Episode 34 — Guardians of the Galaxy meet Manage This

Manage This - The Project Management Podcast

ANDY CROWE ● BILL YATES ● NICK WALKER ● RYAN "PEZ" PEZDIRC NICK WALKER: Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers. It’s a discussion about real life, a time to get inside the brains of some of the experts in the field and see how they work and how they thrive in this fascinating world of project management. Maybe you’re new to the field, with questions about getting certified. Or maybe you’ve been in the trenches for years and want to compare your stories to those of others who are doing the stuff. It’s our goal to encourage you and inspire creativity. I’m your host, Nick Walker. And with me are two of the most creative guys in the room, Andy Crowe and Bill Yates. And Andy, today we’re going to say not only hurray for project management, but hurray for Hollywood. ANDY CROWE: That’s right. Hurray for the whole galaxy, if you will. So we’re excited about this. This is going to be a fun episode. NICK WALKER: Our guest is Ryan Pezdirc, better known as Pez. He’s a graduate of the University of Miami, with majors in motion picture screenwriting and creative writing. He’s a member of the Directors Guild of America and has worked on dozens of films. He was the assistant director on productions such as “Batman v Superman,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Guardians of the Galaxy 2,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and the upcoming film “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” Pez, welcome to Manage This. PEZ PEZDIRC: It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. NICK WALKER: Now, you are living the dream of a lot of people who aspire to be in film. Tell me a little bit about that dream. How did it get started? Did you always want to be in film? PEZ PEZDIRC: Yeah. I mean, you know, I’m a kid who my entire childhood is on camera, from the time I was born. I think there was a camera in the hospital as I came into this world. And I can pretty much show you, you know, 5,000 hours of everything in my life, every sporting event, every – well, let’s just say everything. So, yeah, I was born with a camera in my face. And as soon as I could hold one, I held it. We’re going back to the days when it was you put the VHS tape in the camera, and then you popped it right in the VCR to watch what you did. So, yeah, absolutely. It’s something that’s been a lifelong, I guess you’d say a passion; you know? NICK WALKER: Yeah, yeah. So I mentioned you were an assistant director on all these films. What does an assistant director do? PEZ PEZDIRC: Well, assistant director is something that you become after a very long time working as a production assistant. In my case it was set production assistant. That’s kind of an entry-level position. And in the film world you’re an entry-level for a very long time. BILL YATES: So you pay your dues. PEZ PEZDIRC: You pay your dues figuratively. Then, once you join the Directors Guild, quite literally. That’s just the way it goes. You have to work as a set production assistant. The basic path is 600 days. You have to work as basically an entry-level position for 600 days. After you’ve accumulated those days, you submit them to the Directors Guild of America. They have to approve those days. I mean, they literally look at your documentation and say, okay, this person has met the criteria. You are then eligible to join the Directors Guild. It’s not like they just call you and say, “Hey, you’re in, you got it.” Because after you get your accreditation, you turn in your 600 days. Then you still have to find work as an assistant director. Maybe one of the differences between a union and a guild, I’ve heard before that unions are meant to keep you in, and guilds are kind of meant to, not keep you out, but it’s not – there’s no job... BILL YATES: Okay. NICK WALKER: They make it tough. PEZ PEZDIRC: Exactly. There’s no job placement in the Directors Guild. There’s no union hall.