Two-time Emmy Award-winning director and producer who was also nominated for a third. He has produced and directed numerous network series, including multiple episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series Law and Order SVU as well as Blue Bloods. He distinguished himself early in his career with the popular classic series Picket Fences and Chicago Hope. Most recently, he directed the final two hours of the Emmy-nominated TV mini-series Law and Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders, starring Edie Falco and Heather Graham. He is currently directing a play entitled FINKS, which runs for six weeks over November and December in Venice, California.
"Going out to sea sometimes is a great recovery from the unknown intensity of creating."
"I get very excited by the artistic process."
"One of my philosophies is, I like to have a good time. If I'm not having a good time, that's when it takes long."
"...the art of television episodic directing... is the opposite of trying different things. That's about the art of intuitive, spontaneous creative decisions that have to be implemented quickly, because you have eight days to tell a one-hour show."
"Making films... is like working in oils as a painter. There is a lot of time spent on foreground, background, every decision you do with care. When you make a television movie or television pilot, you're working in watercolors. You have to work quicker. You still have the time of analysis, but you're working on a smaller screen. When you do a television episode, it's a pencil drawing. There is an art to a pencil drawing. It is the intuitive, spontaneous, immediate decision, a simple idea executed. And when you do that - and I find that I have a great joy in working that way - I don't see it as a limitation, I see it as a wonderful challenge."
"When I'm proud of my work, there's nothing more important."
"The director wears two hats - he is subjective and objective. He is subjective in that he gets inside the scene, gets with the characters, and gets emotionally connected. And then, becomes an objective viewer - not the audience, but the critic, to make sure the story is being told."
"I pride myself when I'm shooting that as emotional as the scene is, I don't get emotional as the director. I stand and go, 'We got it? Yes. Let's do it? Yes.' And I become the piercing critic."
"I tell people who, if they want to get involved in film, or in television, or any aspect of media, you have to try out Los Angeles. It's still the center. Now, because of technology and the advances in technology, it can be done anywhere. But, you have to kind of see what the standards are here."
"Agents play a very big role. If an agent calls me and says, 'I have this... wonderful songwriter who's written this song. Would you consider it?' I will!"
"The beautiful challenge of sailing is the challenge of one's career. That, if there is an obstacle you've gotta find a way to get around it. You've got to create your own path. And, there is no map, other than your own imagination."