Dan Attias, Director/Author: The fundamental
director question for me is how does this make me feel.
Film Courage: Can you be a tv director if you don't love story?
Dan: I don't think you can be much of a director if you don't love story because I think that's
what the director is is a storyteller. I guess people do get into it for different motivations.
I mean it's a glamour position people the culture really lifts up people in the entertainment
business but I don't think there are too many successful directors who don't come at it with
some sort of driving passion to tell stories and in my case to understand myself more. It's like I
feel in finding my connection to stories what moves me about them what I want to see happen
I'm really exploring myself I'm really having to look within to find out not what I'd like
how I'd like to be but how I am because I'm using myself always as the barometer I mean
the fundamental director question for me is how does this make me feel that's something I
realized in kind of deconstructing my process when I started mentoring young directors
and speaking at festivals which led ultimately to me writing this book which I'll mention again
and your suggestion directing great television inside tv's new golden age and you just wrote
that sorry to interrupt but 2020 just an hour ago I just know that I wrote yeah I took advantage
of the pandemic because I had to suspend my directing career and I had started the book
several months before but during the pandemic I really just devoted myself full time to it
but it's really the fundamental question is how does this make me feel in in a variety of
circumstances like when I'm reading a story I'm trying to find out when I'm reading a script for
the first time I'm trying to see how it how it affects me and what what detail or what
storyline or what what grabs me or what nags at me or what bothers me I'm trying because all of
those things are pointers to something within me that has been evoked and often it's things that
it's most exciting for me when it leads to self-discovery it's not like I think if you
do something the way it's done but none before it's just kind of lifeless and what I'm always
trying to find in any story and in any scene is the sense of life some life happening which is
the first time it's the illusion of first time but I think when you get great actors or you create
a world it's it grabs the audience when you feel like it's really happening so when I'm
watching a scene for example in rehearsal it's like I'm watching it I'll have ideas about what
it's about of course but I like to see what the actors are going to bring independent of what I
think it's about at first I'm constantly asking how how am I involved am I I monitor myself as
I'm watching oh that was exciting or oh I'm not very interested and it's like that's what cues me
to where work is needed or opens me it's like if an actor does something that startles me and I see
something in a whole new way that's very exciting and I want to then go into that and explore that
why did that move me so much and why and how what other elements in the story maybe I missed
oh and there's other resonance and oh my god that came into focus how that that stewart that moment
three scenes later was affected by that and so so that's all we really have is ourselves so
if you don't have I mean I'm very grateful that I'm grateful for the opportunity to direct
not just because it's a great job and it's so exhilarating to work with talented people and to
and to find exhilaration and the feeling of life it also has taught me so much because often the
things I want to see happen are things that lead me to to better understand why that is and it
leads me to ultimately to knowing myself a little bit better you mentioned glamour
previously what would you say to those who want to do this for the money or the fame or power
recognition far be it for me to judge anybody for those motives I mean we all I think if we're
truthful I think if most people are truthful we're all motivated by many many things and it's it's
it's far beyond my powers than in this culture to be immune to any of those considerations of course
I want to be well thought of and given status and all those things the thing is those can't be
the most important thing I think it's important if you become purist and think I can't have any
of those motives you're lying to yourself and you're going to be cut off part of my own you know
what I think is so important about having frankly a mindfulness practice which I do
I've had a meditation practice for many years but I think that that being mindful involves accepting
welcoming everything that arises within you and not trying to
fix yourself or change yourself or make yourself conform to something but
but in this job in directing you can't lead with that you can't lead with your ego you
can't lead with your desire for to be loved or or or adulated or anything else you have to
how I think of it is the master we must serve is story is not our ego it's story that's what to me
keeps me on focus those other things are there but I would hope and I I would hope that if
my desire to tell the best story conflict somehow with chia but I really wanted to do that great
360 degree angle that would be so impressive and people would think of me like I'm Scorsese
but wait a minute the scene isn't about a dizzying effect it's about this I would hope I always
hope I'm going to choose a serving story which is also my theory I have a chapter about the
language of camera which for so many people is is a real challenge coming into directing that
if you have a literary background or or a story background you might not
be conversant with how images work and how they work on people and all that and what has been my
salvation there as my teacher there is again asking how does this make me feel and what
subjective state do I want to create in the viewer to best prepare them to experience the story
if it's a magnificent beauty shot because I want a romantic feeling I'll do that if
I want to contextualize a scene between two characters that they are small in comparison
to this environment I might do a magnificent put them small in the frame and see a beautiful vista
shot but if it's really more about what's this dynamic between these characters my master may
only just be edge to edge with two characters in it but it's what again what story are you telling
did you start your meditation practice before directing or the other way around
well let's see I started no I would say in earnest I started it after I started I've been doing this
for decades so it's a long time and I think we arrive at what we need as we go through life at
different times and often in my experience has been that it's taken me often several decades to
get to a place of having any kind of wisdom about anything at all so I think being able to just
settle down and detach from who I take myself who I took myself to be who I continue to take myself
to be and understand that that's a structure that's a construct that whoever I really am
is independent of of any structure and that's that's really one of the things I love about
directing is it it really requires me to be as present as possible and to be as present
as possible I find is to be willing to relinquish our ideas about ourselves how we're perceived how
we perceive ourselves you have to just let go of that and be open to what's right in front of you
and how did it help with the composites of shots or or just the intuition about a scene because
you've been quieting your mind now for several years oh my mind is not quite oh it's not quite I
gotta say it's called a prac a meditation practice is called a practice because that's what it takes
I mean it's like and I want to say I write this in the chapter on interstates it's like
far be it for me to say I've never gone through a whole episode at all being
completely in my center and no it's like no there's stressors all the time it's just that
you need it's so helpful to have the ability at some point to just kind of get in touch with the
still center within to just kind of sink down and just what's really important what's really here
and it's like sometimes it's all you need a moment but I'm my god I'm as as stressed and
and emotional and get get hijacked by stuff all the time but the practice just enables
me to be a little more mindful to catch myself a little more often and when I'm directing I
have the great advantage of having a story I have to serve so I don't feel I feel a
responsibility and an obligation to get present and to put all that other stuff out of the way.