Directors Guild of America

What is the Directors Guild of America? It’s more than 15,000 members of a labor organization protecting the legal and artistic rights for directors and their teams.  The DGA was formed in 1936 by some of the most known directors in Hollywood. They forged the DGA through decades of constant issues with production companies. There was a lack of job security, threats of being fired, and no creative freedom before the guild was formed.

Back in the 1900’s the cameraman, producer, or the production company had full control over the picture. The director wasn’t even involved in the editing process at all, and wasn’t called to production until just before the filming started.  At this time the director’s position was still being formed, and sound hadn’t quite hit the scene yet. Before the guild was formed there was a group called Motion Pictures Directors Association, but was really more of a secret society. It was not a guild or a union. There wasn’t any benefits or job security that the MPDA provided. In the beginning their only intent was to straighten up the reputation of Hollywood and motion pictures.

Finally when sound made its way to motion pictures in the 1930's, directors still had almost no creative freedom, and a complete lack of compensation. In 1933 Congress stepped in with the National Industrial Recovery Act giving unions the rights to collective bargaining. The Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933 as well, but still nothing for the directors. In 1935 the National Labor Relations Board formed and thousands of crew joined the IATSE. Paramount’s last attempt was to force directors to take pictures assigned to them or be fired. This was the moment thirteen directors met up at King Vidor’s house. The guild was formed. At that time it was called The Screen Directors Guild.

Not only do director’s now have creative freedom, but security, privacy, contracts, and rights. They have pensions, 401K, health benefits, and job security. There’s committee’s, awards, education, and much more. Without the battle the directors fought in the 1930’s with the production companies, the DGA may have never been formed, and directing may have been extinct.

One of the biggest impacts the DGA works towards is the production incentives. The DGA works with each state with active incentive’s to keep film production within the United States. This is a huge impact not only for all directors, but also future aspiring directors like myself. Without tax credits, Section 181, American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, and the help of the DGA film production could easily move to another country. This would not only impact directors, but the entire movie industry as well as the United States as a country. Hollywood is the mother to Motion Pictures, and will always remain to be.