Hello, and thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Directors' Cut,

brought to you by the Directors Guild of America,

featuring today's top directors sharing behind-the-scenes stories of their latest films

and insights into the craft of directing.

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This episode takes us behind the scenes of director Damien Chazelle's new biographical drama, First Man.

The film re-teams Mr. Chazelle with his La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling to tell the riveting stories of NASA's mission to land the first human being on the moon,

and of Neil Armstrong, the astronaut chosen to make the one small step for man and giant leap

for mankind on July 20, 1969. In addition to First Man, Mr. Chiselle's credits include the feature

films Whiplash and Guy and Madeline on a park bench. He won both the Academy Award and the

2016 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for La La Land. Following a recent screening of the film at the DGA Theatre in New York,

Mr. Chazel spoke with director Darren Aronovsky about filming First Man.

During their conversation, Mr. Chazelle discusses the need to take the audience to a time before man walked on the moon,

the influence archival footage had on the style of the film,

and why the biggest challenge besides the technical aspects

was realizing Neil Armstrong as a character.

Damien Chazelle, everybody.

Thank you.

Congratulations. I can't wait you for you. Congratulations. You can't wait for your sophomore slump.

It doesn't seem to be going to happen to you.

Sorry, not to wish you any bad, but it's a tremendous job.

Let's start at the beginning. You know, you basically, you know, do la la land and the world is your oyster. You could do anything you want pretty much. Why do you take on something that was probably pretty hard to get made?

...