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Focus on... BAFTA Television: The Sessions

On 27 April, BAFTA hosted an all-day event dedicated to exploring the crafts of many of this year’s British Academy Television Craft Awards and Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards nominees. The Sessions offer a unique opportunity to hear from some of the best talent working in television today. While it would be impossible to cover everything from The Sessions, here are some of the key insights and learnings from each panel. Transcribed by Toby Weidmann

The Sessions – Performance
The guests were: Chance Perdomo (nominated for Leading Actor for Killed By My Debt); Fiona Shaw (Supporting Actress, Killing Eve); Lucian Msamati (Leading Actor, Kiri); Stephen Graham (Supporting Actor, Save Me); and Jamie Demetriou (Male Performance in a Comedy Programme, Stath Lets Flats)

BAFTA/Sam Lort - From l-r: Chance Perdomo, Jamie Demetriou, Stephen Graham, Fiona Shaw, Lucian Msamati and host Cariad Lloyd

 

Chance Perdomo: “I don’t think [Killed By My Debt] would have got made five years ago. There’s a push for new narratives of authentic representation... It’s a very socio-political piece, it’s a very poignant piece and a very British piece, but it wouldn’t have been made because the time wasn’t right. And the time seems to be right now... It’s less an ideological incarnation of Britain, more an authentic gritty realisation of the world we’re in. That might have been why improvisation was key as well, because you want it to feel as real, as relatable and as universal as possible, because what’s the point of portraying a real story if it doesn’t feel real?”

Fiona Shaw: “What’s bliss is if the writer is excited by the performer. Then suddenly this thing called television becomes an act of permanent creation. Actors stop being interpretive and they become creative, not because they are writing but because they are themselves the inspiration for the next thing. It encourages actors to be imaginative with what they do, not just colouring in the part.”

Lucian Msamati: “The character I got to play was incredibly broken and human and flawed. You don’t get to see, on British television, black male characters have that emotion, character, quality and depth. I read it and thought, ‘Good, I like that. That’s some meat I can get involved in.’ It was very refreshing.”

Stephen Graham: “Acting, you’re part of a football team and it’s about keeping the ball moving. It’s a joy when you work with someone who has so much talent but is also so giving as an actor. Be prepared to be flawed, and have that confidence from the director, and from the group around you, [to let] you just dive into it. You can’t be afraid of failing, because there is no failure in it as long as you can capture the essence and the truth of what you’re doing.”

Jamie Demetriou: “The thing that was really important to us was getting people to improvise before the scripted takes, so they felt like they had some kind of ownership over the characters. From a performance perspective, it reminds people of what the natural intonation rhythms are, so when they come round to doing the scene – and, after a long day of stuff, it’s possible to just start reeling things off – the muscle memory of what it’s like to ‘um’ and ‘ah’ and stumble over words remains. It also gives people the feeling that they’re completely trusted.”


The Sessions – Director: Multi-Cam

The guests were: Barbara Wiltshire (Inside No.9 Live: Dead Line); Helen Scott, Simon Staffurth and Julia Knowles (The Royal Wedding: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle); and Liz Clare (The Voice UK)

BAFTA/Hannah Hutchins - From l-r: Liz Clare, Barbara Wiltshire; Simon Staffurth, Julia Knowles, Helen Scott and host Ian Haydn Smith

 

Julia Knowles, who directed the wedding service: “I was very keen to make it much more of a love story than a state occasion. Royal Weddings are normally very formal and I really didn’t want it to be like that. My aim was to try to tell a personal story in the most incredible way, in a situation where we were surrounded by a lot of politics and people.”

