Plot Synopsis

In each one-hour program in this series of quarterly specials, two artists discuss films that inspired them and present clips from these classic films, with an audience comprised solely of American Film Institute (AFI) Fellows who get to ask question in a Q&A session at the end. Master classes are a core part of the curriculum at the AFI Conservatory, which offers a Master of Fine Arts degree in six filmmaking disciplines. In the premiere special, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams explore and discuss their four-decade friendship and working relationship, which began in 1974, when Spielberg asked the composer to score his first film, THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS. Immediately after the Spielberg/Williams episode, TCM aired SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, a film in which both artists went against traditional war-movie forms, and then Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS, for which Williams and Spielberg both cite Kubrick and Alex North's work as influencing their collaborative point of view.
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On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at 8pm ET/5pm PT, TCM premiered AFI'S MASTER CLASS: THE ART OF COLLABORATION with director Rob Reiner and film editor Robert Leighton, who have collaborated on over a dozen films, including WHEN HARRY MET SALLY..., MISERY and A FEW GOOD MEN. During this one-hour special, Reiner and Leighton talk about those classics, the movies that influenced them, and the importance (and satisfaction!) of banding together during the movie-making process.