On August 19, more than 200 DGA members came onboard to learn more about the special working relationship that exists between Directors and their strong right hand when the Special Projects Committee presented the online event, Dynamic Duos: The Collaborative Process of Directors and 1st ADs.
In a lively conversation moderated by Director Anthony Hemingway, Director Jon M. Chu and 1st AD Joseph Reidy from In the Heights, Director Lesli Linka Glatter and 1st AD Sunday Stevens from Homeland and Director Eric Dean Seaton and 1st AD Tara Nicole Tjahjadi from Family Reunion engaged in an entertaining and informative foray into this collaborative process and revealed what makes this team vital to success on both sides.
“As someone who has worked in both of these important roles, I was honored to be asked to moderate today’s conversation,” said Hemingway in his welcome to the participants and audience. “After starting my career as a 2nd AD and working my way up to becoming a 1st on movies like Changing Lanes and Juwanna Mann, and series like Oz and The Wire, I feel a kinship to my fellow brothers and sisters in the Guild, especially the 1st ADs on the panel today.”
Chu revealed how Reidy played a vital role in completing a huge musical number in one day on In the Heights. “We did this number called Carnaval Del Barrio. It’s over 8 minutes of screen time. We did that in one day. When we built this day, everyone was like ‘Oh, we’re never making this, but we can never come back to this location. What are we gonna do?’ Joe really helped train me saying, ‘If you’re gonna get it, it needs to happen live.’ So, we had to give the room for the choreographer and the dancers to have rehearsals both in a studio space, but also in the space itself, so that we weren’t spending half the day re-choreographing things to get to staging. Joe was really the architect of making sure that happened.”
Reidy recalled his excitement to not only work on his first musical, but to do so in collaboration with Chu. “This was a great opportunity to work with Jon, to do a musical. I had never done one before. But to do the things that I like, such as working on the streets. And because it was a movie about the Latino culture, it was something that was really special and motivated us all the time.”
Glatter spoke about how her diligent preparations for a shoot with Stevens allows them to take advantage of happy accidents. “Sunday and I just work like a matched set. She’s an incredibly hard worker. I’m a big preparer. We talk all the time and she has great ideas. We’re constantly brainstorming, so, when we get on a set, we know what we’re doing together and therefore, when something magical happens, we can allow for those opportunities of things you could have never planned alone in a room. So, it’s being prepared, but being open to life.”
Stevens shared how the process of achieving the Director’s vision differs in features vs. episodic television. “Directors will come onto your show and you, as the 1st AD, are the holder of the information that they don’t know… On a feature, you’re prepping with a Director and it’s so much of this one vision versus this 13 or 12 or seven-episode vision between multiple Directors. The biggest difference is trying to find a balance and achieve the vision of that Director and help them along within the guidelines of that story.”
As someone who has worked on both sides of the collaboration, Seaton recalled how he worked his way through the ranks into his first directorial job. “I got great advice from my Dad. He said, ‘The fastest road is the road less traveled.’ I would always target shows that were the lowest-ranking show on the network. The problem with that road is that once you get to a certain point, a lot of those shows get canceled. Many times, I had been offered a chance to direct, but the shows kept getting canceled and I was like, ‘What doesn’t get canceled? Kids programming.’ And Disney Channel was starting That’s So Raven, which was their first sitcom.”
Tjahjadi shared how she helps Seaton navigate the complexity of working on a multi-cam series. “Family Reunion has three sets and one scene will take place in each one of those so we’re shooting everything on swing sets. Eric has to block and do everything when the set isn’t ready yet and things are taped out and we’re using a folding table for a couch. Our set dresser would pull stuff out of nowhere to make the sets happen so that Eric could rehearse this scene and we would sometimes go into shooting without having seen the set yet. You have to have that [rehearsal] time, but in a five-day shoot on multi-cam with 50 pages, it was like we were shooting two episodes a week on that show.”