Liz Clare: “The hardest thing of being a director on those live show days is fixed on-air points and having to manage your time sensibly in that day, and knowing what’s important to give time to and what’s not. Ultimately, you have to make a lot of very quick decisions about at what point you move on, because you may not see it again. You have to have confidence in your team... When we’re on air, I’m not worried about time, it’s not my job. My concern is making sure all the junctions work. Actually, often the hardest thing on the live Voice final is that those pre-recorded moments are only one minute and thirty, but we have an entire stage to turn around in that time. Those are the dangerous moments... I think you’re always five minutes away from a disaster with a live show. Thankfully, you’ve always got a back-up plan. But you’ve got to make that call – you’ve probably got five seconds to make it.”


The Sessions – Director: Factual and Fiction

The guests were: David Soutar and Joe Pearlman (Bros: After the Screaming Stops); Mahalia Belo (The Long Song); Paddy Wivell (Prison); and Stephen Frears (A Very English Scandal)

BAFTA/Sam Lort - From l-r: Stephen Frears, Mahalia Belo, Joe Pearlman, David Soutar, Paddy Wivell and host Boyd Hilton

 

Joe Pearlman: “We establish early on that they don’t have final cut on the film, we do. We are going to tell their story and they have to trust us to do that. We are incredibly lucky as directors that every film we’ve made we’ve been able to negotiate that with our protagonists. It means that you get a much more honest and a much more interesting documentary, because there is no fluff.”

Mahalia Belo: “The biggest challenge was trying to make the tone work. It had a kind of humour to it but it wasn’t meant to be funny all of the time. It’s not taking the mickey out of this really serious subject, but at the same time it was about showing that, in the worst situations, people do form humour, because it’s a way of surviving. We really wanted to pay tribute to that.”

Paddy Wivell: “Part of the job of a filmmaker is to understand when people might be getting a bit fed up with you. Part of the job of making documentaries is being sensitive to how people might feel. As relationships grow, people do let you in. You have to constantly remind people of why you’re all conspiring to make a film and why it is in their interests to let me see what they’re up against.”


The Sessions – Writing: Comedy and Drama
The guests were: Ben Caudell, Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris (Cunk on Britain); David Nicholls (Patrick Melrose); and Lennie James (Save Me)

BAFTA/Sam Lort - From l-r: Ben Caudell, Joel Morris, Jason Hazeley, Lennie James, David Nicholls and host Cariad Lloyd

 

David Nicholls: “There’s always a terror in adapting an author, who has a very definite, particular voice, that you will write pastiche, that suddenly there will be a change of gear and the audience will be able to tell it’s not him anymore, it’s you doing a bad impression. So, I was very wary. But as the process goes on, people say, ‘Why haven’t we got this scene?, ‘Where’s this moment?’ and you can’t say, ‘Well, because it’s not in the book.’ Then you’re not doing your job. So, the obligation to invent and alter the material increases as the process goes on.”

Lennie James: “I focused very much on it being a thriller, and that took me into the world. In every single situation in Save Me, it wasn’t dictated by story or plot alone. Much more important to me were the characters and the decisions those characters would make and where that would take me.”


The Sessions – Editing: Factual and Fiction

The guests were: Tony Kearns (Bandersnatch, Black Mirror); and Pia Di Ciaula (A Very English Scandal)

BAFTA/Hannah Hutchins - From l-r: Tony Kearns and Pia Di Ciaula with host Ian Haydn Smith

 

Tony Kearns: “Every shot in a scene has to do a job. It’s not every third shot or every fourth shot, it’s every single shot. And the choice that you make as an editor, it’s not just to say here’s this person saying that and that person saying this, here’s this framing, here’s that framing, or we just stay in close-up. If something happens that needs to be in a wider shot, you have the wider shot... A good editor, a conscientious editor will work at a scene again and again. If you’ve time, obviously.”

Pia Di Ciaula: “You don’t really talk about stuff as much as people think. You just do it and, if it feels right, then you go with it. It’s a process. If it were up to the composer then you’d have more music... If you put too much music in, it turns into sentimentality instead of emotion. Sometimes it works to the film’s advantage to strip back and just let the scene play out, even stretch it out if you need to... I don’t impose a structure. I let the takes, performances and production values dictate how I cut.”


