Director Sean McNamara’s biopic, Soul on Fire, tells the incredible true story of John O’Leary, who after barely surviving burns covering 100% of his body during a tragic accident as a young boy, goes on to becomes a motivational speaker who inspires millions of people to make the world a better place.

On November 8, following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, McNamara discussed the making of the film in a conversation moderated by Director Dean Alioto (The Last Podcast).

During the discussion, McNamara spoke about his pre-production process.

“I have the same process every time. At some point, myself, the DP, and the AD, we go out to every location and do a shot sheet. We’re basically figuring out, shot-per-shot, how we’re going to do it so there’s no surprises.  Then every night before we shoot, I type up that shot sheet, so we have it for that day and the crew kind of knows what we’re doing. And then I rehearse the actors. I’m a big fan of having a table read and then at least two or three days of rehearsal. Every scene I go through with the actors because when I know we’re going to have to move quickly I don’t want to have that many discussions on set. I want to have them all beforehand. So, we really dig deep like theater. We turn the page. We talk about it.”

McNamara’s other directorial credits include the feature films Reagan, The Miracle Season, Soul Surfer, Cody the Robosapien, Bratz and Race to Space; the movies for television Just in Time for Christmas, The Suite Life Movie and The Trial of Old Drum; the pilots for the series Shadrach, Ties That Bind and Phil of the Future; and episodes of the series Chesapeake Shores, Zeke and Luther, Dance Revolution, That’s So Raven and The Secret World of Alex Mack. McNamara is a four-time DGA Award nominee in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs category for The Cutting Edge: Going for the Gold (2006), The Even Stevens Movie (2003), and the Even Stevens episodes “Very Scary Story” (2001) and “Easy Way” (2000). He has been a DGA member since 2000.