Master Class: Designing and Blocking a Scene with Lesli Linka Glatter (HOMELAND)
About this Master Class
Master Classes are in-depth, interactive learning experiences focused on craft and career building and led by renowned industry experts. Topics include fiction and documentary filmmaking, TV writing and production, and navigating and succeeding in the entertainment industry.
Learn how to bring a scene from script to screen with your unique vision—the essence of film and television directing. In this three-hour Master Class, DGA Award-winning and Emmy-nominated director and producer Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Mad Men) shares her approach to creative decision-making and reveals the process of blocking and designing complex, cinematic scenes for some of television’s most beloved shows.
Resources:
Download the list of resources from Lesli Linka Glatter
Topics covered include:
00:00 - Welcome and Introduction from Sundance Collab
04:40 - Welcome from Lesli
05:30 - Paths to Directing
14:45 - The Importance of Story
20:00 - How to Prepare for a New Project
30:00 - Prep for Pre-Production: Collaboration with the Writer, Cast, and Crew
44:45 - Pre-Production: Creating the Visual Language of the Story
01:01 - Location Scouting
01:17 - Creating Anxiety with Camerawork
01:20 - Live Reading of Homeland Sequence
01:37 - Breakdown of Shot Lists and Storyboards from Homeland
01:45 - Clip: Commentary on Scene From Homeland
02:13 - Live Reading of Mad Men Sequence
02:28 - Clip: Commentary on Scene From Mad Men
02:33 - Q&A
Master ClassTeam
Lesli Linka Glatter
Advisor
Lesli Linka Glatter is a director of film, network, and premium cable television drama, with both pilots and episodes to her credit. Lesli’s TV work includes HOMELAND, THE NEWSROOM, THE WALKING DEAD, JUSTIFIED, RAY DONOVAN, MASTERS OF SEX, TRUE BLOOD, MAD MEN, THE LEFTOVERS, THE GOOD WIFE, THE WEST WING, NYPD BLUE, ER, FREAKS AND GEEKS AND TWIN PEAKS. Lesli has also directed numerous pilots including GILMORE GIRLS, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS and SIX. Her films include NOW AND THEN, THE PROPOSITION and for HBO, STATE OF EMERGENCY.
Lesli is currently the Executive Producer/Director of the award winning series HOMELAND. She began her directing career through the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, in which her film TALES OF MEETING AND PARTING was nominated for an Oscar. Lesli has received 7 Emmy nominations, 7 Directors Guild Award nominations, winning twice for MAD MEN and HOMELAND, as well as a Humanitus Award nomination for HBO’s STATE OF EMERGENCY. Lesli is currently developing projects for Netflix, Amazon, Showtime, Epix and her next project is THE BANKERS WIFE , an 8 part mini series for Amazon.
Lesli serves as the 1st Vice President of the Directors Guild of America, is on the DGA’s Western Directors Council, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Directors Branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is also an advisor at the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Lab. Lesli has been committed to mentoring for many years and most recently help develop the successful NBC program, Female Forward. Lesli has received the Caucus Foundation Award, the Dorothy Arzner Directing Award from Women in Film and the Franklin Schaffner Award from the American Film Institute and most recently, an Honorary Degree from the American Film Institute.
Prior to her work as a director, Lesli was a modern dance choreographer who worked throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S.