So you started your career doing these great little indie films. You know, the ones that "mean something." Not a big audience necessarily, but they found one. They were your show, your vision, and they're something you'll never forget.
Then comes the chance to direct television. So you ask yourself: Does working in episodic television mean I'll have to give up being a creative filmmaker? Won't it be more restrictive? Will I be stuck in television, never to bring my own stories to life again?
DGA Magazine asked these questions to four directors, ranging from newcomer to seasoned veteran, who make the jump back and forth from indie to episodic. They come from a variety of backgrounds.
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Director Bobby Roth.
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Bobby Roth's 25-plus-year career began with a break from friend Michael Mann, who, in 1984, was starting up a new series in Florida called Miami Vice and wanted to give his buddy a chance. "For the first eight years of my career, I did these little independent movies, where I just thought you could just write a script, raise the money and then direct the film," says Roth. "I didn't realize it was so hard." He went on to work another series for Mann, Crime Story, and others, such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Profiler and more recently, The Division.
But the director quickly found a niche — making movies for television. Over the years, he has worked with such stars as Kim Delaney, Melissa Gilbert, Jean Simmons, Robert Blake, Rosanna Arquette and Craig T. Nelson in a variety of TV dramas, including Ride With the Wind, Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge, Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Secret Affair, and the upcoming Crossed Over for CBS, starring Diane Keaton and Jennifer Jason Leigh. His indie film, Jack the Dog, premiered in January 2000 at the Sundance Film Festival.
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Duane Clark on the set of The Practice. (Photo: Michael Mann).
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Duane Clark (The Practice, Boston Public, Dark Angel) got his start in episodic directing the syndicated Highlander series in the early '90s. Clark took the proceeds from that job and made his own features, 1993's Bitter Harvest with Stephen Baldwin and Patsy Kensit, and Soulmates in 1997. It was the latter that caught the eye of The Practice producer Bob Breech, who put him to work.
Keith Gordon began his career in a different way — acting. At the age of 16, he was working alongside Roy Scheider in Jaws 2, a year later portraying a young Scheider in All That Jazz. A self-described "film geek" who used to file film clips in New York's Museum of Modern Art, Gordon followed directors John Carpenter (Christine) and Brian De Palma (Dressed to Kill) after the da''s work watching dailies and into the cutting room. Always drawn to the unusual, he made his first indie feature in 1985, Static, about a desert loner who has a television which can tune in to Heaven. The acting career slowly fell by the wayside, as more projects followed, such as the 1991 WWII drama, A Midnight Clear, with Ethan Hawke and Gary Sinise.
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Keith Gordon (left) directing Billy Crudup on the set of Waking the Dead. (Photo: Takashi Seida/©2000 USA Films).
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But Gordon found the indie process time consuming, spending more time raising capital than directing ("I really am a professional fund raiser who directs as a hobby," he says). So when the opportunity came to direct alongside Katherine Bigelow and Peter Hewitt for Oliver Stone's quirky miniseries, Wild Palms in 1993, he decided to give television a try. "I thought, 'Television is getting better and movies are getting worse, so maybe I should stop being a snob and make some money and have some fun.'" He went on to direct episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, Gideon's Crossing, and, most recently, Night Visions, throwing in the favorite pet project feature (Mother Night with Nick Nolte and Alan Arkin, and Waking the Dead with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly) in between.
Newcomer Jamie Babbit weathered through a few short films and five episodes of MTV's Undressed (which she describes as a "shock porno soap opera") before making her first indie feature, But I'm a Cheerleader, in 1999. But after NYPD Blue show runner Michael M. Robin saw her 1998 short, Sleeping Beauties, she got her first shot at episodic television, directing an episode of Popular. She's since moved on to Warner Bros.' Gilmore Girls and Fox's Malcolm in the Middle.
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Director Jamie Babbit
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So what was the move from independent film to television like? "It was hard for me," says Roth. "I'd been used to running my own picture. Over the years, I've gotten better at it." And that seems to be the main hurdle for a director to get over — adjusting to an often pre-established way of working. "In film, you're the head honcho," says Babbit, "and in television, you're not." In the film world, the director is in charge; in episodic television, there is a whole different chain of command.
"In independent film, the creative buck stops with the director. You call all the creative shots," says Duane Clark. In episodic television however, he adds, "As a director, you're providing a small piece of a larger pie." The director must feel comfortable working in a more collaborative atmosphere, he says, with those overseeing a much larger picture. "If you're looking to be an autonomous, standing-on-your-pedestal auteur, I humbly advise you to stay away from episodic television."
"It's like being an artist and painting," says Keith Gordon. "Sometimes you might paint just from your heart, and sometimes you paint on commission."
Unlike with an independent feature, where the director can choose his or her own crew and own look, the episodic director walks into an established setting with, often, a very strict visual template. The show's style is established, as are the characters, the color schemes and the crew. The director is often shooting on existing standing sets with pre-fixed lighting and with a DP who may have already filmed 36 episodes of the show and knows what the producers expect. "It's up and running, and they're looking for you to bring your talent to it, but within the confines of what's already been established," says Clark.
