Directions Unit: Steve Finn Workshop 1

Introduction

For the next couple of weeks, one of the known directors for Eastenders, Steve Finn, will be coming into the studios to give us help/advice for this director's unit. Steve directed around 300 episodes of Eastenders, so it is clear that he has lots of experience which will be useful for my knowledge!

Workshop

In today's workshop, we were given two short scripts - one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Task 1

The first script we were given was around just under a page long where the story was about 2 characters 'meeting' each other - 1 male and 1 female character. The male character brings the female character a drink until he sees her going through his bag looking for 'cigarettes'. The male character says he quits. The conversation then leads to what job the male character has where he says he writes obituaries. The female character then jokes about his job saying is it a 'dying' career, eventually leading to the male character to leave the scene.

Once reading the script, our task was to direct it in small groups of 5/6. Each group needed a cameraman, 2 actors (the boy and girl), director, someone to hold the microphone, and an additional cable basher if needed plus someone to listen to the audio. We were only allowed to film using one still shot (not allowed to move the camera).

Before starting we were asked a variety of questions to help make the story more realistic, such as:

Who are the characters? Taking in account what they are like, there age, relationship between the two, etc. Because the male character writes obituaries, he is expected to be quite old (around 40/50).

After my turn of directing, it shows that it is considerably difficult to film a scene in one shot, as well as making it this one shot look good for the audience. The feedback I received was to try and make the shot seem more intensified by making it seem tighter, which can be done by using a closer shot. Additionally the positioning of the characters were important - they didn't have to be positioned in the middle of the shot and in fact the scene looked better once the characters were positioned differently e.g. asymmetrically, to one side.

Task 2

The second task was similar to the first, in terms of using the same amount of cast. However instead we were allowed to use moving shots, but the scene had to be in one shot still.

The second script was a bit more longer and complex, it consisted of 2 supposedly work colleagues (one male and one female) where one colleague looses his job linking to a matter of 'fraud'. The two characters argue saying he could have gone in jail, until the end of the scene finishes when the female character says that she stitched him up.

Once having my go of directing, I felt more confident after already having a go at directing. However this still felt quite complex as the scene was quite long making it difficult to film in one shot. The general feedback for the class was that zooming should be limited - this is because it isn't commonly used in drama shows, especially quick zooms. Nonetheless Steve also mentioned that we should use the props more instead of focusing the story on the dialogue. For example, using props can help create character development and make the camera move naturally so that it doesn't look forced.

Conclusion

To generalise, this workshop has benefited me significantly as its helped my confidence with directing by giving me experience. For example, working with a cast, trying different parts of the cast (i.e. on camera, microphone, directing etc). More importantly I've learnt how to use props more instead of dialogue to tell a story which overall helps to give me more ideas as a director.