John Badham On Directing - 2nd edition. John Badham

Parks has been working on the TV series Supernatural as first assistant director from the beginning—he is one of the few who have been there for all fourteen seasons. Episodes he directed in seasons eight and nine are among the show’s top-rated episodes.

      Donald Petrie began his career as an actor, then segued into directing and followed in the footsteps of his father, director Daniel Petrie. He helmed the hit comedies Grumpy Old Men, Miss Congeniality, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. His TV directing work includes episodes of Chicago P.D., The Kominsky Method, and Chicago Med. He is on the National Board of the Directors Guild of America.

      Sydney Pollack took up directing on the advice of legendary actor Burt Lancaster. His prolific career as producer and director includes Tootsie, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Firm, and Oscars for both directing and producing Out of Africa.

      Brett Ratner began directing music videos for hip hop, rap, and pop artists before segueing into directing feature films with Money Talks. Next came the smash hit Rush Hour series, X-Men: The Last Stand, Red Dragon, and Tower Heist. He most recently directed Hercules and executive produced The Lego Ninjago Movie.

      John Rich directed and produced some of the most well-known and beloved shows in television, including The Jeffersons, Maude, Benson,and Barney Miller. He won three Emmy Awards for The Dick Van Dyke Show and All in the Family. A longtime vice president of the Directors Guild of America, he was a major force in forging creative rights for television directors.

      Mark Rydell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for On Golden Pond. Other films of his include The Reivers, The Cowboys, The Rose, and The Fox. He received an Emmy nomination for his direction of James Dean.

      Daniel Sackheim is a producer and director known for House, True Detective, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Americans, and The Glass House.

      Thomas Schlamme, President of the Directors Guild of America, is a producer and director known for The West Wing, Sports Night, Snowfall, Manhattan, and Tracey Takes On….

      Arthur Allan Seidelman is a director and actor known for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, and The Sisters. He has also directed several documentaries, including Buff Enough and Where Muscles Were Born.

      Martin Sheen is a Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor best remembered for his haunting performance in Apocalypse Now and his seven-year run as President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing. He is the father of actors Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen.

      Brad Silberling made his feature debut with 1995’s Casper after getting started directing in television. He went on to direct City of Angels with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage, Moonlight Mile with Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman, and 10 Items or Less with Morgan Freeman. His recent TV work includes Charmed, Things to Do in Seattle When You’re Dead, Dynasty, and Jane the Virgin.

      Steven Soderbergh burst onto the filmmaking scene with the indie sensation Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989. In the years since, he has successfully moved between huge studio films like the Ocean’s Eleven series and Erin Brockovich and small budget projects like Magic Mike, Bubble, and Schizopolis. He is national vice president of the Directors Guild of America.

      Oliver Stone is an innovative writer and director of films that examine the darker side of society, past and present. He is best known as the co-writer/director of JFK, Nixon, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, and, most recently, Savages.

      Romeo Tirone is an American cinematographer and television director. Best known for his Emmy-nominated work on the television series Dexter, he recently worked on the Amazon reboot of The Tick, as well as the TV adaptations of Taken and Constantine, and is currently in postproduction on Paradise Lost.

      Jeanne Tripplehorn became prominent starring opposite Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct. She continued to impress as a strong screen talent in Waterworld, The Firm, and Brother’s Keeper. She appears in fifty-three episodes of Big Love, as well as Criminal Minds and the forthcoming Mrs. America.

      David S. Ward is the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Sting, as well as the director of the beloved baseball film Major League and its sequel. In addition to his writing and directing work, he is a professor at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University, in Orange, California.

      James Woods is one of the most acclaimed character actors of our day, appearing on stage, screen, and TV and working with some of the top directors in Hollywood, such as Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Sergio Leone, Oliver Stone, and Robert Zemeckis. He starred in Badham’s The Hard Way alongside Michael J. Fox.

      Michael Zinberg is a DGA Award–winning director of such classic TV series as The Bob Newhart Show, The Good Wife, L.A. Law, Quantum Leap, The Practice, Everybody Loves Raymond, Gilmore Girls, and Lost. He is a longtime member of the Western Directors Council of the Directors Guild of America.

      Using This Second Edition

      Directing is part art, part craft. Like architects and writers, the practitioners of two other classic hybrids, directors are proud of their work and glad to share their knowledge with those eager to learn. The part of the hybrid we call “art” falls into that inchoate ability known as talent: virtually impossible to teach, difficult to describe, and unmistakable when observed.

      The “craft” part is easier, although there’s always more to learn. When writing I’ll Be in My Trailer, my book with Craig Modderno on how to effectively work with actors and elicit their best performances, I talked to many skilled and talented directors and actors who shared their personal insights, tips, and stories on the complicated and challenging relationship between actors and directors. In that way, I am still as much of an apprentice as a craftsman. The art will be left to others to assay.

      Steven Soderbergh: I imagine you’d agree that we can teach the practical stuff about directing. If we could inject people with the soul of an artist, then we’d all be Stanley Kubrick. That’s a personal thing — whether they have a point of view that’s interesting and specific or not, you can’t inject somebody with that. They grew up with it. You know? But you can teach them the craft, and it’s a fun craft to teach and to learn.

      In the time since that book came out, many more talented directors and actors have contributed their additions and responses to the ideas expressed in the first book. A wonderful addition to this second edition of On Directing is a “cybernetic colloquium” of sorts, or group discussion about many of the finer points of working with actors. Some of our best directors of actors have generously allowed their thoughts via email, texts, and interviews to be compiled in this way and placed in conversation with their peers.

      PART ONE of this book deals more specifically with the issue of trust (or lack thereof) between actor and director. It looks at solutions and techniques for overcoming this nasty problem. In particular, it addresses some of the real differences between directing film and directing episodic television. Though most of the basic techniques of directing film and television are the same, there is a substantial difference in protocol between the two as far as a director is concerned.

      PART TWO deals with techniques I’ve learned by directing stories with elements of action and suspense in them (every type of film can contain both action and suspense) using examples from my films Blue Thunder, WarGames, and Nick of Time. This section asks: What are the elements that make a successful