Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment labor union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 which represents the interests of film

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and television

Television director

A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...

 directors in the United States motion picture industry. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group became the DGA in 1960.

Overview

As a union that seeks to organize an individual profession, rather than multiple professions across an industry, the DGA is a craft union

Craft unionism

Craft unionism refers to organizing a union in a manner that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in by class or skill level...

. It represents directors, assistant directors, stage managers, and production associates in television, and directors, assistant directors, unit production managers, technical coordinators, and location managers (New York & Chicago only) in film as well as similar positions in television commercials production.

The Guild has various training programs whereby successful applicants are placed in various productions and can gain experience working in the film or television industry.

, the guild had about 14,500 members. The DGA headquarters are located on Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...

 in Hollywood, with satellite offices in New York and Chicago,

Labor Agreements and Controversies

The agreements signed between the Guild and film production companies make various stipulations covering pay and working conditions for Guild members, and require that all those employed in the relevant fields on a film made by that company are Guild members. Guild members are generally prevented from working for companies that have not signed an agreement with the DGA. This sometimes leads production companies which have no such agreement to form new companies, purely for the purpose of making a particular film, which do then sign an agreement with the DGA.

Not all Hollywood directors are DGA members. Notable directors such as George Lucas

George Lucas

George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

, Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...

, and Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez

Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...

 have refused membership or resigned from the guild over specific differences. Those who Aren't members of the guild are unable to direct for the larger movie studios, which are signatories to the guild's agreements that all directors must be guild members.

Other than wages and basic working condition the DGA has a particular role in protecting the creative rights of the film director. Such protections that the guild provides include defining the director's role, guarding the key concept of "one director to a picture" and the right to prepare a director's cut or edit. Generally each of these protections is to help offset the power that producers can have over a director during the filmmaking process. The Guild is also notable for having blocked the attempts of non-DGA members from participating in directing various projects, notably stopping Quentin Tarantino from directing an episode of the The X-Files

The X-Files

The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

entitled "Never Again

Never Again (The X-Files)

"Never Again" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of the television series The X-Files.-Plot:In Philadelphia, Ed Jerse loses a divorce settlement to his ex-wife, who has sole custody of his child. After getting drunk at a local bar, Ed wanders into a tattoo parlor and impulsively...

".

The rule that a film can only have one single director, adopted to avoid producers and actors lobbying for a director's credit, is strongly defended by the DGA and is only waived for recognized directorial teams (as determined by the DGA) such as The Wachowskis, Hughes brothers

Hughes Brothers

Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes , known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors, producers and screenwriters...

, Brothers Strause

Brothers Strause

Brothers Greg and Colin Strause are a directing duo, most famous for directing Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and Skyline, and special effects artists who make movies and grew up in Waukegan, Illinois...

, and the Coen brothers

Coen Brothers

Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...

. The Coens for years divided credit, with Ethan taking producing credit, Joel taking directing credit, and both of them sharing the writing credit (even though the two of them shared all three duties between themselves) until The Ladykillers

The Ladykillers (2004 film)

The Ladykillers is a 2004 dark comedy film directed, written and produced by the Coen brothers and stars Tom Hanks, with a supporting cast that includes J. K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst and Irma P. Hall...

. For instance, the DGA would not recognize Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez

Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...

 and Frank Miller

Frank Miller (comics)

Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...

 as a directorial "team" for Sin City

Sin City (film)

Sin City, also known as Frank Miller's Sin City, is a 2005 crime thriller film written, produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez...

, which resulted in Rodriguez quitting the DGA so that Miller would receive director's credit.

Presidents of the Screen Directors Guild and the DGA

1936–1938 King Vidor King Vidor King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades... 1939–1941 Frank Capra Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s... 1941–1943 George Stevens George Stevens George Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best... 1943–1944 Mark Sandrich Mark Sandrich Mark Sandrich was a Jewish American film director, writer and producer.Sandrich was an engineering student at Columbia University when he began in the film business by accident. While visiting a friend on a film set, he saw that the director had a problem in setting up a shot; Sandrich offered... 1944–1946 John Cromwell John Cromwell (director) Elwood Dager Cromwell , known as John Cromwell, was an American film actor, director and producer.-Biography:... 1948–1950 George Marshall George Marshall (director) George E. Marshall was an American actor, screenwriter, producer, film and television director, active through the first six decades of movie history.... 1950–1951 Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J... 1951–1959 George Sidney George Sidney George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:... 1960–1961 Frank Capra Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s... 1961–1967 George Sidney George Sidney George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:... 1967–1971 Delbert Mann Delbert Mann Delbert Martin Mann, Jr. was an American television and film director. He won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty...

1971–1975 Robert Wise Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise was an American sound effects editor, film editor, film producer and director... 1975–1979 Robert Aldrich Robert Aldrich Robert Aldrich was an American film director, writer and producer, notable for such films as Kiss Me Deadly , The Big Knife , What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte , The Flight of the Phoenix , The Dirty Dozen , and The Longest Yard .-Biography:Robert... 1979–1981 George Schaefer George Schaefer (director) George Louis Schaefer was a director of television and Broadway theatre from the 1950s to the 1990s.-Life and career:... 1981–1983 Jud Taylor Jud Taylor Judson Taylor was an American actor, television director and television producer. He sometimes used the pseudonym Alan Smithee.... 1983–1987 Gilbert Cates Gilbert Cates Gilbert “Gil” Cates was an Award winning American film director and television producer, director of the Geffen Playhouse, and founding dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television... 1987–1989 Franklin J. Schaffner 1993–1997 Gene Reynolds Gene Reynolds Gene Reynolds is a former American actor turned award-winning television writer, director, and producer.-Early life:He was born Eugene Reynolds Blumenthal on April 4, 1923 to Frank Eugene Blumenthal and Maude Evelyn Blumenthal in Cleveland, Ohio, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan, where his... 1997–2002 Jack Shea Jack Shea (director) Jack Shea is an American film and television director. He was the president of the Directors Guild of America from 1997 to 2002.-External links:*... 2002–2003 Martha Coolidge Martha Coolidge Martha Coolidge is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. -Career:Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ms. Coolidge first made her reputation by directing many award winning documentaries in New York before moving out to Hollywood in 1976. She spent several... 2003–2009 Michael Apted Michael Apted Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected... 2009–present Taylor Hackford Taylor Hackford Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director, and the current president of the Directors Guild of America.-Early life:Hackford was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Mary , a waitress, and Joseph Hackford...

See also

• Alan Smithee
  Alan Smithee
  Alan Smithee was an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project, coined in 1968. Until its use was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America when a director dissatisfied with the final product proved to...
  
  
• Directors Guild of America Awards
  Directors Guild of America Awards
  The Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D.W. Griffith....
  
  
• Runaway production
  Runaway production
  Runaway production is a term used by the American film industry to describe filmmaking and television productions that are "intended for initial release/exhibition or television broadcast in the U.S., but are actually filmed in another country."...
  
  
• Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

External links

• Official DGA website
• "Why Not Quit the Directors Guild? What Robert Rodriguez can and can't do" (Slate
  Slate (magazine)
  Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
  
  , April 8, 2005)