DeMane Davis, directing an episode of ABC’s Station 19.
Rick Rowell/ABC via Getty Images
On this week’s episode of Working, Rumaan Alam spoke with DeMane Davis about her work directing and producing movies and episodic television. They discussed what’s really involved in being a director, how Davis pivoted from being an advertising copywriter to making movies, and getting hired for her first TV job. Davis made her first movie, Black & White & Red All Over, in 1997, and has worked in television, on shows like Queen Sugar, Self Made, and How to Get Away With Murder, since 2017. This partial transcript of their conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Rumaan Alam: People hear that word director, and they think of somebody having meetings at the Chateau Marmont and collecting massive paychecks. I wonder if there’s a gap between the public’s perception of what’s bound up in that word and what it’s like to actually be a working director.
DeMane Davis: Being a director is a lot of work, and the Chateau Marmont stuff is about one-64th of what happens, if that. Being a director is about taking a look at the script and coming up with a visual theme that I can add on as a layer—finding the writer’s intent and executing it through my director of photography and the line producer. I’m visually keeping hold of the story, making sure that it fits in with episodes that have come before it, if I’m working in episodic, and then working very closely with cast and crew to get what’s down on the page and translate it.
It’s a lot of meetings. It’s a lot of having answers to questions. It gives you the opportunity to always come to a situation knowing what you want. Because everything works so quickly on a television set, more than a film set even, you’ve got to be like, “No, this is what I want.” Or, “We’re not going to be able to get that. All right, let’s pivot. I only need this. I just need that. How am I going to tell this story?”
Do you always know what you want, or are you leaning on a team of people to tell you, “We think this dress is better,” or, “This is what’s going to work”? What’s that give and take?
For me, the best idea wins. I come into a situation being, like, “This is what I want, this is what I see for this character, or this situation, or this shot, or this scene.” But because I’m not a person who knows how to work the camera, I’m not a key grip, who sets everything up, makes everything move. I’m not a gaffer, who does lights. I’m not a dolly grip, who pushes the camera on a track so that it moves to get a tracking shot. I don’t know how to do all those things, and I wouldn’t be able to do all those things—those are different union jobs.
But I’m always open to other people’s ideas. And I find that that you get everyone’s best work when everybody’s engaged. I think being on a film or TV set is very similar to how I view being in the world. I think people want to be seen and heard. And when they’re seen and heard, they come at everything very differently. They’re suddenly comfortable. They understand that you acknowledge the hard work that they’re doing, and they’re more inspired and more apt to take a real part in it and give their best. That’s what I’m trying to do at any given moment, so that everyone feels engaged, and we all get to the next step together and feel good about it.
To listen to the full episode of Working, click the player below or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
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May 04, 2020 at 09:03PM
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DeMane Davis on directing episodic television. - Slate
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