DGA Monthly

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 5 I 3 1 See more detailed descriptions, additional photos and video, where available, online at www.dga.org. DGA Events Roundup On July 31, DGA members gathered online for the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee's event, Dying Laughing: An Evening with the Directing Team from Only Murders in the Building. In a conversation moderated by Director Sam Hoffman and illustrated by clips from show, Director/series co-creator John Hoffman, Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, UPM Kristin Bernstein and Location Manager Brendan O'Rourke took the audience behind the scenes to unravel the mystery of what goes into the making of this Emmy-nominated comedy-drama that is now in its fifth season. During the conversation Director/Executive Producer John Hoffman revealed how he came to collaborate with Steve Martin on the series. "I had presented a couple of ideas on how to take that 'classic meets modern' so a true crime, murder mystery matched up with true crime podcasting. It was not a hard leap for me to see Steve Martin and Martin Short as Actor and Director around producing a podcast together. Then, the miracle of Selena Gomez joining and being completely unexpected as a trio for the world to figure out, and for them to make perfect, symphonic comedic alchemy together." Berman shared how they worked with the crew and actors for a fight scene between Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy's characters. "Chris Barnes, our Stunt Coordinator, got great stunt doubles and our 1st AD Becky Chin was prepped to handle this safely. We show up on set and Meryl says, 'Are you kidding me? I'm doing this!' When you shoot, there's normally people up in the office doing their jobs. Everybody came down. We had a huge audience, standing ovation." Bernstein spoke about how the clip she shared from the season four episode "Once Upon a Time in the West" exemplified what is so great about the show. "Obviously, there's great writing, a great cast, the guest cast is insane, we have great Directors, but I think sometimes you can forget with all of that the obvious gift of our show is our trio, and you put the three of them together in a scene with or without people, and you've just got gold. No matter what they do, there's no bad scene when the three of them together." Location Manager O'Rourke recalled a fun day shooting the season four episode "Adaptation" where there were several Actors dressed alike. "John wanted a location that had reflections to tie in with everybody dressing as each other, so it's doubles and triples of everybody. On top of that, behind the scenes, everybody came to set dressed as each other. I think that was instigated by Jessica Yu who directed that episode. It speaks to how much fun we have behind the scenes, and what a joy it is to be part of it." Image: (Clockwise) Director/series co-creator John Hoffman, Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, UPM Kristin Bernstein, Location Manager Brendan O'Rourke and Director Sam Hoffman (moderator). Dying Laughing: An Evening with the Directing Team from Only Murders in the Building An Eastern Region Special Projects Committee Event DGA Podcast Series : The Director's Cut These podcasts are posted on www.dga.org, or you can search for The Director's Cut or DGA podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcast, and stay tuned for many more great conversations! The Director's Cut, the DGA's official podcast, features conversations of Directors talking to Directors about bringing their projects to life. These include some of the events listed in this issue, as well as other recently posted episodes such as: Jon Avnet discussing The Last Rodeo with moderator Jason Reitman Bong Joon Ho discussing Mickey 17 with moderator Ava DuVernay Ryan Coogler discussing Sinners with moderator Rachel Morrison Josh Ruben discussing Heart Eyes with moderator Zelda Williams Martin Scorsese & Griffin Dunne discussing After Hours with moderator Raymond De Felitta

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