November 3, 2021

Dan Attias, Emmy-nominated director and author of Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age

Dan Attias has directed dozens of episodes of critically acclaimed television shows such as The Wire, The Sopranos, Homeland, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Americans, Billions, and many more. His years of experience led him to write the book, Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age. The book is not only for those who want to direct, but also for fans who want to know how these shows are made.

In college, Dan studied acting and had to make a short film as part of his film studies. He found he enjoyed being behind the camera as a director, and continued to study film with an eye to directing. Dan started working on several big movies as an assistant director, such as E.T., One From the Heart, Airplane! and Twilight Zone: The Movie. His first directing job was on Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, a werewolf horror movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

Dan finds the best way to approach directing a television show is to get invested in the story by finding what interests you in the script. In series television, directors often don’t even get the script until a few days before they’re going to direct it. If the show already exists, Dan likes to immerse himself in the show, watching several episodes and asking the production to send over past scripts. Directing one episode of a long-running show is like writing just one chapter of a novel- it needs to fit in seamlessly to the entire story, while still feeling compelling and propelling the story forward. A director of episodic TV has to balance making it their story while still executing the showrunner’s vision and honoring the intention of the writers. Dan also likes to explore every scene of the episode he’s directing with the writers during a tone meeting. He often asks, what is the story being told? The story isn’t simply what happens, but the meaning that you give to what happens- where you’re directing the audience’s focus. Make sure you keep asking yourself, how does it make me feel? The director must be able to dig down with the actors and come up with an interesting subtext to the story if the scene needs a boost.

Find Dan Attias: www.danattias.com

Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age is available on Amazon.

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Great Television! Follow us on Instagram @thecinepod and comment on our post for this episode!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep146/

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The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
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By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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December 23, 2020

Bruce Van Dusen, director of over a thousand TV commercials, three films and a documentary, on his career and new book, 60 Stories about 30 Seconds

Director Bruce Van Dusen has had a long career making commercials, which is extremely rare. He’s discovered that making a good commercial is finding a balance between art and commerce, and the end product must be exactly what the client wants while getting the viewer to pay attention. Working in commercials doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in people- unlike a movie or TV show, there’s even less time and more pressure on a commercial shoot. The crew must gel instantly, work quickly and create a spot that’s going to be usable at the end of the day. A commercial director is in the unique position of not necessarily being completely in charge on set. The client is always present and is able to tell the director exactly what they want, even without any authority or experience. The director has to listen even if it seems stupid, or they get blamed for a bad result.

Straight out of film school, Bruce first wanted to make serious documentaries. He greatly admired Frederick Wiseman’s films, and Frederick happened to be listed in the phone book, so Bruce called him up. Frederick gave him a piece of advice- you’ll spend a lot of your time trying to raise money for your film rather than making the documentary. This set Bruce down a completely different path, and he decided he would do anything to get a job working in movies. He started working as a production assistant, and saw how much money some of the big names in the movie business made making commercials on the side. At age 23, he quickly found some local clients, started his own business in New York and established himself as the king of low-budget commercials by undercutting all the other directors’ rates.

Over time, Bruce became an established name, doing bigger and longer commercials, and he was able to find a niche in longer-format emotional commercial “stories” dealing with actors. Once he created a rapport working with the same clients, there was more trust, more art, and more confidence in his work. He finally made a documentary, The Surge: The Whole Story, and directed three films, including Cold Feet, a small 1983 indie that made it to the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, besides writing a book about his experiences, Bruce made a spot for The Lincoln Project.

Find Bruce Van Dusen: https://www.brucevandusen.com/
Instagram: @brucevandusen1

IT’S A GIVEAWAY! Enter to win Bruce Van Dusen’s book, 60 Stories about 30 Seconds: How I Got Away with Becoming a Pretty Big Commercial Director Without Losing My Soul (or Maybe Just Part of It). Like and comment on our Bruce Van Dusen post on Facebook and we’ll choose a winner from the comments. https://www.facebook.com/cinepod

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/ep105/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Website: www.camnoir.com
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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