television forever, and the madness that ensued behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. During a discussion about the film moderated by Director Guillermo del Toro, Reitman spoke about how planning on directing the movie in one shot shaped the story he told. "The movie was originally intended to be one shot. No stitches. We were going to rehearse it every single day and shoot it every single day and we we're going to keep doing it every day until we got it right. As a result of planning it that way, the movie is built around geography. He's on 50th street. He's in the lobby. He's in the elevator. He's on the 8th floor. He's in the hallway, he goes to the control room. I've never structured a movie this way. I'm thinking about where he physically has to go. Then we are trying to add four or five storylines to every room, every time he goes somewhere. The opening shot, no stitches, is five minutes." Jason Reitman discusses Saturday Night photo by Shane Karns Photo: Directors Jason Reitman (right) and Guillermo del Toro (moderator) discuss the making of Saturday Night following the Los Angeles DGA screening on October 20. Two young men try to endure a brutal reformatory in Director RaMell Ross's drama, Nickel Boys. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, Ross's film tells the story of Elwood, a young African American falsely accused of a crime and sentenced to Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school in the Jim Crow South. Clinging to his optimistic worldview, Elwood forms an alliance with Turner, a fellow teen who dispenses fundamental tips for survival. Ross discussed the making of the film during a Q&A moderated by Director Channing Godfrey Peoples and spoke about his visual style. "It's kind of taking an Eastern philosophical approach to the world. Traditionally, when a person has a camera, human beings are the center of it. But to me, human beings are just in the larger world and so people are their environment. And their environment shapes the person. This isn't necessarily about nature/nurture but it is about giving the feeling of viscerality of the real world as a person is in it. And cinema is ripe for anything sensory. As we know, it's the most fun medium to play in in that sense." RaMell Ross discusses Nickel Boys photo by Quintin Lundy Photo: Directors RaMell Ross (right) and Channing Godfrey Peoples (moderator) discuss the making of Nickel Boys following the Los Angeles DGA screening on October 27.

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