In film and in television, Dixon McPhillips ‘06 is making his mark as an assistant director on a variety of projects.
BY JANA F. BROWN
When he was a Harvard student earning a degree in visual studies, Dixon McPhillips ’06 applied for an exclusive training program with the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) and was one of six candidates selected out of 600 applicants. Today, he has accomplished one of the hardest tasks in the entertainment industry: consistent employment in both film and television as an assistant director (AD), a job that can include everything from location scouting to budgeting to keeping an entire production on schedule.
While his credits as a first AD and as a key second AD include work on films such as “Oppenheimer,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Wonder Woman 1984” (and many others) and television projects “Euphoria,” “American Crime Story” and “The Outsider,” McPhillips began his Harvard career intent on majoring in East Asian studies. During a summer service trip to China, though, he had an epiphany as he worked with kids at an orphanage to stage a production of “Snow White” — he wanted to be behind the scenes. When he returned to Harvard, he threw himself into the filmmaking track of the visual studies major.
McPhillips’ ties to theater go back to his SPS days, when the Alabama native auditioned for “The Laramie Project” to fulfill a Fifth Form arts requirement and got cast in dueling roles that challenged his creative chops. After playing Banquo in “Macbeth,” he landed the lead role of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in “No Other Gods,” staged in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul in honor of the School’s sesquicentennial celebration. He further explored his creativity as a writer and sports chair of The Harvard Crimson, and he was responsible for introducing online video content to enhance the university’s student newspaper. The first game McPhillips recorded featured eventual NBA star Jeremy Lin, and the footage later attracted millions of views during the “Linsanity” of Lin’s professional basketball ascension.
Those foundations have served McPhillips well in his role as an assistant director, a job he often has to clarify.
“There’s a joke on ‘The Office’ about Dwight being assistant to the regional manager versus assistant regional manager, so a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, you’re an assistant director, so do you get the director coffee?’” McPhillips says. “No. The assistant director job is to make sure everyone is pursuing the right end game so that the director’s vision is upheld, but within the constraints of the schedule, the budget. The two currencies in filmmaking are time and money, and on every project, we never seem to have enough of either one.”
Over the last dozen years, McPhillips has had an opportunity to learn from some of the best directors, including Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and James Mangold. While working on the Tom Cruise-headlined film “Jack Reacher” in the DGA training program, McPhillips met experienced AD Cliff Lanning, and the two have continued to work as a team on multiple film projects that have sent them to locations in Cuba, Croatia, Hungary and across the United States.
Recognizing the group effort it takes to create a successful final product, in February 2024, McPhillips was honored, along with Nolan and others, at the 76th DGA Awards as a member of the best director team in the theatrical feature film category for “Oppenheimer,” the blockbuster that went on to win seven Academy Awards.
“Ultimately, what ADs are very good at is troubleshooting and getting people to communicate,” he says. “Especially in prep for a movie, you’ll have different departments having different ideas of what the movie is, so it’s really about trying to bring everyone to the table and making sure you have a unified vision.”
While he could see himself directing a project if the right opportunity came along, McPhillips is focused on climbing the ladder on the AD track, perhaps eventually becoming a line producer or unit production manager. His upcoming projects as an AD are theatrical releases for AppleTV, and he’s continuing to thrive with the creative mindset required to “direct the background” on a project.