Directions - Steve Finn

Steve Finn is a director of drama and has directed some of UK's biggest and longest-running dramas including EastEnders, The Bill, London's Burning, Casualty and Holby City.
He started off as a runner and worked his way up to assistant director and later as a director. He now also teaches on the BBC's famed academy training courses.
One of Steven's specialities as a director is doing the storytelling through working with actors and crew under a very tight schedule and incredible pressure.

"The key thing that I've learned by watching other people direct is - If you're going to be a director direct. You need someone in charge on a set and it's important that that person is in charge."

Being prepared and having everything planned for the production is important to keep everything flowing and to avoid falling behind schedule. An important part of being the director is to see the production as a whole and seeing the come to life before getting on set.

"The role of a director is important. If you didn't have a director on the production wouldn't work. It's like having an orchestra without a composer."

Steve later explained to us that acting can be defined as "doing". What people are doing is what makes drama, not what they're saying. The best scripts don't have the story in their dialogue but in their actions.

He ended the lesson by talking about master-shots. The point of a master-shot having a wide shot that develops. If it doesn't develop it's just a regular wide. If the master-shot is good master you will stay on it longer, using less coverage. The defenition of a good mastershot is a shot that you would want to use again and again ad again (or you don't want to cut it at all).