On November 10, First Assistant Directors from the Eastern region joined members of the Eastern AD/UPM Council’s 1st AD Committee for their annual brunch and discussion. Held in the boardroom of the Guild’s New York offices, this year’s event, Working Together: 1st ADs and the Below-the Line Team, was a two-part forum that presented members of this category with information on how to bring a team together to achieve the director’s vision, share their experiences and to hear from prominent UPMs.
The first half of the forum was the panel discussion, The AD/UPM Relationship, where Producer/UPMs Jeff Bernstein (Daredevil), Tyson Bidner (The Americans) and G. Mac. Brown (Billions) explored how ADs and UPMs can help each other in a conversation moderated by 1st AD Committee member Tony Phillippe (Jessica Jones).
In the second half of the forum, the assembled ADs broke into smaller groups to explore the topic of the 1st AD’s staffing issues and covered all aspects of finding, hiring and setting up a staff for features, television and commercials.
ABOUT THE COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE:
The Eastern AD/UPM Council is the elected body that represents the nearly 1,700 Assistant Director and Unit Production Manager members of the Guild who reside and/or work in film, television, commercials and new media the East and Midwest regions. The Council’s First Assistant Director Committee is co-chaired by Louis Guerra, Karen Kane and Joseph Reidy. The Committee members are Tim Bird, Neil Daly, Charlie Foster, Jude Gorjanc, Mike Hausman, Michelle Regina Iacobelli, Shelly Keiser, John Lowe, Amy Lynn, Colin MacLellan, Patrick Mangan, Mark McGann, Howard McMaster, Jono Oliver, Rich Patrick, Tony Phillippe, Michael Steele, Rebecca Strickland, Chris Surgent, Chris Swartout and Shelly Ziegler.