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TIPS - Keith Gordon: It's important when you come into a TV series for the first time to find out what the politics of that show are. There may be a lot of agendas going on that, as the director, it's in your best interest to find out. Go to your AD and producers and say, "Listen, what should I know? Who needs to leave? Who's got problems with whom? Who's cranky? Who hates having their close-up done first? Who likes having their close-up done first?" Try to get the lay of the land. |
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Maintaining the visual style of a series is as important to the producer as individuality is to the indie director — and it's important for the series director not to confuse the two, as Keith Gordon discovered on one episode of Homicide. "They had very strict rules, such as that the camera always had to be hand held." The main character was "stuck" in the story. "He wasn't moving, nothing's moving, so I said, 'Well, maybe the camera shouldn't be moving either. Let's just put it on sticks and shoot it still.'" Gordon shot the scene that way, only to be surprised with phone calls the next day advising of a reshoot. "It was my first lesson — when there are rules that they've already established, you can only screw with them so much. You have to be respectful of that stuff."
On the other hand, coming into a series at its inception allows the director to help shape the show's visual style, something that can be rewarding to a feature director. Bobby Roth directed two early episodes of Crime Story in 1984. "I knew that I was getting to help set the tone, so that was exciting."
Script changes, unfortunately, are something of a no-no, which can be frustrating for the indie director in television, as Roth notes. "I've never directed a TV movie from my own script." And television scripts can, sometimes, leave something to be desired for the director. "I think a lot of it is because the people who write them don't think very cinematically," he adds. "So I look at it as my job to try to make what isn't visual as visual as possible."
Does the episodic director have less creative control and less input than on his indie films? That depends on the series, says Duane Clark. "Something like Dark Angel, you have a pretty tremendous degree of autonomy, stylistically, as opposed to The Practice, for example, where the directorial exercise is not one of style, but of micro-nuance of performance."
TV actors often portray characters with surprising depth, says Clark, often due to the length of time the actors have to get to know and develop their characters. But that's not to say TV actors don't ever get into a rut. "TV actors sometimes have a habit of doing it 'really good,' having one way that they're going to do it that they've thought out ahead of time," says Keith Gordon. "And there isn't as much freedom to just try something new." Rehearsal time, imperative for feature work, is almost nonexistent, actors often finishing one episode the day before starting the next the following day. Gordon makes up for the lack of rehearsal time by making actors feel comfortable on the set, enough to try something new on occasion. "With TV actors, it takes a little bit more push," says Gordon. "Yeah, we got one like that — now let's just do one different," he reminds them.
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TIPS - Neil LaBute: The one thing you can't afford with a short schedule and very little money is not being prepared. Your time is free, and I don't mean just storyboarding — I'm talking about considering every possible angle for stretching the dollars you have before you spend them. The sound of that camera rolling is like a money counter in Las Vegas. It's like dollars pouring through a change-sifter. So for me, pre-production is the key to any kind of success. |
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The director certainly has less input during post-production, particularly in editing. "When you do an independent movie, the movie you end up with is usually your cut," says Gordon. In episodic, "it's gonna go through the producer's hands, then the network's hands, and then the studio's hands."
"You just shoot it to shoot it," says Bobby Roth. It took him six months to cut his Jack the Dog, but was given only three days to cut an episode of The Division.
So, how can the director leave his "stamp" on a series episode? One way, says Roth, is to plan one's shots and limit the number provided to the editor. "I like to make it pretty clear how to edit the show," he says.
And what of budget and scheduling constraints imposed by television? Are they the same or different than those of independent productions? While some series have a tighter budget than indie films, many, particularly established series, may have greater financial resources.
Babbit says that while the pace is similar to the indie film, the expanded budgets can be a blessing. "You actually have a union crew and great equipment, like cranes and jib arms, so you're able to play technically with and learn about different kinds of equipment."
But the director has to plan thoughtfully when and where to use those resources, says Clark. "Somebody once said to me, 'In episodic television, you have six bullets, and you just have to decide when to shoot them.'"
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TIPS - Ernest Dickerson: I always had an idea how tough it is out there and how tough it is to get a project made, but it seems like it's tougher now than it was when I came in. I always thought that once you had a couple of successful films that it's easy to get your dream projects made but I'm finding out that's not the case. |
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Schedule-wise, the indie director is perfectly suited for the job, says Babbit. "When [Popular show runner] Michael Robin asked me if I could shoot 50 pages in eight days, if that was going to be a problem for me, I thought, '50 pages in eight days? No way, that's fine!'"
"Episodic is a fairly lucrative world," Clark says. "If you manage your costs effectively, you can cover your nut with a modicum of episodic work, and leave time open for yourself to pursue your labors of love."
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