John Adams and Hayley Webster-Lerigo.
Recently, Hayley Webster-Lerigo took part in the Directors UK Inspire scheme. Partnering with director and mentor John Adams, Hayley set off with the aim of taking the next steps in her career — and ended up gaining valuable experience behind the camera on various entertainment programmes.
We caught up with Hayley and John about their time on the Inspire scheme, and chatted about how it went, what they learned, and what advice they had — read the full conversation below.
Hayley, could you tell me a bit about your background as a director?
Hayley: I started multi-camera directing at Sky News 5 years ago. Prior to that I was an EVS operator and then a vision mixer for Sky News and Sky Sports News, so I had already fell in love with working in a live gallery environment. Sky News then moved over to an automated system called ‘Ross Overdrive’, so it was a great opportunity to make the transition from vision mixing to directing. I started by directing the overnights for the first year. I then trained up across the daytime shows including Sky News Today, Mark Austin’s News Hour and the News at Ten. It was quite an intense introduction to directing but it was brilliant. It really got me comfortable directing live television, adapting to fast paced changes, and improvising when things might not go as expected. I still freelance there now so it has been great to direct new shows they have recently been launching in their new studios, The Politics Hub, UK Tonight and World News and just see how much things have changed over time.
And the same question to you, John.
John: Since the age of eleven I always wanted to be a multi-camera director. I started off in editorial, working up to be a producer on shows such as I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Saturday Night Takeaway. In 2014 I made the move into directing, first as a reality director on Big Brother and Love Island before working my way into daytime as studio director for shows such as Loose Women, This Morning and Saturday Kitchen Live. This led me to launching Steph’s Packed Lunch for Channel 4 and many other entertainment shows: directing everything from game and quiz shows to music and live events. My recent projects include Rema’s sellout concert live from The O2 as well as Don’t Forget the Lyrics! and Beat Shazam for FOX in the US.
Hayley, why did you apply for the Inspire scheme?
Hayley: I always wanted to work in entertainment or comedy entertainment, and it felt like the right stage in my career to start focusing on working towards directing in the area of television I would like to work in. Obviously, I’ve learnt so much directing in news — and I love the job — but my goal was always entertainment and it felt like I needed to ask myself how to get the right skills to go to that next step in my career. With Inspire, I thought that if I could get to work with someone like John, then I can ask the questions I need to fill gaps in my knowledge and feel comfortable when applying for future the jobs. The Inspire programme has been absolutely perfect for that.
Tell me a bit about reaching out to John. Did you know each other already or was it through Inspire?
Hayley: We didn’t know each other beforehand. I just looked through Find a Director on the Directors UK website. I was looking at directors who had worked on shows that I’d be interested in or watched throughout the years. Obviously, when I saw John’s CV I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’d be amazing.’ So, I just reached out, sent him an email and asked if we could meet up for a coffee to chat. When I met with John, he was just the perfect person. It was so nice to hear about the steps that he took in his career at a similar age because obviously, you get to a certain point where you think, ‘Okay, how do I move or adjust?’ And John was so passionate, even before he was officially my mentor, giving lots of suggestions and advice about how directing daytime is a great place to develop as a director. I thought he’d be the perfect mentor, so I just asked and he agreed, which was really nice.
Behind the scenes of Steph’s Packed Lunch.
John, had you ever mentored before, or was that out of the blue as an idea for you?
John: It wasn’t something that I’d really thought about. I feel similarly to Hayley, it was the right time. I felt like I was at the right stage in my career where I had enough knowledge and experience to impart to Hayley, but it certainly wasn’t something that I’d looked into. Subsequently, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone because I think it’s brilliant for the mentor and the mentee. I think it’s absolutely crucial, especially in this day and age where we don’t have the training that directors had 20 years ago.
Meeting Hayley, it was very easy just from our first coffee to say yes to being her Inspire mentor, because there was someone in front of me that just loved the work. I was like a kid at Christmas. There was two of us in this coffee shop in town getting really excited about directing, and that was a really good sign.
From that coffee onwards, how did it take shape? Did you decide you were going to have regular meetings?
Hayley: From the start, Sean Thomas who was running the Inspire programme at Directors UK was quite clear about setting out an action plan. And I’m very structured. So, right away I had in mind: ‘This is what I want to learn. I want to learn how to draw up a camera plan from scratch because I haven’t had much opportunity to do that in news. I want to learn how to script cameras for a more structured show with more cameras. I want to hear how my mentor got into to the position they are in now, how do they prep for the shows they work on. If I do get the chance to shadow, what would I want to learn whilst there?’
