My usual 'Directing the Actor' prof is Austin Pendleton. He's off in Chicago working on a play, so as his replacement we've got Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis! She is absolutely a screen legend, and did incredible work in some of my favourite movies (including this year's Away from Her). The good news is that Olympia is a fantastic teacher. I feel that I've learned a lot from her, and we all benefit from the small class. She gives such great insight into working with actors, and how to get interesting performances every time. She'll be with us for another couple of weeks.
Today I also had lunch with Brett Morgen, who graduated from Grad Film at NYU back in the 90's. He's pretty much the example of how the program should work. His thesis film (On the Ropes) was made on a shoestring and utilized the equipment and crew of NYU, but it made a huge splash getting nominated for an Academy Award. From that he's been able to write/direct/produce so many projects, mostly documentaries that challenge the form, and also tons of commercials. Incredibly intelligent, he told so many stories about the industry, how he got to where he is and how he intends to stay there.
All in all, a pretty interesting couple of days.
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