from the DGA.

Continuing our celebration of the Guild’s 75th anniversary for the years 1990 – 2011, we’ve collected some of the most interesting books about directors and the era.

“Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing” by Bethany Rooney and Mary Lou Belli.

Written by two top female TV directors, who between them have directed hundreds of episodes of TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Girlfriends, Major Dad, and Monk, this is an indispensable handbook for the aspiring TV director (the focus, despite the title, is largely on episodic television), and should find its place in the curriculum of any film school in the land.

Read the rest of this book review from the DGA.

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by Bill Goodykoontz.

Film is a director’s medium, so they say.

Well, “they” are going to have a lot to talk about this fall, when some of the biggest names in directing unveil several high-profile films. How many? Steven Spielberg has two movies coming out in the span of two weeks. Also up between now and Christmas: movies directed by George Clooney, Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe and Francis Ford Coppola.

It makes you wonder, though. Is film really a director’s medium? And is the mention of the name of the person behind the camera enough to interest an audience, to bring people to the theater? Depends on whom you ask.

Read the rest of this article from AZCentral.

Sign up now for your own FREE monthly subscription to “The Director’s Chair” filmmaking ezine and get the first 30 pages of my 220 page Film Directing Multi-Media Online course, “The Art and Craft of the Director Audio Seminar.”

by Alex Cox.

It speaks well of film-makers that movies about movies are usually black comedies. Our industry is so detestable – so filled with lies, thefts, backstabbing, blacklisting, drug dealing, and the occasional murder – that one would expect a tendency to cover things up. Instead, almost all the films I can think of which deal with the film-making process portray it in the grimmest possible light.

Read the rest of this article from The Guardian.

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This article was written by Christopher Wallenberg.

“The history of Hollywood filmmaking is littered with bloated movie-star-turned-director self-indulgence: Marlon Brando’s “One-Eyed Jacks’’ (in which Brando fired the film’s original director, a guy named Stanley Kubrick), Kevin Costner’s ponderous “Dances With Wolves’’ (which inexplicably won seven Oscars), and most of the filmmaking oeuvre of Mel Gibson.

But Hollywood also has a history of stars stepping behind the camera to try their hand at directing and actually turning out successful, even masterful, bodies of work. See: Orson Welles, John Cassavetes, Clint Eastwood. Some got hooked, some did not (Paul Newman), while others dabbled (Robert Redford, Dennis Hopper).

The directorial trend seems to have sped up in recent years, with actors as varied as Sean Penn (“Into the Wild’’), George Clooney (“Good Night, and Good Luck’’), Sarah Polley (“Away From Her’’), Zach Braff (“Garden State’’), and Ben Stiller (“Tropic Thunder’’) making the move into the director’s chair.”

Read the rest of this article from Boston.com

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This article was written by George Russell.

“In many ways, too much time has passed for films from the ‘30s to be of much interest to most people living today. The black and white images, the grainy sound, the entirely different method of acting and the relatively straightforward plots all require time and an open mind to get used to—two scarce commodities in our era.

However, the rewards of watching films from Hollywood’s Golden Age are many, perhaps the most important being that they connect us to a heritage of American cinematic art that was at one time the envy of the world. Only tiny echoes of this distant past can be seen and heard in a relatively small number of films today. For better or worse, modern cinema has become something else entirely.”

Read the rest of this article from Pop Matters.

This article was written by Lynden Barber.

“There is no official, sanctified path into film directing, as former video-store clerk Quentin Tarantino reminded everyone within earshot for years. For every film-school graduate sitting in the big canvas chair there’s someone who has honed their skills in music clips, television and cinema commercials or, for that matter, theatre, photography, writing or art.

A background in another art form is certainly no impediment to success in film. Since cinema is a medium combining many practices – sound, visual design, storytelling, costumes, photography, drama, acting – artists with visual and story sense and strong leadership qualities have a better than average chance of rising to the directorial occasion.”

Read the rest of this article from The Australian.

“The person, who shapes a program’s message through the manipulation of the artistic and technical elements, seeking to maximize their effect up on audience,. “directing is the sum total of artistic and technical operations which enables the play as conceived by the author to pass from the abstract, talent state, that of the written script, to concrete and actual life on the style”. Jaques Lopeau, encyclopedia Franaise, December 1935.”

Read rest of article from Binoj.

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“School’s in!

But since it’s only mid-August, I guess that makes our first Film 101 lesson technically a part of Summer School, right?  (I really wish I was talking about the classic ’80s Carl Reiner movie.)  Therefore, we’re going to take it very easy on you in this first post and discuss something that many wonder but few are brave enough to ask: “What’s the difference between a film producer and a director, anyway?”

Here’s the true answer: “That depends on who’s producing and who’s directing.”

Read this article from RedBlog

As a First Assistant Director, your working relationship with the Director is going to be one of the most important relationships you will have with anyone in this business. You always have to keep in mind the “industry politics” of the situation: is this a movie you are working on, or is it a TV Series?

Directors interview and hire the First Assistant Director on a feature film (and TV Movies) while the Production Manager (or Producer) hire the First Assistant Director on a TV Series. Therefore, you always need to look at this difference from the point of view of your relationship with the Director:

In Television: The 1st AD works WITH the Director, FOR the Producer

In Features: The 1st AD works FOR the Director, WITH the Producer

This article is from Filmmakers.com.

“A good director makes sure that all parts of a film are creatively produced and brought together in a single totality. A director interprets the script, coaches the performers, works together with the montagist, etc., interrelating them all to create a work of art. According to Film Scholar Eric Sherman, the director begins with a vague idea of the entire film and uses this to help him determine what is to be done. He gains most when others are given their freedom to show what they know.” Read article.

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