Episode 26 – Adam Davidson

• As a child his mom tried to get him to watch Mr. Rodgers but he would change the channel to watch Bonanza
• As a kid was constantly making little films with his friends using a super 8 camera
• Turning point moment for him was during school when his french class took and a field trip to watch 400 Blows by Francois Truffaut and he realized you can have a career making movies
• Went to film school at Columbia University in the City of New York and envisioned himself making art films
  • As a student at Columbia he made a short film, The Lunch Date, that got accepted to the Cannes Film Festival and won the Short Film Palme d’Or and the Academy Award for Best Short Subject
• Spent years trying to get several independent movies started but not much came of it and then he got a call with an offer to direct episodes of Law and Order 
• Met Anthony Russo in 2004 and several years later when he read that the Russo Brothers got a pilot picked up he emailed them to congratulate them and also mentioned he had been working in TV and asked if he could send them some material. They hired him to work on LAX.
• Used to joke about being the third Russo
• Relationship with the Russo’s led to him directing on Community
  • When he was on the studio lot doing prep for Community he got excited about meeting Chevy Chase and when he told his sister about it she reminded him that he had met him before….Chevy Chase was who presented him his Academy Award.
  • Directed three episodes in season 1 including the Christmas episode (Comparative Religion)
• Early in Community there was a lot of resistance from the network to including more of the Dean in the episodes
• Used a lot of his favorite movies to influence how scenes in Community episodes were shot
• The ending for Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design was developed on the spot
• For the Digital Estate Planning episode they filmed everything without knowing what the animation was going to look like
• Advice for future directors:
  • Be students of human behavior, be students of the truth and what feels real, support the writing and the story
  • Be true to the story and get truthful performances
  • Respect the crew
  • Be willing to take risks and try things

Thanks to Mattaf30 for the research