John Frankenheimer has directed 40 films spanning five decades. Most recently he directed Ronin starring Robert De Niro. Many of his earlier works can be seen regularly on TCM, and recently I had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Frankenheimer. (Read the article!)

You've been called the father of the modern-day action film, from the chases in Ronin and Grand Prix to the sky diving sequences in The Gypsy Moths, how do you prepare to shoot a high intensity action scene? I think you first of all figure out how you can involve your principal actors in it because any type of an action scene that's filmed with out making use of your principal actors is probably superfluous. So you try and figure out where it goes in the movie, what it comes out of. What motivates the action scene, and what the action scene is about. What do you want to accomplish at the end of it. What do you want the audience to feel at the end of the scene. And then you follow the footsteps to get there, and what you do is figure out what camera angles you need, what set pieces you need, what special effects you need, what stunt people you need and you build it block by block. Many of your action sequences show off some complex editing. Do you have the edited sequence in mind before you start shooting? Not totally. I have a very very good editor, a gentleman named Tony Gibbs and I have more or less the editing style in my head before we start and obviously he does too because we've talked it over. And then you just have to make sure you have enough material to do the editing you want to do and that requires an enormous number of set ups. Because these shots are so short. People don't really realize this when they're talking about an action film, especially car chases and things like that. At the speeds we were driving covered a quarter of a mile in approx. four and a half seconds. And it's very frustrating because you set up and you light and you get everything ready and you clear the streets and do everything and you roll the camera and the thing's over-wham! And you've got to have an awful lot of pieces like that to make a seven and a half minute sequence.