Directors Digest — Friday 30 August 2024

In the news this week, the industry reacts to Edinburgh TV Festival's talking points, factual indie Label1 shuts down, and co-directors of a new documentary share why they believe the camera can be a tool to help people heal.

Read all about it in this week’s digest.

News

•  Coalition for Change, the pan-industry group that launched in 2020 with the ambition to improve working conditions in the TV industry, has closed to avoid overlapping with the new Action for Freelancers group. (Broadcast)

•  Martin Lewis spoke out against TV’s treatment of freelancers during an interview at Edinburgh TV Festival last week. (Deadline) In her Alternative MacTaggart lecture at the festival, Carol Vorderman criticised the TV industry’s “snobbery” for alienating working class viewers and those who live outside the capital. (Broadcast)

•  Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, The RT Hon Lisa Nandy MP, will be outlining her priorities for the creative industries at this year’s Royal Television Society Convention taking place on Tuesday 17 September. (Televisual)

•  Fremantle UK has closed factual indie Label1, best known for long-running BBC ob-doc series Hospital. (Televisual)

Features

•  So many of our members, who are freelance directors, are in crisis right now. In this Broadcast piece, employers are acknowledging the widespread problems in UK factual TV production. (Broadcast) It is action, however, that must be taken by those with the power to do so.

•  Casting director Chloë Curran shares how she approaches bridging the divide between actors and up-and-coming indie filmmakers. (IndieWire)

•  Speakers at the Edinburgh TV Festival painted a bleak picture of scripted comedy’s future. (Broadcast)

Opinion

•  Jon Sen argues continuing drama is key to addressing working-class representation in the sector. (Broadcast)

Director Interviews

•  Director Michael Waldman on the making of new documentary series The Zelensky Story. (Televisual)  

•  Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of new documentary Sugarcane, share how their experience making the film convinced them that the camera can be a tool to help documentary participants heal. (IndieWire)

•  Director Wes Ball, editor Dan Zimmerman, and production VFX supervisor Erik Winquist comment on pre-VFX ‘Raw Cut’ of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. (IndieWire)