Q: Talk about your directors this year. Agnieszka Holland was an unexpected, pleasant surprise. Do the
directors call all the shots? [R.G., Jeffrey Bufano]A: Agnieszka directed last year as well. Nina Noble was able to bring her into the stable, having worked with her on HBO's Gary Gilmore movie, Shot In The Heart. She is wonderful behind the camera and last year, she can be credited with the staging of that amazing fight between Avon and Stringer after Bell reveals his role in D'Angelo's murder.
Where to begin with the others? Ernest Dickerson has become our work horse. He knows this show almost as well as the producers at this point and he delivers each time. Joe Chappelle gave us a masterful first episode, and another one to boot, which is why he is our directoral producer. Dan Attias did great work synthesizing the election night script with so many other plot-lines, which was not an easy thing.
Anthony Hemingway -- one of our 1st Assistant Directors going back to The Corner -- finally sat in the director's chair and proved what we knew already: That it was time. He is now out in Hollywood with more work than he can handle.
So too Seith Mann, a Spike Lee scholarship winner who Bob Colesberry wanted to give a season three episode. Bob died before that could happen, and we were struggling to get our bearings in season three in the wake of Bob's death. We therefore felt that we couldn't yet risk a first-time director on an episode. But after Seith came to set to watch Ernest direct two episodes in season three, and after he showed such careful interest in the process and the show itself, we had to give him the shot. His episode, number three, is beautifully covered.
Christine Moore began as our script supervisor, and this year marked her second episode as director with us. She, too, knows the show and how it is supposed to look and move and sound. Herc's discovery of the mayoral blowjob read only half as funny on the page. Brad Anderson came back to us after having directed the great penultimate episode of season one, in which Kima Greggs was shot. Check out how Brad handled Lester's discovery of the different nails and his certitude regarding Lex's tomb. So smartly blocked and filmed.
Alex Zakrzewski was back for a second time with us, but he goes all the way back to Homicide for me, where he was the D.P. on that show. The dinner scene with Colvin and the kids is wonderfully done in his episode. David Platt had an especially deft touch, with the kids in particular; his episode ended with the boys' journey to see the dead body in the vacant. Oh yeah, last and certainly not least, Jim McKay -- whose masterful, ordinary-life movies for HBO - Everyday People and Angel Rodriquez -- make him perfect for The Wire and its accumulated-drama-in-small-moments. We hope we can get him back between his film projects.
We were well served from the director's chair this year. And to a man -- and woman -- each of them fell in love with our young actors, who were delivering so much story without affect. Directing those young men was a lot of fun; there was consensus on that.
Role-wise, the director is in charge of the crew on the set and responsible for filming the episode, in consultation, of course, with the Director of Photography, Russell Fine, who executes the camera movements and provides continuity for the show as a whole. There is a producer on the set to provide story context to the director and to monitor the progress of filming, as the producers have budgetary responsibility, as well as responsibility for the work as a whole. Under union rules, the director has the final say on set, but in healthy practice, episodic directors understand that the producers' intentions reflect the goals of the drama as a whole and are therefore given weight. The final cut of all episodes resides with the executive producers.
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