Still feeling unfulfilled as an assignment reporter, Damski considered
becoming a film critic. "I went to the University of Denver, taught jour-
nalism as a graduate teaching assistant, and studied film in their mass
communications program. I thought I would return to New York as a
film critic." Damski soon realized he loved making movies much more
than writing about them. He applied to the American Film Institute (AFI)
and was fortunate to be one of ten directors admitted into the program
that year.
"It was an awakening. It was so fascinating to study movies. To watch
them over and over, forwards and backwards, in slow motion, and realize
all of the decisions that went into making a film. I was excited by that.
"The program at AFI was very good because I studied the best film-
makers in the world and a lot of them came to speak to us. I sat at the
feet of [Bernardo] Bertolucci and [Steven] Spielberg, and Fritz Lang. It
enabled me to take a very high view of filmmaking. It's very important to
have a point of view and bring something to the table, my own unique
vision of the material."
During his time at AFI,
Damski was accepted into
another program that afforded
him the opportunity to serve as
an apprentice to Stanley
Kramer on the film Oklahoma
Crude. "I was with Stanley
every day throughout prepro-
duction and the production of
the film. I learned a tremen-
dous amount about the practical aspects of how movies are made, what
all the people on set do and their responsibilities. That helped me a lot
when I made my AFI film."
For his AFI project, Damski adapted the short story "The Lost Phoebe"
by Theodore Dreiser into a half hour 16mm color film. "It was about a
man whose wife died and he can't accept the fact that she's dead. He
goes around to the neighbors asking where she is. It's how the commu-
nity deals with him." Through the film, Damski attracted the attention of
an agent, who immediately secured work for him, directing an episode of
Barnaby Jones. The job enabled him to join the Directors Guild (DGA). The
difficult part was coming up with the $2,500 initiation fee. Between that
and taxes, he actually lost money on that first job.
Soon after, Damski got the chance to direct an episode of Lou Grant,
where his unique storytelling vision earned him further opportunities
and recognition. "I shot three minutes of dialogue in one take. In those
You have to be
resilient. "If you can't
deal with a tremendous
amount of rejection
and failure, it's going
to be very tough to succeed in this
business."--Mel Damski
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