CRAFT DIRECTING
PRODUCTION
the director
time. I have a great relationship with a really gifted, committed editor called Nathan Nugent. I really trust him. He surprises me frequently with versions of scenes that I would not have imagined.
Cinematographer is one area where I often feel an impulse to explore ideas with new people. The relationship between cinematographer and director is so intense, you live in each others’ pockets for months and there’s a ferocity of work that you do together. I’ve done two productions with Suzie Lavelle one after another, [Normal People, Conversations with Friends]. And I’ve worked with James Mather on three projects, but everybody else just for one project.
I tested film versus digital on The Little Stranger and for various reasons we went digital, but that test told me that there’s still something specifically beautiful about film that’s very hard to match. There is a way of making digital look great, but it tends to be the same way and if you watch high end television, things
are starting to look a bit the same. [For Conversations with Friends] I felt we should push against that. Another impulse was to be as natural as possible and still beautiful and that is the definition of film.
I’m very instinctual. I think a lot of the time my job is to give people permission not to do the things that they normally expect to do. I find it really inspiring having lots of interesting things thrown at me, because you need to be surprised and you need to be open. The collaborative part of this is glorious and should never be curtailed.
With design, sometimes you want things to look basic or ugly or raw. A lot of mainstream film and television is decorative. Everything is supposed to look cool and beautiful. Even if it’s grimy, it’s supposed to be grimy in a cool and beautiful way. Sometimes you want to allow things to be what they are, feel more found than made, and that can go against the instincts initially of the designers who are so used to being told make it look great. It’s very exciting when
you unlock a richer palette of possible approaches to design.
For me the most important skill for a director is cultivating an ability to watch the things you’re doing, sitting in the room as the actors are playing out the scene. My belief is the most important skill is to be honest and present and put aside preconceptions. As human beings, we have a great capacity to sniff out things which feel false, except if you’re the person making them. If you go into working on a scene checking off all your ideas, you will miss the fundamental job, which is to check whether it’s real or true.
Summer 2022
televisual.com 67
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122
