On Thursday 13 June, Directors UK members travelled to VUE Piccadilly for a special screening of Good Omens, followed by a Q&A with director Douglas Mackinnon.
The Q&A session was moderated by Metin Hüseyin (Shameless, Fortitude), and subjects included everything from how Douglas first got involved in the project to using the music of David Bowie to explain the tone of Good Omens to the cast.
If you couldn’t make it on the evening, don’t worry! You can catch up with all our live-tweets from the evening below.
Our special member screening of @GoodOmensPrime is about to begin. Join us afterwards when we’ll be live-tweeting our Q&A with director @drmuig #DUKomens pic.twitter.com/VfCbxPd7Vl
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
We’ve just watched the first two fantastic episodes of @GoodOmensPrime, and now we’re joined by @drmuig for a Q&A #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas is in conversation with fellow director @MetinHuseyin #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas is in conversation with fellow director @MetinHuseyin #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Metin asks Douglas how he ended up directing Good Omens #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas tells us that he was given the first script on the day of his son’s 18th birthday and so initially said he wouldn’t be able to read it that day. The producer said just read the first 10 pages, and after that he was in #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
He was asked how he’d approach the tone if he got to direct it. He said the tone is there is no tone! #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
The book is a great mix of different tones and he realised that the best approach would be to embrace that anarchy #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
In some ways Douglas became the guardian of the book, even more than writer Neil Gaiman #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
While Neil thought certain scenes and plots would need to be taken out for budget reasons, Douglas was always saying, ‘no, put it back it in!’ #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
The project took a long time to get to production. There was a reticence to believe that it was really happening until it was #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas worked with storyboard artist Mike Collins, who he’d worked with on #Sherlock and #DoctorWho #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
.@drmuig and @MetinHuseyin before the Q&A #DUKomens pic.twitter.com/AFBOLog0J6
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
To explain the tone to the actors, Douglas would play them 2 Bowie songs #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
First he’d play Life on Mars and draw their attention to the Rick Wakeman piano line - possibly the best piano line in modern music. But Douglas would say ‘that isn’t Good Omens’ #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
So then he’d play Aladdin Sane and say ‘now that’s Good Omens’. That crazy Mike Garson piano that really shouldn’t work but does #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Questions from our audience now #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas talks about postproduction and says the show couldn’t have been made even a few years ago. Technology and funding have caught up with what they needed #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
They found a lot of the film in the editing process, but in many ways went back to the structure of the book. There’s a reason why so many people love that book - why don’t we use what’s already there #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
And then just everything clicked #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Neil met with Steven Moffat before they started the initial cut, and his advice about dealing with losing a scene because it was too expensive was to write a better scene so you don’t feel bad about what you’ve lost. ‘That’s easy to say if you’re Steven Moffat!’ #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Douglas tells us about working for Amazon, saying their notes were always helpful and never forced upon them #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
The book is very English and they wanted to capture that tone. He wanted the Soho-iest Soho they could provide #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
If that works well for international audiences then that’s great, but it was about capturing that feel #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
And though they might start with stereotypes, as you go deeper everything gets subverted. You start with quaint English villages but end with explosions! #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
And that’s a wrap! A huge thanks to @drmuig for joining us, and to @MetinHuseyin for moderating #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
You can watch @GoodOmensPrime on Amazon right now, and it’ll be shown on BBC later this year #DUKomens
— Directors UK (@Directors_UK) June 13, 2019
Thank you to everyone who came along to our session! Good Omens is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime, and will be shown on the BBC in late 2019.
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