We finished off Friday night’s festival fruits with a fizzy one-on-one with MJ Bassett – Director, Producer, Writer, and lover of all things that go BANG! – on our screen.
Beginning as a wildlife photographer and documentary maker, in 2001 MJ directed her first feature DEATH WATCH. After that came 20 years of work across the most exciting genres of horror (WILDERNESS), fantasy (SOLOMON KANE), and sci-fi (ALTERED CARBON).
MJ Bassett talked pitches, budget constraints, and how going in blind with her first feature Death Watch was a blessing in disguise, as well as a baptism of fire.
Take home advice highlights from MJ include:
The importance of economy and pragmatism (especially writing for TV).
Accept that you will be told you have to scale your BIG thing down. You will be told to reduce your 20 locations to 10, so think about sets that you can reuse. Why do you think so many shows have a ‘communications room’ or a club house? Star Trek’s ‘bridge’ gets A LOT of action.
As much as MJ wants to realise a vision, she also wants to deliver for the producers and get the project made. This requires ingenuity, creativity, persistence, and most of the time, compromise.
In TV, the pilot will get all the resources and love. In Ash V’s Evil Dead, Director Sam Raimi was given 30 days for the pilot episode including shoots and reshoots. MJ (and other directors on the series) would be given seven days to film their episodes all while maintaining the quality.
The bar is set and you have to keep it, so knowing the business is key. Directing is a continuous learning experience, and as TV has no fat, no extra time or budget – you have to adapt and accept the challenges.
Collaboration v Executive decisions
MJ likes her films and TV episodes to move people, and most of the time… blow up! But working in TV requires a delicate balance of influence versus ‘knowing your lane’, particularly when working with US productions.
When MJ receives a script to direct she wears her ‘Practical hat’ asking herself:‘Can you do it?’ followed by ‘Do I want to watch this?’ When the answer to the second question is no, she will ask ‘What about if we try something different?’
Sadly, darlings will get killed. MJ describes a big ‘spectacular’ set piece she spent a day filming, only to see it discarded in the edit. There is an art to making suggestions for changes in scripts she is given. MJ will always push if she thinks she can improve the scene, but at the end of the day, she will give the material and the end result episode is out of her hands.
Standing Out
What is the motor of the story that keeps the audience watching? What are the visuals?
You can put a really exciting protagonist in a dull world and people will probably watch, but a dull protagonist in an exciting world? That’s going to be a switch off.
As a writer you’ve got to decide what your story is about; what story you want to tell. Have that vision, own it. How do you make the thing something YOU want to watch, because if you try to give people what you think THEY want, you will make, in MJ’s words, rubbish.
Executives are looking for a voice that is different from the other genre voices they may have on the schedule. Ask yourself how your voice is different from others. What makes it distinctive? How are you going to make your mark?
Lesley McGlynn is a new screenwriter for TV Drama and Comedy, and was a Studio Camera woman and News Director in a very recent previous life.
