DGA Monthly

2 2 I D G A M O N T H L Y 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 mercenary takes on the job of tracking down a target on a plane but must protect her and himself from hired killers in Director James Madigan's action comedy, Fight or Flight. The film finds disgraced American operative Lucas Reyes offered one last shot at redemption: locate and ID an elusive target known only as "The Ghost" who is mid-flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. But when he finds the plane is filled with when elite assassins from every corner of the globe with orders to eliminate them both, Reyes and his target become unlikely allies at 37,000 feet. During a conversation moderated by Director Rawson Marshall Thurber, Madigan revealed where he stood on the set for this film. "I try to stand right next to the camera if I can. A lot of this was like the camera is here and then it's looking there. You have to make sure you're not blowing the take, but I try to always make sure, certainly for anything emotional, that I'm right there with them. Almost like it's a conversation with the actors. There's a video village but at some point, in prep I said I don't ever sit. I just need a remote monitor and I'll walk around with that. So, I didn't get a Director's chair. The only movie in 15 years I don't have a seat backing for was the one I directed!" James Madigan discusses Fight or Flight photo by Shane Karns Photo: Directors James Madigan and Rawson Marshall Thurber (moderator) discuss the making of Fight or Flight following the Los Angeles DGA screening on June 14. In the live action remake of his animated hit, How to Train Your Dragon, Director Dean DeBlois takes us back to the mythical isle of Berk where an inventive young Viking named Hiccup must face a test and fight his village's deadly enemy, a dragon. But instead of battle, Hiccup engages in a friendship with a Night Fury dragon named Toothless that will become the key to forging a new future for both species. During a conversation moderated by Director Phil Lord, DeBlois spoke about striving for images that are 'Ridley Scott beautiful.' "Part of what drove me into the film business is just I love to draw. I wanted to be a comic book artist, which led to animation, which led to live action. So, there is this natural attraction to silhouettes and shot design. I certainly can't take credit for all of it, but I was mindful of it as we were making the movie. So, in talking to Bill Pope our cinematographer, or Lindsay Pugh our costume designer, or Dominic Watkins our production designer, it was always about how do we really present these silhouettes that are compelling. And as the camera moves around, they sort of change and give us a constant variety of beautiful single images. And every time we hit it I'd say, 'Wow, that's Ridley Scott beautiful!' That's always the aim. If you can get to 'Ridley Scott beautiful' then you're doing something." Dean DeBlois discusses How to Train Your Dragon photo by Shane Karns Photo: Directors Dean DeBlois (right) and Phil Lord (moderator) discuss the making of How to Train Your Dragon following the Los Angeles DGA screening on June 22. Director Joseph Kosinski's car racing drama, F1 The Movie, tells the story of a Formula One driver who is coaxed out of retirement to mentor a hotshot rookie prodigy. They discussed the making of the film in conversations with Director Dan Gilroy in Los Angeles and Director Tom McCarthy in New York where he revealed some of the challenges of directing the racing sequences. "This is my sixth movie with [cinematographer] Claudio Miranda. I told Claudio, 'I really want to be able to move the cameras.' We couldn't do that in Top Gun: Maverick. So, we developed with Panavision this servo controlled panning head that allowed us to control the panning of the camera in real time while we were shooting. We had a transmission, we could pull focus, and we could pan the camera in a small little unit. We had four of them and two cars running simultaneously. So, I had eight cameras up in front of me and it was more like what I imagine directing a live sporting event is like. Where you're like looking and calling out pans to these operators who are on these little nubs. Going through the sequence and trying to connect the action to the actor's face because it's Brad [Pitt] and Damson [Idris] actually driving these race cars in the film. This was not a stunt driver on a pod. They trained for four months to drive these things on real F1 tracks during F1 weekends." Joseph Kosinski discusses F1 The Movie photo by Marcie Revens photo by Elisa Haber Photos: Director Joseph Kosinski with moderators Tom McCarthy in New York on June 17 and Dan Gilroy in Los Angeles on June 28.

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