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Directing Effective TV

Nigel Maslin, directing specialist, looks at how to manage your work-load to tell the perfect story.

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I often hear producer/directors say, "I don’t know how I'm going to get all this in the programme!" Wrong thinking.

Trying to cram everything in just means you're shooting the research, instead of finding a story. It makes a rod for your own back as you try to shoot everything and squeeze it in during the edit.

Halve the work and double the quality of your programme with this thought: you are only ever being asked to make two minutes, or two hours, of engaging television. So start at the other end of the process and ask yourself what works on television, and base your story on that.

It is no substitute for a strong, original story, but it does help the telling.

We once ran a tailored training programme for sports producers who needed to ask their directors for what they wanted, but were not directors themselves.

Working with them, we drew up a prescription for effective television:

• Colour, sound and movement in the shoot
• Personality and emotion of the characters
• Drama in the situations
• Narrative drive in the writing
• Pace and variety in the edit

This works for factual programmes as well as drama. Of course, you will probably never have all those elements in one story, but the ones you do have will be a good indicator of where its strengths lie.


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