DGA Monthly

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 4 I 5 9 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 Parker Finn continues his exploration of psychological horror in his new feature, Smile 2, the follow-up to his 2022 fi lm, Smile. Smile 2 tells the story of Skye Riley, a pop star about to embark on a world tour who begins to experience increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, she is forced to face her past. Finn discussed the making of the fi lm during a Q&A moderated by Director Mike Flanagan and recalled his delight when his precursor fi lm, Smile, received a wide theatrical release. "Just by nature of the evolving industry, we happened to be one of the very fi rst fi lms to get switched the other way around from streaming to theatrical which was incredible. I was just so grateful that somebody had said yes to letting me make a feature and was just hoping the audience would discover it. And then for it to go wide theatrical release was a dream come true. Something original that I wrote and directed that's based on my own short — those are a lot of things that people tell you, 'oh that doesn't happen anymore.' It was very much a pinch me moment." Photo: Directors Parker Finn (right) and Mike Flanagan (moderator) discuss the making of Smile 2 following the Los Angeles DGA screening on October 27. Parker Finn discusses Smile 2 photo by Quintin Lundy Director Marc Forster's drama, White Bird, is a follow-up to Stephen Chbosky's 2017 feature Wonder, where Julian, a character from the fi rst fi lm, is struggling to fi t in at his new school after being expelled from his previous school for his treatment of the disfi gured boy, Auggie Pullman. Julian is visited by his grandmother, Sara, who tells him about her childhood as a young Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied France during World War II and her attempts to escape. Forster discussed the making of the fi lm with Directors Phillip Noyce in Los Angeles and Michael Pressman in New York. During the Los Angeles conversation, he spoke about why and how he chose his DP, Matthias Koenigswieser. "After World War Z, I wanted to work with a young DP. And at that point in my career, I sort of understood how things need to be lit and how I wanted things to look. And I felt everything became just so technical: that's how I want the scenes to look, that's how I want the lights to be. I felt if I have a young DP who purely comes from the gut and instinctual and is not just technical and brings a certain poetry to it, that's sort of what I was looking for. When I met Matthias, he's also Austrian so we spoke the same language, but he was so enthusiastic and lovely. So, we did a couple fi lms together and he comes from very much from the gut you know." Marc Forster discusses White Bird photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Marcie Revens photo by Quintin Lundy Photos: Director Marc Forster with moderators Phillip Noyce in Los Angeles on October 19 and Michael Pressman in New York on October 20. A woman faces the battle of her life when her estranged father's family tries to evict her and her grandmother from the only home she has ever known in Director Lynn Dow's drama, Bull Street. Dow discussed the making of the fi lm with Directors Sarah Pirozek in New York and Liz Hinlein in Los Angeles. In New York, she spoke about how the real city of Summerton, SC became almost a character in the fi lm and the support she received from the town. "Summerton is where my maternal family was born. My grandmother would take me down South to Summerton and everything that you see in the movie, that's how I saw it growing up. When I went into the town to you say, 'I'm going to make a movie,' they were like, 'what?' because there was a major article in the in the newspaper that said, 'Nothing good never happens in Summerton but Hollywood is coming.' The town just rallied around the movie. They felt really special about Bull Street and something positive was happening. So, everyone — white, black, Republicans, Democrats — they all came together to make this movie and I really could not make it without the town you know being that extra crew member so to speak." Lynn Dow discusses Bull Street photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Marcie Revens photo by Howard Wise Photos: Director Lynn Dow with moderators Sarah Pirozek in New York on November 3 and Liz Hinlein in Los Angeles on November 10.

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