The training program afforded Henderson an opportunity to attend
seminars to hear experts in the field speak, and to gain actual hands-on
experience working on film and television productions. "You were
assigned to shows and it was the luck of the draw that I got to work
for some really, really good people. Afterwards, those people went on to
work elsewhere and they wanted to hire me because they felt I'd done a
good job."
An early career break
came working as second
assistant director under
William Beasley on American
Gigolo. "I consider Bill one of
the great assistant directors.
He was a good teacher and a
good friend." As Beasley
went from show to show, he
hired Henderson to work with
him on Halloween II, Staying
Alive, The Star Chamber, Racing
with the Moon, and The Man
with One Red Shoe. When it
came time for Henderson to
make the leap from second to
first AD in the early 1980s, it
was through the recommenda-
tion of Beasley.
Producer James Brubaker was another champion of Henderson's
career early on and became influential in his moving up from trainee
to second AD, to first AD, and then to production manager. "The real
hard thing in this business is to make a change from one category to the
next. You have to have somebody willing to say, `I think he could do this
job.' . . . Jim thought I had potential and kept moving me up." Henderson
worked with Brubaker on several pictures including Staying Alive,
Rhinestone, and Cobra.
Racing with the Moon's unit production manager (UPM) Art Levinson
was another person who recognized Henderson's potential early on.
"When I was a brand new second, Art would give me the budgets to
go over so I could learn that part of the business. He was very helpful
to me."
By the mid-1980s, Henderson was working as a unit production
manager, associate producer, and line producer. In the late 1980s, he
served as UPM and associate producer of Dead Poets Society, directed by
"This is a busi-
ness where you are
trying to get the most
out of the people you're
working with. One
way you do that is by your example: you're
willing to work hard and so they're willing
to work hard. Also, you have to actually
know about and respect the jobs other people
do so you understand what their problems
are . . . It's really trying to inspire people
to do their very best work."--Duncan
Henderson
CAREER TIPS
User Comments Add a comment…