DGA Monthly

J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 6 I 9 5 Perspectives on Directing Television Pilots from the Visual History Program Archives — continued from page 91 View more excerpts and interviews in the Visual History Collection via the link on the homepage of www.dga.org. Mick Jackson on the freedom of decision when working on pilots: "I love doing pilots. It is totally unlike doing episodic. Nobody has set anything, you have a completely blank slate, and you can say, 'Here's how I see it, here's how I think the visual style should be.' And you can discuss that with the writers and the producers and either excite them or not, in which case you're out of the door and they've got the next person in, pitching to them. But if they like it, you can develop that and say, 'Here's who I see in this role and I think this person would be great for it and I think we should shoot in L.A. if we could because I think we could use locations here to great effect.' And it's a mini movie, and it lasts an hour — boom. And I didn't want to do any more of them after that, I just wanna do that one and have the satisfaction of saying, 'This is a perfect jewel.'" Stan Lathan designing the look of a show through the sets: "Pilot production it's a different being from doing a series. First of all, it's our job, as a team, to fi nd the right groove, to fi nd, put the right people in the room. To kinda fi nd a way, a look, or a pacing that works for this particular show, so… and the Director is very involved in that. The fi rst pilot I did was Amen with Sherman Hemsley. [Executive producer] Ed. Weinberger was great. He was very collaborative, especially when it came to actually designing the sets. I was involved in the choice of locations and had input on the way the sets were laid out, and on the casting outside of Sherman Hemsley and one or two other stars that the network had made the deal with. And that's pretty much the way it works on a pilot. You try to get a Director who's gonna bring something to the table in terms of awareness of what might work best in this situation." Mimi Leder on her experiences with pilots as a directing producer: "So, in terms of being a guest Director, you come in and what makes you stand out or why you should do it is or even though everything is set, you want that Director to elevate the material. You want them to bring their expertise. And now, when I'm hiring Directors, I really want them to come in and make it better. Do it from their point of view. I'm the directing producer on The Morning Show. I was the directing producer on The Leftovers and it's like making a fi lm. To me, directing a pilot is exactly what directing a fi lm is except probably there's more voices in television in your ear than a feature fi lm. I think feature fi lmmaking is far more palatable, it's much easier, it's more singular, it's less people in your ear and you create the tone, the style, the camera style. And as I went on to directing pilots, I really learned all of this." Linda Mendoza on her experiences guest directing an episode vs shooting pilots: "On, episodic obviously you're going into a show that is set to some degree. You're not gonna reinvent the wheel. But you can still bring your own thing to it. You can still have fun with it. You can still fi nd ways that you can enhance the comedy, whether it's in shots or adding a beat or adding a moment or whatever that might be. But when you're doing a pilot, you're setting the tone and the look. And you're really working closely with the person who created the show, with what their vision is, and trying to enhance that vision. So, it's really fun like working with the set design and working with the DP and, 'What's the color palette we want?' And you just are much more involved in the casting." James Burrows on advocating for the writer's vision when directing pilots: "My job, and I think of it this way, my job is to protect the vision of the writer. Therefore, the shows that I choose to do, the pilots I choose to do, I have to like the vision. My job now is to get around, to help the Writers get around these pre- conceptions of what a show should be, and trying to homogenize a show. And there's no more greater example than Will & Grace, which, when I read that script I went, 'Oh my god! These guys have written a show that has a distinct point of view that's not on television. How do I protect that point of view?' And so that's my fi rst goal. So, everything I do is to make sure that that point of view ends up on screen."

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