It is with some first night jitters but great pride that I welcome you to the premiere issue of the DGA Quarterly, our new craft journal. It’s an ambitious undertaking that grew out of a need to enhance the way we were communicating with our members about their work, the work of the Guild and issues in the industry. We realized we were asking our former magazine, published bi-monthly, to do too much heavy lifting. It was carrying all the current Guild news and events while, at the same time, trying to cover the creative side of our jobs. So, a year ago we started up the successful DGA Monthly to deliver timely and complete news and information about our business. Now we introduce the Quarterly to stimulate and engage our hearts and minds. To nurse the magazine to life we brought in the experienced and very talented James Greenberg as editor-in-chief. He has written extensively about directors and their work and is sensitive to the challenges we face. 

All of us, I think, in whatever part of the directing team we serve, have a fair idea of how a film gets put together–be it features, television, documentaries or commercials. But do we have a clue as to what makes a piece of film or tape stay in the mind and captivate an audience, while other work just disappears into the ether? We learn our craft, know our business, work our tails off, yet we can never be sure that the sweat and blood will give us the results that we aim for. The DNA of successful work is unfathomable: is it skill, luck, timing, witchcraft or a bit of everything? With modern technology we can generate epics that our predecessors could only dream of, yet a modest independent film, made for a fraction of the cost, will come along on a wing and a prayer and blow its big brothers out of the water. It’s both wondrous and unsettling. William Goldman famously wrote about Hollywood that “no one knows anything,” so the best thing we can do is stay curious and keep asking questions.

It’s my hope that this magazine will not only entertain, but also pose those questions and suggest answers while shining a light on some of the mysteries of filmmaking. In these pages, colleagues will talk about their jobs–how they do them and how they came to do them. They will give us insights and share their experience. We’ll hear from members of every branch of the directing team–veterans, newcomers, the outspoken, the unsung. You’ll see in-depth articles and arresting images that reflect the range of your interests. And ideally, we’ll all find something here to encourage and inspire us to make our own work just that much richer. That’s our goal and why we’ve undertaken this challenge.  

I hope you enjoy the first step in this ongoing adventure.  

Best,

Michael Apted
President, Directors Guild of America