See video from this event in the gallery below.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
 Director Jon M. Chu
In addition to his recently helmed adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights, Chu is perhaps best known for directing the worldwide phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians. His other directorial credits include the feature films Step Up 2: The Streets, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Jem and the Holograms and Now You See Me 2; the feature documentaries Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and We the Economy: 20 Short Films You Can’t Afford to Miss; and episodes of the television series The LXD: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. He is currently planning to direct the feature film adaptation of the record-breaking musical sensation, Wicked. As a film student in 2002, Chu was recognized by the DGA’s Student Film Awards for his short film Gwai Lo: The Little Foreigner. He has been a DGA member since 2007. |
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 1st AD Joseph P. Reidy
A graduate of the DGA’s Assistant Director Training Program, Reidy has worked as a Second AD and First AD on well over 70 feature films and television projects including DGA Award-winning features such as Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed; and DGA Award-nominated features such as Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie, Robert Redford’s Quiz Show, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Oliver Stone’s JFK and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York and The Aviator. A DGA member since 1979, Reidy serves as the First Vice Chair of the Eastern AD/UPM Council, as the Co-Chair of the Eastern First AD Committee, is a member of the DGA Return to Work Committee and serves on the Board of Trustees of the New York DGA Assistant Director Training Program. |
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 Director Lesli Linka Glatter
Glatter is a Director of film, network and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Glatter’s television work includes The Morning Show, Homeland, The Newsroom, The Walking Dead, Justified, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex, True Blood, Mad Men, The Leftovers, The Good Wife, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, ER, Freaks and Geeks and Twin Peaks. Glatter has also directed numerous pilots including Gilmore Girls, Pretty Little Liars and Six. Her films include Now and Then, The Proposition and State of Emergency, which earned her a Humanitas nomination. She is currently attached to direct the feature adaptation of Ashley’s War. Glatter has been a Producing Director for the last 20 years, and most recently, was the Executive Producer/Director of the award-winning series Homeland. She began her directing career through the AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, in which her film Tales of Meeting and Parting was nominated for an Oscar. She has been nominated for eight DGA Awards, most recently winning her third for directing the Homeland series finale. A DGA member since 1985, Glatter currently serves as the First Vice-President of the Guild, is on the DGA Western Directors Council and serves on the Executive Committee of the Directors Branch of AMPAS. She is also an advisor at the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Lab. She has been committed to mentoring for many years and helped develop the NBC program, Female Forward. Glatter has received the Caucus Foundation Award, the Dorothy Arzner Directing Award from Women in Film and the Franklin Schaffner Award from AFI, as well as an Honorary Degree from the Institute. |
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 1st AD Sunday Stevens
Stevens has nearly two decades of production experience. Starting as a Production Assistant on movies like Oliver Stone’s Nixon and Robert Zemeckis’ Contact, she worked her way up the ranks to become an Assistant Director. In addition to her 1st AD/Producer work on Homeland, Stevens’ AD credits also include feature films such as Miguel Arteta’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes, Andy Fickman’s The Game Plan, Chris Columbus’s Rent, Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown and Ben Affleck’s DGA Award-winner, Argo; as well as episodes of Law & Order: True Crime, True Blood and Dexter. She has been a DGA member since 1999. |
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 Director Eric Dean Seaton
Using his cinematic eye, strong sense of story and an infectious passionate energy, Seaton bounces from drama to comedy, as well as single to multi-camera. In the drama world, Seaton’s directorial credits include episodes of Superman and Lois, Batwoman, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Legacies and Greenleaf. In single camera comedies, Seaton has directed Modern Family, Black-ish, The Goldbergs, American Housewife, Life in Pieces, Grown-ish, Champaign ILL and The Mick. In the multi-camera world, he has helmed pilots including Family Reunion, The Prince of Peoria, Raven’s Home, Mighty Med and Kickin’ It. Additional multi-camera episodic work includes Mad About You, Indebted and Marlon. He also directed in the variety genre with the sketch shows All That and So Random. Seaton is also the creator, writer and publisher of the critically acclaimed graphic novel series, Legend of the Mantamaji, and director of the award-winning Legend of the Mantamaji live action short. He has been a DGA member since 1996. |
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 1st AD Tara Nicole Tjahjadi
A graduate of the DGA Assistant Director Training Program, Tjahjadi has worked on DGA Award-nominated projects such as Clint Eastwood's American Sniper and the series, Just Add Magic. Her resume includes single camera projects such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Unicorn, Rizzoli & Isles and New Girl; multi-camera projects such as No Good Nick, Family Reunion and the iCarly reboot. Tjahjadi has been a DGA member since 2014 and serves on its Western AD/UPM Council. In her free time, she gives back to the Training Program by mentoring new trainees and speaking at seminars. |
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 Director Anthony Hemingway (moderator)
Since making the jump from Assistant Directing to Director, Hemingway’s directorial credits also include the features Red Tails and Sir Lady Java; the movies for television Murder, New York Undercover and The Infamous; and episodes of National Parks, Genius: Aretha, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., Major Crimes, Shameless, The Newsroom, Treme, True Blood, CSI: NY, The Closer, ER and The Wire. He was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special category for his 2016 American Crime Story episode, “American Crime Story: Manna from Heaven.” Hemingway has been a DGA member since 1995 and currently serves as an alternate on the National Board. He is also a member of the DGA Diversity Task Force and has served as an alternate on the Eastern AD/UPM Council and the Television Creative Rights Committee. |
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About The Special Projects Committee
Special Projects is the educational and cultural arm of the Directors Guild of America, providing its members opportunities for creative exchange to advance their craft and celebrate the achievements of directors and their teams.