Directors Guild of America

DGA

Full name	Directors Guild of America
Founded	1936 (1936)
Members	14,500 (2011)
Country	United States
Key people	Taylor Hackford, President Steven Soderbergh, Vice President Michael Apted, Secretary-Treasurer Jay D. Roth, National Executive Director
Office location	7920 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website	www.dga.org

Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merged with the Radio and Television Directors Guild in 1960 to become the modern Directors Guild of America.

Overview

As a union that seeks to organize an individual profession, rather than multiple professions across an industry, the DGA is a craft union. It represents directors and members of the directorial team (assistant directors, unit production managers, stage managers, associate directors, production associates, technical coordinators, and location managers (New York & Chicago only)) in film, television, documentaries, news, sports, commercials and new media production.

The Guild has various training programs whereby successful applicants are placed in various productions and can gain experience working in the film or television industry.

As of 2011, its 75th anniversary, the guild had about 14,500 members. The DGA headquarters are located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, with satellite offices in New York and Chicago and coordinating committees in San Francisco, Chicago and London.

Labor Agreements

The agreements signed between the Guild and film and television production companies make various stipulations covering pay and working conditions for Guild members, and require that all those employed in the relevant fields on a film made by that company are Guild members. Guild members are generally prevented from working for companies that have not signed an agreement with the DGA. This sometimes leads production companies which have no such agreement to form new companies, purely for the purpose of making a particular film, which do then sign an agreement with the DGA.^{[citation needed]}

Other than wages and basic working condition the DGA has a particular role in protecting the creative rights of the film director. Such protections that the guild provides include defining the director's role, guarding the key concept of "one director to a picture" and the right to prepare a director's cut or edit. Generally each of these protections is to help offset the power that producers can have over a director during the filmmaking process.

DGA Awards

The DGA hosts the annual DGA Awards, an important precursor to the Academy Awards. In its 64-year history, the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has been a near perfect barometer for the Best Director Academy Award. Only six times since the DGA Award's inception has the DGA Award winner not won the corresponding Academy Award.

One Director to a Picture

The rule that a film can only have one single director was adopted to preserve the continuity of a director's vision and to avoid producers and actors lobbying for a director's credit, or studios hiring multiple directors for a single film or television episode.

The rule is waived only for recognized directorial teams (as determined by the DGA) who have a history of working together and sharing a common vision, such as The Wachowskis, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Hughes brothers, Brothers Strause, and the Coen brothers. The Coens for years divided credit, with Ethan taking producing credit, Joel taking directing credit, and both of them sharing the writing credit (even though the two of them shared all three duties between themselves) until The Ladykillers. For instance, the DGA would not recognize Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller as a directorial "team" for Sin City because they had never worked together before, which resulted in Rodriguez quitting the DGA so that Miller would receive director's credit.

Not all Hollywood directors are DGA members. Notable directors such as George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez have refused membership or resigned from the guild over specific differences, while Quentin Tarantino recently became a DGA member. Those who are not members of the guild are unable to direct for the larger movie studios, which are signatories to the guild's agreements that all directors must be guild members.

Presidents of the Screen Directors Guild and the DGA

Directors Guild of America building on Sunset Boulevard.

1936–1938 King Vidor 1939–1941 Frank Capra 1941–1943 George Stevens 1943–1944 Mark Sandrich 1944–1946 John Cromwell 1948–1950 George Marshall 1950–1951 Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1951–1959 George Sidney 1960–1961 Frank Capra 1961–1967 George Sidney 1967–1971 Delbert Mann

1971–1975 Robert Wise 1975–1979 Robert Aldrich 1979–1981 George Schaefer 1981–1983 Jud Taylor 1983–1987 Gilbert Cates 1987–1989 Franklin J. Schaffner 1993–1997 Gene Reynolds 1997–2002 Jack Shea 2002–2003 Martha Coolidge 2003–2009 Michael Apted 2009–present Taylor Hackford

See also

• Alan Smithee
• Directors Guild of America Award
• Runaway production
• Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

External links

• Official DGA website