DGA Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Scott Berger will become the 20th recipient of the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, which will be presented at the DGA Awards ceremony later this month. The Schaffner Award is given to an Associate Director or Stage Manager in recognition of their service to the industry and DGA.
Asked why Berger was nominated for one of the Guild's highest honors, Eastern Associate Director/Stage Manager/Production Associate (AD/SM/PA) Council Chair Dennis W. Mazzocco responded, "Scott is one of the smartest people I have ever worked with. He is a tireless and selfless defender of the rights and interests of those who work often diligently and quietly, albeit behind-the-scenes in the DGA's AD/SM/PA category. He is never afraid to speak up - logically and passionately - for those who feel that they have no voice."
Currently in his eighth term on the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council, Berger was twice elected as Council Chair. In 2003, his Guild involvement went national when he was elected Assistant Secretary-Treasurer to work alongside Gil Cates who serves as Secretary-Treasurer. He finds that fact remarkable. "To have my name fourth from the top on the Guild's letterhead... I look at it and I still can't believe it," said Berger. "It's an amazing honor and one of the things in my life that I'm definitely most proud of."
In addition to his service as Assistant Secretary-Treasurer and AD/SM/PA Council member, he is also a member of the DGA Reality Television Committee. But for Berger, some of his most rewarding work is as a trustee to the DGA Pension & Health Plans. "Being a trustee has allowed me to help members on a whole other, more long term level. It's also shown me another side, outside of negotiations, to Management. It's great to see all of the trustees - both Guild and Management - working together, to do what's best for the Plans."
In his 'day job' Berger presently works as an Associate Director on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. He credits much of his success to knowledge he picked up from working with DGA director-member Eric Shapiro, whom he cites as "probably the best television director I've ever worked with" and earlier lessons gleaned from veteran Guild members who served as his early mentors, like directors Ormand West and David Dewey. "They were amazing men who taught me quite a lot. Orm would always say, 'It's teamwork that gets the job done,' and I always remembered that." Working alongside top-notch directors on national broadcasts and serving in such a high capacity in his guild is a career the Brooklyn native finds amazing when he considers that originally he thought he'd be a doctor. But after spending two years as a pre-med major at NYU, Berger found himself drawn into the world of mass communications after landing a job as a page at CBS. "I left my 'career' in medicine and took a television production class and that's all it took to convince me to change my life."
As a page Berger got a ground view of a major television network. Then he took the advice of a friend and got a job as a desk assistant at WCBS News. "I spent about three months pulling wire copy and answering the phones and realized I really wanted to be in production. So when a freelance Production Assistant job opened up, I pursued it and that's how I got into the DGA."
His next step forward came when Berger volunteered to work as a Stage Manager one holiday season, and ended up with a permanent position. Stage Managing paved the way for a move into network broadcasts where in addition to news, he worked on all kinds of sporting events including major league baseball, professional and NCAA football and basketball, the Stanley Cup hockey finals and the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, which he has worked on for 17 years.
One memorable moment from his years Stage Managing the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather came when Rather was giving Cuban dictator Fidel Castro a tour in 1995. "Castro was in town to speak at the United Nations and Dan invited him down to the set. When Castro entered the studio with his entourage, Dan introduced me to him as 'the dictator of the set.' He must have said it four or five times while I was yelling for photographers to get back and for cameras to get into position. Castro looked at me and said 'he has a voice like Napoleon.'"
With so much going on in his career, it's amazing that Berger found the time to dedicate so much of himself to his Guild. He reveals that 2005 Schaffner Award recipient Stanley Faer was the catalyst of his Guild service.
"The only reason I'm involved in the DGA at all is because of Stanley. I was still a PA and Stanley invited me to come to an AD/SM/PA Council meeting and he nominated me to be a council alternate at that very first meeting! When a seat on the council opened up, I got elected and I've been involved ever since."
Berger notes that one of reasons he remained involved was due to his own personality. "Having somebody else determine my future never sat well with me, so to be involved, even in a small way, meant that I could perhaps influence the direction of my future. I knew that CBS was not the entire television universe so it was really interesting for me to hear what was going on at the other networks and the other local stations and to get to know the people who were working there. I knew it would be a good thing, professionally speaking, for me to form relationships and bond with the other people in the New York television world, and who knows, maybe I could help somebody else along the way. The fact that my name is out there and available to somebody who I could possibly help, makes me feel terrific and I'm really happy to do it. I'm a kid from Brooklyn. My dad was a taxicab driver and my mom was a teacher's aide, so I really feel lucky that I am able to do what I'm doing. Through working with the Guild, I get to meet and know people like Gil Cates, John Rich and Gene Reynolds, people whose names I've seen in credits and had already respected. Like Ed Sherin, I love him! He's just a wonderful human being. Larry Auerbach is another unbelievable person and not to leave out our esteemed National Executive Director, Jay Roth. For me to get to know these guys and be in the same room working with them really gives me much more than I could ever give back."
He is also humbled to be the latest recipient of the Franklin Schaffner Achievement Award. "It means a lot to be recognized by my AD/SM peers. I don't know how to describe the feeling. I'm not 50 years old yet and I almost feel that after getting this award, I should be retiring [laughs]."
Though Berger doesn't consider himself a grand old man of the Guild, he does have some advice to new AD/SM/PA members. "If you want to sit back and have others decide what's right for you, then do that. But if you want to have some voice in your own destiny, then come and get involved."
Past Recipients of the Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award.
- 2008 - Barbara Roche
- 2007 - Terry Benson
- 2006 - Donald E. Jacob
- 2005 - Stanley Faer
- 2004 - Peery Forbis
- 2003 - Esperanza "Candy" Martinez
- 2002 - Anita Cooper-Avrick
- 2001 - Robert Van Ry
- 2000 - Scott L. Rindenow
- 1999 - Robert Caminiti
- 1998 - C.J. Rapp-Pittman
- 1997 - Joseph L. Dicso
- 1996 - Don Lewis Barnhart
- 1995 - Larry Carl
- 1994 - James E. Wall
- 1993 - James "Woody" Woodworth
- 1992 - Marilyn Jacobs-Furey
- 1991 - Chester O'Brien, Mortimer O'Brien
