By Eric Close
It was in my junior year of college, while living in Madrid, Spain, that I decided to pursue a career in filmmaking. When I returned to University of Southern California I started taking courses in film school and began to work on student films. It was during that time that I discovered I also had a passion for acting. After graduation, my acting career started to take off but I never lost sight of my dream of directing. Every time I was cast in a new show I would mention to the executive producer that I had a goal to direct. Unfortunately, the shows never ran long enough for me to get the shot.

That was until Without a Trace happened. Once the show was picked up by CBS I made my same pitch to the executive producers. To show them I was serious, I started doing my homework by shadowing directors and spending time in the editing room. Finally, in season 5, my longawaited dream became a reality. Greg Walker and Jan Nash, our executive producers, asked me to start thinking about the type of story I would be interested in telling. About a month before I was to start fi lming I pitched them a story idea. They liked it, and four weeks later Amanda Segal delivered a fantastic script that I couldn’t wait to get started on. Then on the fi rst day of preproduction I sat in a room surrounded by all the department heads and the reality of what I was about to do really hit me. The closest thing I can compare it to would be the time I bungee jumped off a 500-foot bridge in New Zealand. The moment before you commit and step off the ledge you are scared out of your mind. They start the count down, your heart is pounding, hands are sweating, mouth is dry, your breathing is labored, they reach 1 and you go. It’s over in seconds, you’re alive and you can’t wait to do it again.

Directing an episode of television is a lot of work crammed into a short period of time—but it is worth every minute. As the director you are the fi rst person to arrive at work and the last to leave. You are making hundreds of decisions a day and you don’t have time to second-guess them. Plus I had the added bonus of acting in the episode as well, but I didn’t bother directing myself too much. The two best pieces of advice I received were, “Trust your gut, and trust your crew.” Making an episode of television is not a one-man operation, but rather a team effort. You prepare as best you can and then share your vision with your fi rst assistant director, the director of photography and script supervisor, which is then passed on to the entire crew.

I found that putting together a shot list for each day of fi lming gave me a base to start from—and if I needed to add or subtract from it on the day, it was no big deal. Being prepared allowed me the freedom to improvise when unforeseen issues arose. For example, the day before we started fi lming it was brought to my attention that we were over budget and needed to fi nd a way to cut back. There was a huge action sequence that took place on a busy New York street with close to 200 hundred extras and several stunt drivers. However, knowing that the opening of the episode, which also involved a couple hundred extras, was vital to setting the tone of the story we decided to rethink the action sequence and attempt to pare it down in scale. A group of us gathered in my offi ce and brainstormed until we came up with an alternative. The best part about it was that the scene turned out to be more exciting and worked better for the overall telling of the story.

Another example was that I had planned out two elaborate camera moves for the opening of the episode. Once we started shooting, though, I realized that they were not going to help tell the story and would only slow the pace of the action. Plus we were racing the sun, which is always a challenge when shooting outdoors. So I came up with a new idea and it turned out to be even better than what I had originally envisioned.

It’s important to be confi dent enough to ask for help from others when you’re not sure what to do. Film crews are full of very creative people and you never know when someone is going to have a brilliant idea. Ultimately, everyone cares about making each episode the best it can be. Directing turned out to be everything I had hoped it would be and more. I received so much support from everyone, including my castmates, who also gave me a healthy dose of hazing. I’m thrilled that I didn’t give up on my dream and I’m grateful to those people who gave me the shot. Several of my friends who are directors told me that I would be surprised at how much I already knew, and they were right. Having worked with so many directors over the years, I was able to defi ne my own style of directing. You pick and choose what you like and don’t like and you ask lots of questions. I also have met so many people who have worked with great directors like Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and I asked these people what they liked about working with these pioneers. If it was something that I thought would work for me I committed to trying it out. However, the most exciting part is knowing that this is only the beginning and that I have so much yet to learn.

All in all I was blessed with an incredible cast, crew and script. The episode really turned out excellent. Storytelling has always been my passion and I am looking forward to directing again.