Peter Weir
Starting out in an Aussie industry that barely existed, Peter Weir has traveled the world looking for the revelatory moment and deeper truth. In films like Master and Commander and Dead Poets Society, he found people who—like himself—never play it safe.
Safety on the Set
The problem of long hours and worker safety is perhaps as old as the industry. Despite greater awareness, education, and various cautionary measures, it remains a complex, hard to solve issue.
Setting Precedents
When Josef von Sternberg's 1931 film
An American Tragedy departed from Theodore Dreiser's novel, the author sued to protect his work. Dreiser lost, and the precedent-setting case established the right of studios and filmmakers to pursue their own vision.
Andy Fickman
The director of
Race to Witch Mountain and
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical wonders what makes a director a director. Maybe it's the chair.
Sanaa Hamri
Sanaa Hamri was the only girl in her high school in Morocco. But becoming a director seemed perfectly natural to her.
Beetle Juice
Geena Davis battles Alec Baldwin in Tim Burton's
Beetle Juice.
Josh McLaglen
Movies were the family business, and as 1st AD Josh McLaglen has tamed some wild sets. But his greatest feat may have been helping to advance the art of performance capture on
Avatar.
Zack Snyder
John Boorman presented a vision of heroism and bloodletting in Excalibur that captivated a young Zack Snyder. The director of 300 and Watchmen explains how it influenced his own mythical moviemaking.
The Graduate
In
The Graduate, Mike Nichols captured not only the delicate mental state of his anti-hero, but the despair of the nation’s youth. The director looks back at how he shot one of the film’s most iconic, dreamlike sequences.
Creating 3D Television
Manufacturers are marketing 3D TV sets in hopes that content will follow. In the meantime, directors are learning the ropes with sports and live concerts.
Directing True Blood
How do you incinerate a vampire at sunrise, and twist a head 180 degrees? These and more otherworldly challenges are met head on by directors on the gothic TV series
True Blood.