Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/994862
70 DGA QUARTERLY their hands dirty and work. And it hit me that there's a gap between film school and working that nobody fi lls, and I wanted to fi ll it for this group. So around six or eight years ago, I started a mentoring group where we'd meet once every four or six weeks for about a year. I was directing House at the time, and I got permission from the producers to bring them to the set on the weekend. I'd give them a script, tell them to pick a scene, and figure out how to stage it. We had the whole hospital floor. I said, "Let's pretend Friday you get the call sheet, the new scenes, and Monday morning you have to show up, work with the actors, and have staging in mind." Then we'd break it down. "If you're going to have Hugh Laurie start here and go there, why?" Questions an actor would ask. Then, maybe it'd be, "Let's talk about what you just set up. I count nine shots for a one- and-a-half-page scene. I don't think we're going to have time. Can you consolidate your coverage?" All the things they don't teach in fi lm school, we would work on that level. Q: You've also been directly instrumental in getting some of them past the hurdle of getting hired for their fi rst episodic. A: I got a call from a young director named Steph Green, who was in the Fox interning program and wanted to shadow me on The Americans. She'd made a short that got nominated for an Academy Award and had moved to Ireland and made a feature with Will Forte. So I said yes to shadowing me. Then I watched her feature, and I was in tears at how beautiful it was. I said, "Steph, you're great, you're on your way." Then six or eight months later, I called her and said, "Is your agent getting you in?" She said she was in another intern program, and shadowing on Scandal. And that drove me nuts to hear. Q: Because you felt she should be getting hired. A: Right. So, at this point, it's August 2016, and I'm supposed to do an episode of The Americans in January, and I was talking to Joe and Joel. This was around the time FX was being cited [for not hiring female directors]. I said, "What about Steph? You met her last year when she shadowed me." They said, "Has she done an episode of anything?" I said no, and they said, "We can't. She'd never get accepted by the network." So I said, "What if you hire Steph, and I will be with her the entire time she preps and shoots. I guarantee you she will not go over budget or miss a story beat, and you don't have to pay me." It was just a moment. I thought, "If I'm not working, I'm not working, but this woman should be working." Q: How did that resolve itself ? A: They came back and said, " We want to move you into an earlier slot, have her shadow you again, then she can take the one you were going to do, and you're with her." I said, "But she did just shadow me." They said, "Yeah, but just one more time." So she did her episode, and now she's directed, like, 15 episodes, shows like Billions, The Man in the High Castle and The Deuce. As soon as The Americans gave her validation, suddenly Scandal called her up. It was a total game-changer for Steph. Few things in my life professionally, maybe none, have been as gratifying as knowing this woman has a career now. Q: And you've done that again, since? A: It's not easy, because you have to get a show to essentially book two episodes, hopefully pretty close to each other, where they can shadow me, then shortly after that, I would be with them. But what did happen is FX made this sea change also. They were really appreciative, and they started really bringing in women. We set it up again with Snowfall, and I said, "Why don't we do it again with Logan Kibens?" Logan had gone on to make a feature called Operator that played at South by Southwest, but she couldn't get arrested in TV. They met with Logan, were very impressed, and said, "Let's do it." Logan was with me on the first episode of the second season, and it was great, because the producers called me toward the end of prep on her episode and said, "We think she's going to be just fi ne on her own. It'd be nice if you could be in the wings, but we'd like her to feel free to do it." So I stayed away. I watched dailies, but she basically did it on her own. Q: How do you sponsor a young director when they're working on their episode? A: There's an art to it, because I don't want to disempower. With Steph, we talked through everything. It would be kind of Socratic. "What do you think this is about?" And I would never give her a note in front of the actors. Q: Do you believe there's an ideal way to shadow a director? A: One of my regrets from being a trainee and assistant director myself is that while I had an opportunity to watch great directors work, I didn't try to fi gure out how I would approach a scene before I came to set to watch Coppola or Spielberg or Wim Wenders solve problems. I would have benefited myself much more if I'd tried to solve the creative problems myself, then watched the solution these other directors came up with. So now I advise people shadowing me: "Do your own shot lists. You might have a better solution, or it might show you a solution, or something you might have conceived as an issue wasn't even an issue in my mind and didn't need addressing. But you don't really learn until you practice yourself having to make choices. As best as possible, figure out your own take on the material—point of view, angles, key moments, staging, number of shots." Q: You're also involved with the DGA's First-Time Episodic Director Orientation Program, which was born out of the last contract negotiation. A: Several working directors met to hammer out a course syllabus, which we felt would cover all the areas an inexperienced director would benefi t from learning about: who the players are, their responsibilities, how they can help. It also takes fi rst-timers through a typical prep period, the need to break down the script, to learn what your questions are and how to get them answered. Shooting is discussed in as much detail as possible, as well as the post process. From all I've heard, it is working out spectacularly well, in that nearly everyone has derived great benefit and confi dence from the experience, which is what we as teachers have as our priority. It also builds in a respect for the job that's being given. The Directors Guild wants to make clear that it's a privilege and a responsibility to get an episode to direct. We want to give you the best chance to succeed, but also, if you don't already have it, an appreciation for the job you're getting to do. ® CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41