The Sessions – Make Up, Hair and Costume Design
The guests were: Phoebe de Gaye (costume designer, Killing Eve); Konnie Daniel (make up and hair designer, Mrs Wilson); and Suzanne Cave (costume designer, A Very English Scandal)

BAFTA/Hannah Hutchins - From l-r: Suzanne Cave, Konnie Daniel, Phoebe de Gaye and host Sali Hughes

 

Phoebe de Gaye: “An actor responds to what you’re throwing at them. It’s a joint process of discovering the character because actors are able to start focusing their imagination on their character through trying on clothes or looking at clothes... The fitting process is very interesting because at a certain point – sometimes very quickly, sometimes it takes longer – you can see this alchemy start to take place where you catch something. When they try something on, you can see that they’re starting to inhabit the character.”

Konnie Daniel: “I think people think [our craft] is only make up, but it’s a much larger field. You have special effects, you have hair, you have facial hair, you have prosthetics. It’s a huge field. Sometimes I go to interviews and they think I do everything. But you can’t. You specialise. You have your team, who specialise. The whole hair situation and wig work is massive in itself, especially on a costume drama where there’s sometimes hundreds of wigs. A lot of people think we just hang out on set with our little make up bag, chatting away. But we’re the first people in in the morning, the first to meet the actors, we set the mood of the set... Without actors there’s no job, but we’re their partners throughout the day.”

Suzanne Cave: “Often, I find it’s better not to be too specific [with your initial mood boards]. It’s a reference point, a discussion point. It might just be one image that they love, but that can lead you down a path of discussing the character or even just the general look of the show.”


The Sessions – Masterclass: Killing Eve
The guests were: Sally Woodward Gentle and Colin Wratten (producers); Harry Bradbeer (director); Phoebe de Gaye (costume designer); Kim Bodnia (supporting actor); Gary Dollner (editor); Tom Williams and Steve Phillips (sound); and David Holmes and Keefus Ciancia (music)

BAFTA/Sam Lort - From l-r: Kim Bodnia, Harry Bradbeer, Phoebe de Gaye, Colin Wratten, Sally Woodward Gentle and host Boyd Hilton

 

Sally Woodward Gentle, on making another season: “You have to honour the tone of what came before and the pleasure, the joy and the wildness of it, and be true to those characters, but move them on. Because a cat-and-mouse between these two women, at some point, has to mutate and become something else. You know, it’s all made up so just make it up but make it better. Trying to keep that all going is the challenge.”

Harry Bradbeer: “I wanted it to be what a lot of people talk about but never actually is, which is a psychological thriller. It was about a woman studying the world while we studied her doing it... It was then about setting that in a world that is beautiful and attractive but totally believable. Everything has to be real. The two things on my wall are, ‘Do I believe it?’ and ‘Do I care?’ Those are the two questions and you break away from them at your peril, because suddenly you’ve then got a shiny show that means nothing.”

BAFTA/Sam Lort - From l-r: Keefus Ciancia, David Holmes, Tom Williams, Steve Phillips and Gary Dollner

 

Gary Dollner: “The pace of the cutting is always dictated by the material. The scripts give you big clues... What really appealed to me was how funny they were, so I always tried to mine the funny moments where possible. Then, it’s a case of balancing dramatic beats but trying to keep moments funny as well. You’re always trying to walk that line.”

David Holmes: “Our music is born from our taste. So, you have this natural continuity that just happens through feeling. It’s not contrived – it either works or it doesn’t. And we don’t really question why things do or don’t work, we just know. We don’t even know why things work; we just feel it. That’s the beauty about music – you always have to feel it rather than think it. You shouldn’t question it, you should just know whether it works or not. I suppose it’s the same in every creative process.”

All of The Sessions will soon feature, in full, on BAFTA Guru.