On February 5, DGA 1st AD members gathered in the Guild’s Los Angeles Boardroom for a breakfast and discussion event hosted by the AD/UPM Council West’s 1st AD Committee. The breakfast was designed to provide information necessary to stay competitive in today’s workplace. The title of this year’s event was Staying in Focus, and featured an exploration of topics such as “Setting Background,” and “DP: Friend or Foe?”

Following a breakfast/social mixer, 1st AD Committee Co-Chairs Mark Hansson and Alan Curtiss welcomed the attendees and introduced the co-hosts for the breakout discussion groups: David Bernstein, Anthony D’ Esposito, Pam Kuri, Larry Lerner, Drew Ann Rosenberg, Tracey Smith-Baumert, Chris Stoia, Babu Subramaniam, and David Ticotin. During the introductions, each of the co-hosts stated their primary work genre with a couple of recent credits and then gave a short example of a 1st AD staffing issue they’d encountered and how it was resolved.

The attendees were invited to sign up for the discussion groups that followed in several rooms of the DGA headquarters building. Each group then attempted to have a dialogue on the subjects of the day. Afterward, the groups reassembled in the Boardroom to report the results of their discussions, then opened the room to a wider discussion on what had transpired as well as questions on other topics.

The 1st AD Committee plans to meet in the spring to create a set of suggestions and recommendations generated by the discussions, and then post them on the DGA website.