JUMP INTO THE DEEP END: Being a TV Episodic Director
There’s a metaphor that proposes that a new difficult experience is like jumping into the deep end of a pool and learning to swim even though the water is over your head. It’s an appropriate one for being a freelance episodic TV director, wherein if one is lucky enough to be hired by multiple production companies, you’re jumping into a new deep end of a new pool, over and over.
I’m one of those lucky ones, returning to freelancing after staying on some shows for the length of the production season as a Producing Director (P/D.) While the consistency provided comfort, it also provided an excessive yearning to direct more, since I was only allowed by contract to direct three episodes in a season (at the beginning, middle and end.) Oh, how I missed directing! Being on set, where the storytelling was lifted off the page, making decisions, refining performances and creatively using the camera - it was worth giving up the perks of being a P/D in exchange for the uncertainties of various deep ends (productions) to experience the pure JOY of directing again.
Yes, it was worth it. But that decision did entail diving back in to separate pools in which I was unfamiliar with so much: the people I didn’t know, the etiquette that went unspoken, the history of relationships and experiences. I was the newbie in an ongoing enterprise who had to learn very fast, as all freelance directors must. At least this time my dive kit was laden with enough experience to prevent me from hitting my head on the bottom. So for those who are just beginning swimmers, a few pointers:
STAY UNDER WATER
In prep, do a lap underwater until you touch the wall. That is, stay focused on the goal – to prep well in order to shoot well without calling undue attention to yourself. Do your work intensely and fully without needing others’ approval. Don’t make pronouncements or otherwise operate out of ego. Mostly this means working alone on nights and weekends, making sure you have the whole script prepped before you shoot a single scene. Just keep swimming your laps powerfully but quietly until it’s time to come up for air and share your vision.
ENJOY THE SILENCE
All of the intrusive sounds are muffled and you can allow your entire experience to be enveloped in your own thoughts. All of the distracting talk and protracted discussions recede, and while you do interact with many others in the prep process and collaborate fully, it’s a lovely thing to return to your own head, your own imagination, where it’s silent and mysterious and you can visualize the story.
LEARN A NEW STROKE
This is not your pool, it’s the production’s. In this pool, the director has to learn to swim per the instruction board hung on the wall. Perhaps splashing is against the rules, so you won’t be doing any cannonballs off the diving board. Perhaps they want everyone to stay in the shallow end or conversely, they want directors to go so deep that they invent a new breathing apparatus. Freelance directors have to adapt, playing by the production’s rules but creating something magical and new while always staying inside that one pool. So sometimes a director is forced to learn a new stroke, to do things differently simply because this is a different show. But it’s important to remember that this is their pool, their show. Play by their rules, but maybe you can dazzle them with a new stroke that they’ve never seen before.
DON’T BE AFRAID OF DROWNING
No matter what happens, you can keep your head above water. You can survive. You know that for sure. But the fear of drowning keeps us from being an Olympic swimmer or a high-dive artist. Fear is what holds us back or upsets us or leads to a stumble or mistake. None of that is good. You’re going to be in that pool and you have to swim. How can you lose the fear – that fear of messing up, of being not good enough? How can you move beyond the fear to exhilarating success?
Experience will teach you that you have what it takes.
But if you’re inexperienced, use one of those Styrofoam boards that you can hold on to and kick for dear life. One of those boards could be a mentor. Or 1000% preparation. Or continue to practice by shooting your own short films until you feel confident. As Malcolm Gladwell taught us in his book “Outliers” (subtitled “The Story of Success”) to master any skill, you need ten thousand hours of practice. So dive in and swim. In other words, you’re a director. So direct. Even if it’s on weekends using your cell phone.
HAVE A SWIM PARTY!
The owners of the pool have hired you to host a swim party, inviting everyone they know. But you’re the newbie, now having to act as the host/ess, i.e., the boss! First, find out the names of all the people at your party. Greet them as they come into the backyard, ask them their name, what they need and how you can help. As the party progresses, hang out with them, make sure they get to know you and what you need in order to fulfill your vision. How can you all work together, each bringing their own abilities, to create a coherent whole? You will provide direction. That’s what you bring to the party. Everyone else will bring their skills, whether as an actor, a department head, a crew member. Together you will have an awesome PARTY!!
AND… throughout the party, you will be continually swimming. And you’ll love it! It’s the most exciting thing, to swim/direct with panache and skill! Then perhaps on another day, the next Producer will invite you over to swim and you’ll say “Yes!” and jump into the deep end of their pool without fear, bringing a dive kit of philosophies and experience that will guarantee your success.