Interview - BBC Talent Website

By Susan Lynch, courtesy of the BBC.

Has the Talent award been of any use to you in raising your profile outside of the BBC?

Definitely, because some of the previous winners were people who'd gone on to direct first features (notably Damian O'Donnell, who later directed East is East, or Jamie Thraves who won with a very good short called I Just Want to Kiss You).

It's already got a certain amount of prestige and, hopefully, as it goes on will gather more. I felt it was a good thing to win - it generated a positive response in the industry.

How do you think it compares to the other short film awards on offer?

In the UK it's one of the more important awards. It's quite subjective, but even from watching the other winners in previous years I always thought they were interesting films, in particular the Jamie Thraves one. I was so impressed with Martin Freeman's performance - this was before The Office and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - that I hunted him down and asked him to act in one of my short films, Fancy Dress.

I think it's as good as winning best short in the Edinburgh film festival or something like that... But I'm biased!

What were the chances of getting your show reel into someone in the BBC without the competition?

If you had a directing agent they might be able to get it in. But, generally, my experience of the business is that it's all about contacts. The competition is a good way of meeting people in the BBC because they have a vested interest in the talent competition working. It's mutually beneficial if they help the winner out as opposed to cold calling - if a showreel goes in cold it probably won't be watched.

It was a great introduction. It was almost an advantage to have no contacts in the BBC because no-one had any preconceptions about my work - I think it worked out really well.

How important was it to have a developed show reel?

I had the film I entered into the competition plus three other shorts on DVD. It's essential, really - you can't gauge someone's ability as a director by talking to them. You really need to see their work, that's what you'll be hiring them to do.

How much experience should somebody have before they enter this competition?

Unfortunately with any film making it's all about money. If you haven't got money, and I didn't have much, then you've got to make contacts and pull favours. You've got to get people who are good at their jobs to help you out, to work for next to nothing.

Basically we made The Librarian's Dream for a tiny amount of money in film terms. I wouldn't like to calculate the cash value of the favours received from people I'd already met (through directing commercials and promos). It wouldn't have been half as good without them.

I've learnt a lot over recent years but the real difference is in the quality of the people I work with. The cinematographer, the colourist who grades the film when it's transferred to video, the sound designer, the composer, the art director, whatever, all these people make me look better if they're good. By all means enter the competition whenever you want, but I'd say the likelihood of you winning the "professional" section of the competition - you'd be out of college maybe five or six years?

What tips can you give? What are they looking for?

My advice for a film maker who wants to make a good short is to please yourself.

When you start off there can be an element of second guessing - you try and give people what you think they'll enjoy - but I reckon the best focus for a film maker is to make something that maybe you feel a little bit awkward about - because it reveals your personality to the audience. Often that approach, in a round about route, takes you back to universal themes. People identify more with truthful material than they do with something self-consciously generalised. Try shooting something that you'd like to watch personally and see if other people feel the same way about it.

Any advice for somebody trying to move into directing?

There's a lot of hype and hot air that surrounds the film industry. A whole side to it - fame, parties, the perceived glamour etc - which is completely irrelevant to what you do as a director. I think the first thing is to forget about all that and just focus on film making.

Get hold of any kind of camera, a video camera, whatever, and start shooting stuff. If you don't know a scriptwriter don't wait for a script, just write one yourself. It might not be the best script in the world but the process of film making is what actually teaches you how to make films, there's nothing else that really helps. You can be lectured to and inspired, you can discuss movies at length with your friends, but the thing that really informs you and develops your understanding is doing it.

So just get all your friends together, if you haven't got any money shoot on a borrowed camcorder and edit on a home PC - that's more or less how I started. My first efforts were completely hopeless! If you really want to direct you'll do it again and again...

I suppose another way to learn is by watching films. If you want to be a director you'll be doing that obsessively anyway, watching DVDs and videos, going to the cinema.

If something isn't ready for the deadline should they hold off?

I used to underestimate how much work you need to do on the script as a student. I used to completely rewrite the script the night before the shoot - or I'd start with a three-quarters finished script and a few sketchy notes as to how it would end - and I thought that was fine.

I think you can't do enough on the script and you can't polish it enough. Get people to read it, get their feedback, get their responses on things they didn't understand and incorporate them into the script. Work and work and work on the script. You'll get to a point where there isn't anything more to do on it, but it takes a surprisingly long time (for me, anyway).

In my experience the script is what you end up with. Which isn't to say that I stick to the script on set, I don't, particularly where dialogue is concerned - but whatever you feel about the script before you start pre-production is invariably how you end up feeling about the finished film.