DGA Monthly

J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 5 I 6 3 Director Christine Swanson's romantic drama, Albany Road, tells the story of a New York executive on her way to the most important meeting of her career. Forced to share a rental car with her ex-fi ancé's mother, she discovers that the mother is hiding a major secret about her ex. Swanson discussed the making of the fi lm during Q&As moderated by Directors Malcolm D. Lee in New York and Shaz Bennett in Los Angeles. Asked during the Los Angeles conversation if she changed the order of scenes in the edit Swanson answered, "I don't do those kinds of charts because I know the story, I know the actors, we just need to know what the goals are. I'm typically very clear and so are the actors so we just aim for that. I trust it's all gonna come together because I wrote the script. We're just building and we do it scene-by- scene. Sometimes when I direct television, we're overwhelmed with big sequences and stunts. So, I get the part about previsualizing and I do a lot of that. But really, it's the question that comes up 'How do you eat a brontosaurus?' 'One bite at a time.' And it's how I approach directing. Just be in the moment and if we can do that as Directors the energy of the actors pick up. So, if I'm worrying if the pieces will come together the actors feel that. So, I just focus on the moment at hand and let's build these scenes and make sure we're emotionally connecting where we need to be." Christine Swanson discusses Albany Road photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Quintin Lundy photo by Marcie Revens Photos: Director Christine Swanson with moderators Shaz Bennett in Los Angeles on November 23 and Malcolm D. Lee in New York on November 30. 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 A terminally ill writer and fi lmmaker and former draft evader who fl ed to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to de-mythologize his mythologized life in Director Paul Schrader's drama, Oh, Canada. During a discussion moderated by Director Alex Ross Perry, Schrader spoke about knowing which projects to shoot and said, "It all comes down to the oral tradition. The idea starts, you outline it, tell it. You outline it, tell it. Every time you tell it, new ideas come to you, and you redo your outline.Then one of two things happens, they're both very good: One is the idea dies and you give up on it and you don't have to write it. The other is the idea gets sick of being told over and over again and it just jumps out of you like an animal. If you could hold someone's attention for 45 minutes, then you have a movie." He also referenced his early days as a critic and discussed the difference in approaching fi lms as an artist. "The way a critic sees a body is how one would see a body in a mortuary. You're trying to fi gure out how it lived, how it died, do I take it apart? How an artist sees a body is how a man would look at his pregnant wife. Not how can I examine it, how can I sustain it to make sure this thing is born alive." Paul Schrader discusses Oh, Canada Photo: Directors Paul Schrader (right) and Alex Ross Perry (moderator) discuss the making of Oh, Canada following the New York DGA screening on December 8. photo by Marcie Revens In the follow-up to his 2000 DGA Award-nominated feature, Gladiator, Director Ridley Scott's epic action drama, Gladiator II, tells the story of a hidden noble forced into slavery who fi ghts for honor and vengeance in the arena. Although the fi lm is fi lled with action, Scott broke it down to the basics and revealed how he would shoot a simple scene of two people at a table during a Q&A moderated by Director Fede Alvarez. "I take my hat off to cameramen who have to put up with me and eleven cameras because I know exactly where I'm going to put them because I've preconceived the scene. If an actor says, 'Why can't I do this?' I say, 'Listen, let's see your way fi rst, then you can see mine.' And frequently I've sat there they act it out, and it's usually two guys standing in the middle of the room talking. And they said, 'That's really boring.' And I said, 'That's really boring.' So, there is a geometry to every scene even if the scene is simply two people sitting at a table or a lot of movement in the scene or a punch up. You have to have that in your head so I always go in knowing exactly what I want. By knowing exactly what I want, there is a freedom to that. So, I can then encourage people to put in ideas as well." Ridley Scott discusses Gladiator II photo by Shane Karns Photo: Directors Ridley Scott and Fede Alvarez (moderator) discuss the making of Gladiator II following the Los Angeles DGA screening on November 17.

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