Directors Close Up 2: Interviews with Directors Nominated for Best Film by the Directors Guild of America: 2006 - 2012

by Jeremy Kagan (Editor)

Since 1992, the Directors Guild of America has hosted an annual symposium featuring its nominees for outstanding feature film directing. From the first, film and television director Jeremy Kagan has moderated these sessions in which the finest contemporary directors weigh in on every aspect of the filmmaking process. In Directors Close Up, Second Edition, Kagan culled the most insightful and entertaining responses from sessions conducted between 1992 and 2005. In Directors Close Up 2, an all-new sequel, Kagan shines his spotlight on nominees from the 2006-2012 seminars as they discuss their work on some of the most brilliant films of the last several years. From script development through pre-production to production and post-production, the directors offer personal insights into every step of the creative process. They also reveal their candid takes on the best and worst aspects of their profession. Featuring materials from their productions-including storyboards, script notes, sketches, and on-set photos-Directors Close Up 2 will be of interest to both professional and aspiring directors, as well as film fans who will enjoy this inside look into making movies. The interviewed nominees featured in this volume: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire James Cameron, Avatar George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men Bill Condon, Dreamgirls Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine Lee Daniels, Precious David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stephen Frears, The Queen Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton Paul Haggis, Crash Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Tom Hooper, The King's Speech Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain Bennett Miller, Capote Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight and Inception Alexander Payne, The Descendants Jason Reitman, Up in the Air David O. Russell, The Fighter Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Martin Scorsese, The Departed and Hugo Steven Spielberg, Munich Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds Gus Van Sant, Milk

559 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 16, 2012

About the author

Jeremy Kagan is an internationally recognized director/writer/producer of feature films and television and a tenured professor. Some of his feature credits include the box-office hits HEROES, the political thriller THE BIG FIX, THE CHOSEN (2 time Grand Prize winner),and THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN (Gold Prize Moscow Film Festival). Among his many television shows are KATHERINE: the Making of an American Revolutionary and HBO’s CONSPIRACY: THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 8 (ACE Award for Best Dramatic Special). His film ROSWELL,THE UFO CONSPIRACY garnered a Golden Globe nomination and he directed the pilot for the hit series DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN. Other television films include, for Showtime COLOR OF JUSTICE about racism and BOBBIE’S GIRL about a lesbian couple and CROWN HEIGHTS about the 1991 riots which won the Humanitas Award for “affirming the dignity of every person.” Kagan has won an EMMY for Dramatic Series Directing and directed “West Wing” and Spielberg’s ”Taken.” He has made films for The Doe Fund which is the most successful program in America helping the homeless and for The Bioneers which organizes leaders in ecology and social justice, and TreePeople. Professor Kagan teaches graduate courses at USC in directing and has created the Change Making Media Lab which has made projects on cancer prevention, obesity and ADHD. Kagan has served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute and is on the National Board of the Directors Guild and Chairperson of its Special Projects. His books DIRECTORS CLOSE UP, Vol. 1 & 2, are published by Scarecrow Press. A Graduate Fellow of the American Film Institute, he has an M.F.A. from NYU and a B.A. from Harvard University. He has taught master seminars on filmmaking in Hong Kong, Hamburg, Hanoi, France, Lebanon, Israel, Ireland and India.

Web references:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Kagan
cmml.usc.edu
parshas.weebly.com
www.imdb.com/name/nm0434571
cinema.usc.edu/faculty/kagan-jeremy.htm