Directed By

About Directed By

Director Carpenter and Publisher Scott Essman

         This publication represents the cumulative effect of having sat through way too many movies over the years, wondering, “how did they do that?!” Sprawling on the floor to see WABC-TV’s 4:30 movie every day after school while growing up in New York, initiatingcountless college-dorm video and cable TV-watching sessions after convincing classmates that movies were more interesting than beer parties, or, preferably, spending hours awestruck in suburban multiplexes and grand urban palaces, the imagery I watched and the sounds I heard were so fascinating (and hence so remote), the thought of having any connection to them never entered this author’s mind until decades later. Having engineered a mildly successful freelance writing career built on knowledge of makeup artistry and special effects, I felt it was my time to create a singular publication that uninhibitedly delved into that most prized of all cinematic occupations: the director. Focused entirely on the craft of making movies, DIRECTED BY will attempt to explore the ideas behind the hundreds (thousands?) of choices that directors make on each project. From the uncertainty of pre-production to the rigors of principal photography and beyond, our goal is to inform as much as entertain, and provide in-depth coverage of the directing experience for any audience whose passion for films and filmmaking might fit the above description. With that, we offer Bryan Singer as the featured director of our inaugural issue. A friend from our mid-1980s days at USC where together we would wait in a marginalized line behind cinema Brad Renfro in Bryan Singer's 'Apt Pupil' school production majors and faculty to get into screenings, in three features Bryan has already achieved the magic that once made me stare at the screen wondering how it was all done.

P.S. WARNING: Our articles contain significant plot spoilers!!! Read at risk.
--- Scott Essman