The Director’s Idea is a book that comes out of my teaching experience with production students at New York University and with professional producers and editors at the Maurits Binger Institute in Amsterdam. In earlier books I had examined the storytelling tools of the screenwriter as well as of the editor. Now students and professionals have pushed for an articulation of the storytelling tools of the director.
Needless to say, a book such as The Director’s Idea needs and gets a lot of help from many quarters. At Focal Press I’d like to thank Elinor Actipis, the acquiring editor as well as Becky Golden-Harrell and Paul Gottehrer who each in their own way have helped move the book to completion. I’d like to thank my friend Maura Nolan who helped me prepare the proposal and Dave Wapner who helped in the preparation of the manuscript.
Above all I’d like to say that my wife Ida was immensely helpful in the manuscript preparation and as a constant on-site editor of my work. She proved tireless and invaluable.
I’d like to thank all the external reviewers, but would like to especially single out Warren Bass of Temple University. His review made this a better book. I appreciate his intelligence, acuity, and passion. I only wish I have made the book as good as his road map proved to be for me.
Finally this is a book about directing for directors and talented individuals who want to become directors. Although its shortcomings are my own, I hope the book has succeeded in conveying a passion for directing that for me has never dimmed. I wish as much for the readers of this book.
Ken Dancyger
New York
January 2006