For that, John again was perfect. From our first meeting I’d said, ‘If I were to start on a new show now and set it up from the start, what would I ask? What would I do?’ He was so helpful in going through the whole process with me. I’d ask if we could have a session on camera plans, then we’d set up a Zoom, and then John sent me over some episodes of different shows that he’d worked on, and then he showed me the camera plans. I’d write notes and then the next meeting we had was a follow-up. So, I wrote loads of questions for him and interrogated him for an hour of, ‘Well, how did you do that? I noticed that shot was there, which camera did you get that on?’ So, it was quite structured from the start.
We did the same with scripting. John showed me camera scripts for Steph’s Packed Lunch and Oti Mabuse’s Breakfast Show, and it was eye opening – I hadn’t scripted cameras so specifically before, and there were certain new terminologies that John was teaching me.
By that point, he’d introduced me to people at ITV daytime and then it got towards the shadowing side of things. So, I met with Dickie from Loose Women and I shadowed him, and then Barry from This Morning, who I also shadowed. With John, I also did some prep for meeting with those directors.
It was after shadowing with Barry that I got an offer to direct on Lorraine. Again, John and I met up and prepped for that. Following this, John introduced me to people he had worked with on Steph’s Packed Lunch which led to shadowing Lewis. He was super helpful and luckily, I got the opportunity to direct an episode before the show ended.
So, the first half was quite structured and then it naturally followed on to setting up and getting me ready for the next step — and John was so generous with his time and knowledge throughout.
John, as a mentor, how was that?
John: To me, it was naturally great. Hayley and I — I hope I’m speaking for both of us — have become friends because of this scheme.
Hayley: Definitely.
John: You know when you’re in a room with friends and you have similar interests, it’s natural, you don’t think about it. It was absolutely collaborative. It wasn’t a teacher-student dynamic. It very much felt like two directors on a very even playing field in a room bashing ideas around. One time I’d just got a show, I think it was Don’t Forget the Lyrics!, and we were changing the set. I was looking at putting a steadicam in and changing how to shoot it, and I very much brought that to one of our meetings in town and used Hayley’s advice. It was very much two ways. So, I’m expecting quite a large invoice after the end of all this!
Hayley came to Oti Mabuse’s Breakfast Show with me and she had a real presence in that studio, when I was taking her around. Hayley’s got great initiative. In the moments where I couldn’t be there and give her the attention that I should, she was introducing herself to people, to crew and the production team. She looked like the director on the floor, despite not being the one in the chair that day, and she was so engaged, asking the right questions and helping. I can’t remember what the item was, but we had some kind of choreography item. So, I asked Hayley how she’d stage it. Collaborating like that was brilliant.
Hayley: That’s really kind.
John: I’m trying to get some of that invoice back!
Hayley, if you were to pick one thing from the Inspire experience that was most valuable, what would you say it was?
Hayley: It’s really hard to pick. Before Inspire I’d directed only news and by the end I’d directed multiple episodes of Lorraine, and I’d directed an episode of Steph's Packed Lunch. I think I never would’ve had the confidence to do that without John’s support.
The one thing John really encouraged was asking people for their advice on things. To go up to camera supervisors and ask for their advice, because I think as a freelance director going in and getting a feel for things, it’s the crew that work on the show day in, day out, so they’re the specialists. I think originally, I wouldn’t have felt the confidence to ask them.
Hayley, what advice would you give someone applying to Inspire as a mentee? And John, what advice would you give to someone who was thinking about mentoring someone on Inspire?
Hayley: I would just say to have a detailed plan of what you want to get out of it. From the start, I had a really clear idea what I wanted to learn. Getting the right mentor, too. It’s difficult — directors are busy! — but I think doing some research into who I wanted, meeting up with John and knowing how comfortable I felt with him from an hour’s coffee, was essential. I think you know you're going to have the consistency throughout if you find someone who is right for you. I’m just lucky he said yes!
John: Similar to Hayley, I’d say get the right mentee. Don’t say yes to absolutely anyone, because it’s only really going to work if the relationship works. Like I said before, me and Hayley get on really well and I’ve got so much out of it. I think for it to work, it has to work both ways — and then it’s really fulfilling.
