As directors, you have a diverse range of transferable skills in your professional toolkit — from mentoring, to creative thinking, to project management.
Delivered in partnership with the Directors Charitable Foundation, this webinar will explore how to identify those skills, and how to use them to build a portfolio career. It will also encourage you to think innovatively about how expanding your knowledge and experience in other areas could help to enhance your directing craft in the long term.
This session is an opportunity to consider additional channels for your skills, and avenues for potential income streams that could complement and elevate your directing work. This could be anything from teaching or delivering training, to working in gaming, or reaching out as a mentor to other directors.
Facilitated by Directors UK members John Dower, Suri Krishnamma, Lily Murray and Delyth Thomas, alongside professional development consultant Hannah Corneck, this webinar will explore how expanding their skillset has enhanced their directing careers. They will also discuss the importance of using downtime to consider how you can effectively multi-skill within your own career.
Trustee of the Directors Charitable Foundation and former Directors UK board member, Dan Zeff, will be moderating this session.
When: Wednesday 28 February, 6.30 — 8.00pm
Where: Online
Accessibility
BSL interpretation and live captioning will be present for this session. If you have any questions or access requirements, please contact [email protected].
About Hannah Corneck
Hannah Corneck is a professional development consultant with 30 years’ experience in unscripted production, building and leading teams to produce some of the UK’s most recognizable TV brands. She has been working as an executive coach, leadership trainer, people strategist and creative consultant in screen and audio for over 15 years.
About John Dower
John Dower is a Director working in Film, TV and Games. He has directed over 80 episodes of TV drama including Casualty, Eastenders and Wolfblood. His numerous short films have been screened at over 70 film festivals worldwide, winning several awards.
Since 2007, he has worked in Games and Interactivity, directing Cinematics and Voice on productions including Milo & Kate, 007 Legends, GTA V online, Space Marine 2 and Formula 1 2023. In 2014, John co-founded The Mocap Vaults, a world-leading Motion and Performance Capture School, and in 2022 co-wrote a book for Methuen Drama for actors, animators and directors on Performing in Motion Capture.
He is a Trustee at the Directors Charitable Foundation and teaches regularly on the Games Design & Development MA at NFTS. He is also a reparations campaigner, spearheading the Trevelyan family apology to the people of Grenada in 2023 and is a co-founder of www.heirsofslavery.org.
About Suri Krishnamma
Suri Krishnamma has a broad range of experience across television and feature film, including being the winner of an RTS award in 2021 and a three-time BAFTA nominee. He recently directed The Canterville Ghost for BBC Studios, as well as award-winning productions A Respectable Trade and The Cazalets. He has also directed numerous prime-time and continuing dramas, including Waking the Dead, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, as well as a number of internationally acclaimed feature films
Suri is Professor of Film at Norwich University of the Arts and a past President of the Jury for the Munich International Festival of Film Schools. He has worked closely with Directors UK the in the past, leading the Directing Actors workshop.
About Lily Murray
Lily Murray is a BAFTA award winning and Grierson nominated self-shooting PD who trained at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
With expertise in current affairs observational documentary and factual entertainment, Lily is a trained journalist who specialises in making ob-doc programmes for BBC and Channel 4.
She is also a qualified teacher and currently lectures in documentary at universities around the UK, whilst teaching television camera workshops at DV Talent.
About Delyth Thomas
Three times BAFTA-nominated director Delyth Thomas’ credits range from dark brooding crime to iconic family gems. Her prime-time credits include Victoria, Silent Witness and Ben Chanan’s Sky series Then You Run. Delyth has directed several family dramas, including The Story of Tracy Beaker, Hetty Feather and The Worst Witch. She also works as a voice director on video games and is co-founder of the Call It! app.
About Dan Zeff
Dan Zeff is a director and screenwriter. His work spans comedy and drama and includes The Queen and I (King Bert/Sky), Eric, Ernie and Me (Objective/BBC4), Inside No.9 and Siblings (BBC). He recently completed a 2-hour episode of ITV series Grace.
Dan is a Trustee of the Directors Charitable Foundation. As lead trustee for Mental Health, he recently set up their Directors Therapy Support scheme which offers discounted – and in some cases free - counselling to Directors in need. Dan is a former Directors UK Board member and was previously a member of the Film + TV Charity working group for Community/Peer Support.
