DGA Monthly

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 I 3 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 Three siblings navigate challenges to their respective love lives in Director Edward Burns' drama, Millers in Marriage. Burns discussed the making of the film during Q&As moderated by Directors Sarah Pirozek in New York and Doug Atchison in Los Angeles and during the LA conversation, revealed what he learned about filmmaking from a master of the art. "The first film that I acted in that wasn't one of my films was Saving Private Ryan. I asked Steven, 'Can I shadow you and watch how you make films?' It was the ultimate graduate film program. The first week we were shooting sometimes four cameras at once and Steven would do two takes. Third take, 'Okay we got it, let's go, moving on.' After a week we were thinking, 'He must really hate us because he's not giving us any notes.' The following Monday he asked for a fourth take, and a fifth take, and finally gave us notes. At lunch we said 'Hey Steven, why today?' He said, 'Well today you didn't know what the hell you were doing so, I had to step in. I hire actors for a reason. I assume you're going to show up prepared. I'm rolling four cameras at once, so I need to give you guys the time to figure it out. If I were to step in after the first take, as young actors especially, that's going to get in your head and undermine your confidence.' So, from that experience I was like, 'Three or four takes, you do what you have to do, you figure it out.'" Edward Burns discusses Millers in Marriage photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Marcie Revens photo by Shane Karns Photos: Director Edward Burns with moderators Sarah Pirozek in New York on December 8 and Doug Atchison in Los Angeles on December 14. A vampire's infatuation with a haunted young woman leads to untold horror in Director Robert Eggers' supernatural fantasy, Nosferatu. Eggers discussed the making of the film during Q&As moderated by Directors Michael Almereyda in New York and Chris Columbus in Los Angeles. During the Los Angeles conversation, Eggers spoke why the little details in a film can matter. "Creating an atmosphere is an accumulation of details. The more details you have, the more the world is complete and the more that you as an audience can invest in the world, and therefore, potentially believe in metaphysical things like vampires. But part of that is not just what you see but it's what the actors are engaged with. Like Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] wore a corset. A guy of his kind of fashion sense of that period would wear a little male corset. You never see it, but it changes how he moves. Emma Corrin talks about opening the drawer of her character's desk and seeing all these letters that she and her husband wrote back and forth to each other for years. We're never gonna see that but it helps them feel connected to the world and that changes their performance and the whole thing." Robert Eggers discusses Nosferatu photo by Xxx Xxxxx photo by Shane Karns photo by DGA Staff Photos: Director Robert Eggers with moderators Chris Columbus in LA on December 8 and Michael Almereyda in NY on December 15. Director Gia Coppola's drama, The Last Showgirl, spins the tale of Shelly, a glamorous showgirl who has headlined a glittering Las Vegas revue for decades and must now look for a new future when her show abruptly closes. During a discussion about the film moderated by Director Francis Ford Coppola, Gia explained why she opted to use a lot of handheld photography in the film. "Partly why we were handheld was because we really wanted to be on film. In order to do film, we had to forego our lighting budget but that also allowed us to be really fast and get a lot of setups in a short amount of time with a lot of actors." She also revealed how she borrowed a technique her grandfather used on the making of The Godfather to get her cast to bond with their characters during meals. "The script is originally a play so, for me, it was trying to just get her [Pamela Anderson] to let go of the script and just kind of embody it. We did little things that I've learned from you, like on weekends I had the cast go to Pamela's house and had her cook vegetable soup and teach all the younger dancers sort of how to make different [meals]." Gia Coppola discusses The Last Showgirl photo by Elisa Haber Photo: Directors Gia Coppola (right) and Francis Ford Coppola (moderator) discuss the making of The Last Showgirl following the December 28 DGA screening in Los Angeles.

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