When a director walks onto the set of a tv series, the show style is set and continuity is a must. As many directors point out, their job is basically to figure out what the producer wants and give it to them. Playback asked the contenders for Best Direction in a Dramatic tv series how they manage to bring an individual creative stamp and fresh edge to an episode while working within these constraints.
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Directors are essentially problem solvers, says Jon Cassar.
‘The problems keep coming at you day after day, minute after minute, and you have to come up with the solutions pretty quick.’
Often the first obstacle encountered is the script itself. With the speed at which series are churned out, scripts are seldom polished when they reach the hands of the director, he says.
For Cassar that usually means rewriting some portions, and that’s where he first presses his particular imprint on an episode.
‘When I first started directing I would be disappointed when I didn’t get as good a script as the next guy. Then I realized that rather than sitting back and saying okay if this is what you want, I would do something about it,’ he says.
Cassar seldom encounters resistance from producers. ‘They know the show will be better for the changes, that I am obviously elevating the material. They hire me as the fix-it guy, as the guy who won’t let anything get away.’
On the Fireworks Entertainment series Nikita, Cassar has not only directed six scripts but was also instrumental in setting the show’s style.
When producers Joel Surnow, Jamie Paul Rock, Adam Haight and Jay Firestone approached Cassar to direct the pilot episode of Nikita, the ‘shaky cam’ was hot but not a style he particularly liked. Instead, Cassar opted for a ‘foreign film’ look – extreme close-ups mixed with extreme long shots. Rather than focusing on action, he wanted to concentrate on reaction.
‘When I broke it all down, although this is an action series it is really all about Nikita [played by Peta Wilson] – it is all in the eyes and the face,’ he explains. ‘There is a language without words between Michael [played by Roy Dupuis] and Nikita, so the camera has to be in there to see this.’
The producers had not worked in this style before. ‘I had to say trust me on this one, I think you will like it.’
Cassar says it is crucial that producers working in episodic tv gather a team they are willing to trust, ‘otherwise you have the kind of producer who is so heavy-handed that he will lose the good people and the yes-men will hang out.’
With hundreds of tv hours behind the camera as an operator, Cassar has a particularly visual bent to his directing style. The technical know-how gives him an advantage, he says. ‘I know where my cuts are, and it saves time in setup so I can spend more time on the acting. Unfortunately you don’t see the setup time on screen but the acting you do. It makes a huge difference.’
The violence of the ‘Gambit’ episode, which earned Cassar a Gemini nomination for best director in a drama series, straddles the line of primetime acceptability and caused the production to dub it their version of Silence of the Lambs. But what struck Cassar was the mind game occurring between Madeline, a ‘heart of ice’ interrogator, and the brutal guest character who is the first person to get at her psyche.
Cassar opted for tight shots of eyes, glances and movements when the characters are in the same scene, contrasted with action scenes that ‘slapped viewers in the face,’ moving from slow to rapid motion and low to wide angle.
tv work can be lazy, admits Cassar, and he believes it’s the extra effort – particularly when working with actors – that can make or break an episode.
The talent have guided their characters over numerous episodes and there is instant resistance to a new director, he says. ‘I know the character, don’t tell me what to do’ is often the response, but ‘once you show the actors that you are true to the show, make some suggestions that turn some lights on for them, then they begin to trust you.’
Cassar watches every episode of a series before he walks on set – which can be quite a feat when it’s a long-running show – often requiring him to spend a weekend in front of the tv with a mound of tapes.
‘It is crucial that I know everything that actor has done in every scene he has played,’ says Cassar. ‘I don’t want to be the one that says, `Pick up a gun,’ and he says, `I never use a gun.’
‘The actors respect it – they know when you are not the type who comes in, does the show, gets a cheque and leaves. For me there is always more at stake and it comes across on the screen, you can see the director’s mark on it.’
Also in this report:
Profiling Best Direction in a Dramatic TV Series: Kari Skogland p.22
Jane Thompson p.27
Profiling Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries:
Jim Burt: The non-nominee behind so many nominations p.29
Janis Cole p.29
David Adams Richards p.31
Keith Ross Leckie p.37
Pete White p.37
Profiling the contenders for Best Sports Program or Series p.39
The nominees list p.44