Since its inception in 2017, DGA’s First-Time Episodic Director Orientation Program, has welcomed nearly 850 Directors into the world of TV directing. Several times a year, the Guild offers the one-day orientation sessions where highly experienced television Directors share their hard-earned wisdom with First-Time Episodic Directors on the role, responsibilities and obligations of Directors, standards of the craft, their creative rights, and the Guild’s resources that are available to them.
The program was born during the 2017 Basic Agreement negotiations, where the Guild successfully bargained to create a new requirement where anyone hired to direct an episode, who did not have prior television or feature film directing experience, would need to complete the DGA’s Course. The program was conceived as both a way to improve diversity with a long-standing goal to diversify the pipeline of incoming talent and create a support system for all new Directors who were preparing for their first episode. It was also a pledge to the studios – be bold in providing more chances to aspiring first-time Directors and the DGA would do its part to aid in their success. The curriculum for the course was built after multiple meetings were held in early 2017 with 19 experienced, award-winning Directors.
“Our intention is to outline a comprehensive set of requirements that you will need to succeed in this endeavor, so we’ve put together a list of the best practices of the best Directors working today,” said DGA Secretary-Treasurer/Past President Paris Barclay, who led the first class on July 15, 2017 with 10 First-Time Episodic Directors instructed by himself and Directors Tom Verica and Michael Spiller.
Since the launch of the program in 2017, there have been 58 sessions with 47 different experienced Directors volunteering to teach the class including current DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter, Past President Thomas Schlamme, Past National Vice President Vincent Misiano, Past Fifth Vice President Bethany Rooney; and multiple award-winning Directors including Daniel Attias, Mary Lou Belli, Stacey K. Black, Tessa Blake,Mark Cendrowski, Nelson McCormick, Edward Ornelas, Michael Slovis and Andy Wolk. When the COVID-19 Pandemic curtailed live sessions, the training moved to an online forum with participants taking the course from locations all around the globe including the UK, Australia, Israel and Pakistan. Many of the participants had previously directed commercials, short films or other formats to work on their craft prior to landing their first episode and getting their break into television.
