As it celebrates its fortieth anniversary, the ADTP continues its mission of recruiting applicants from across the United States and providing them with education, training and paid experience in professional settings. The West Coast program typically accepts 15-20 trainees while the East Coast program accepts 8-10. Trainees undergo 400 days of on the job work experience on actual film and television projects. A rotation system places trainees on the sets of various features and television series under the supervision of DGA Second Assistant Directors, First Assistant Directors and Unit Production Managers until graduation. Trainees also attend a number of mandatory seminars on various aspects of the industry.
“For the past 40 years, the Directors Guild-Producers Assistant Director Training Plan has provided men and women of diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to become successful Assistant Directors in film and television,” said DGA President Michael Apted. “The positive impact of the program on the DGA and the industry as a whole cannot be overstated. Many of our most active DGA National Board, Council and Committee members are graduates of the plan and have served the Guild with distinction. And plan graduates represent some of the hardest-working, most in-demand Assistant Directors and UPMs in the business demonstrating the value of the program to the industry. My congratulations to the Training Plan and its leadership for serving the filmmaking community with dedication and excellence for the past 40 years.”
“The ADTP is successful because of the combination of intense mentoring and the hands-on nature of the training,” said DGA National Executive Director Jay D. Roth. “Few programs offer the kind of guidance and real-world experience that the Training Plan provides. In addition, the ADTP has made a significant impact on the industry regarding the diversity of the director's team by striving to have a diverse pool of trainees in each class and providing opportunities to many women and minorities that otherwise may have found it difficult to break into the industry. Many of these individuals have had highly successful careers and have been able to mentor other women and minorities, helping the industry achieve a more diverse workforce.”
The ADTP’s Board of Trustees would also like to offer their sincere gratitude to every cast and crew member who has trained and mentored Assistant Director Trainees, to all who will work with them in the future, and to everyone who has participated in and supported the Training Plan’s work during the past 40 years. Some of these people who have come back to donate their time and talents to the program that gave them their launch include several of the recipients of the DGA’s Frank Capra Achievement Award, the highest honor the Guild can bestow upon an Assistant Director or Unit Production Manager.
2000 Capra Award recipient Cheryl Downey (ADTP Class of 1973) once commented that her proudest achievement was her work with the program that started her career. “Of all the Guild boards and committees I'm involved with, the nearest and dearest to my heart is the Training Program. Without the Training Program I think the diversity in this industry would be sorely lacking. More than half of all women and minorities listed on the Southern California Qualifications List came in through the Training Program.”
2005 Capra Recipient Herb Adelman, who graduated from the ADTP in 1977, served as a trustee of the program for ten years. “I'll always be grateful to the Guild and the Training Program for reaching across the country and providing me a unique opportunity and a wonderful career I wouldn't have had otherwise," said Adelman. "I get great satisfaction seeing all the new trainees passing through my shows ... It kind of gives me a glimpse back twenty-seven years."
And 2006 Capra recipient Jerry Ziesmer (ADTP Class of 1967), recalled, “Without the ADTP, I would have just been an unemployed actor and a teacher. I never would have been able to get into the motion picture industry without the program. I owe everything to the DGA and the ADTP.”
