DGA Monthly

J U N E 2 0 2 5 I 3 9 Photo: Directors Andrew Ahn (right) and Daniel Kwan (moderator) discuss the making of The Wedding Banquet following the Los Angeles DGA screening on April 26. Director Andrew Ahn's romantic comedy, The Wedding Banquet, tells the story of a gay man who proposes a green card marriage to a lesbian friend in exchange for paying for her IVF treatment. However, things get complicated when his grandmother surprises them with plans for an extravagant Korean wedding banquet. Ahn discussed the making of the film with Director Daniel Kwan and shared a method he uses with his actors to add depth to their characters. "When you have a very busy cast you very rarely have rehearsal time. With Lily Gladstone and Kelly Marie Tran, we had a 15- minute rehearsal before their first scene. I remember one of the things I wanted to do was to have Kelly and Lily create a secret that they would only know and never tell me. It's an exercise that's born out of this previous experience I had where someone told me that I had to know everything about my characters. I kind of resisted that because I was like, 'I don't even know everything about myself!' If I did know everything about my characters, they would just feel so two dimensional, like puppets. So, to give these characters a humanity I felt like I should give these characters secrets that are just theirs. It's a thing where they created a secret together and they created a secret from each other." Andrew Ahn discusses The Wedding Banquet photo by Elisa Haber Directors Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden's action comedy, Freaky Tales, weaves together the seemingly disparate sagas of an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teenage punks, neo-Nazis and a debt collector as they embark on a collision course in 1987 Oakland, CA. During a conversation moderated by Director Shaz Bennett, Fleck spoke about using the cinematography to differentiate chapters of the movie. "We started thinking about visually how to differentiate the style of the different chapters. The aspect ratio became something we decided upon pretty quickly. The punk story should feel like a 16mm 4x3. We should like treat it with grain and shoot it handheld. But then when the fighting comes out it's sort of magical. And then the third and final chapter, the violence in that, we want to feel like the 2.35 aspect ratio to feel more like a Kung Fu movie." Boden shared the support they received to make their film authentic to the time period and punk community. "Everybody came out to help us get it right. Throughout this entire process, people read this script who were in Oakland and just really surrounded it with love and support, particularly with the punk community. It just felt like we had all this support to get it right." Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden discuss Freaky Tales photo by Quintin Lundy Photo L-R: Directors Shaz Bennett (moderator), Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck discuss the making of Freaky Tales following the Los Angeles DGA screening on April 13. 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 Jon Avnet's drama, The Last Rodeo, tells the story of Joe Wainright, a 50-year-old retired rodeo legend who risks it all and enters a high-stakes bull-riding competition after a crisis strikes his family. Avnet discussed the making of the film with Director Jason Reitman and revealed how he tackled shooting an aspect of the bull riding scenes after a conversation with Professional Bull Riders Inc., CEO Sean Gleason. "Sean said he's never seen a good close up on a bull ride. I looked at a couple movies and I went, 'Yeah, he's right. Why don't they work?' How do you capture what it's like to be on a bull? I said, 'Okay, I'm gonna get a 600-millimeter lens and shoot really tight so you can see the face.' And then I went, 'That's just recording it. It doesn't have a visceral or cinematic element to it.' So, I was lost as to how to do the most basic thing — the close up. Then one day we went out to [bull riding champion] Kyle Sherwood's house with his dad, and he was riding on the bucking machine. And as he was doing it, I took out my iPhone and I started moving the camera. As soon as you move the camera, guess what? It's the camera moving, not the guy on the bull moving. It's what you don't see as opposed to as what you do see." Jon Avnet discusses The Last Rodeo photo by Elisa Haber Photo: Directors Jon Avnet (right) and Jason Reitman (moderator) discuss the making of The Last Rodeo following the Los Angeles DGA screening on May 10.

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