This is episode 27 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad take you behind the scenes of their short films, Space Plug and Opening Up.  Recorded in June 2023, the episode gives you their fresh thoughts on the wins and challenges of production one week after they wrapped on set.  This conversation covers:  - We break down the lessons learned, the challenges faced, and what it takes to bridge the gap between short...

This is episode 26 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by BAFTA winning producer Chris Hees, who works across both animation and live-action.  This conversation was recorded at the Spirit of Independence Film Festival in Sheffield alongside a bunch of other industry talks, as we aim to demystify producers. In this chat we cover:-   -What is producing? -What opportunities did a BAFTA win and an...

This is episode 25 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast.   In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad discuss the process of giving and receiving notes as a Writer & Director. We were joined in this conversation by Venetia Hawkes, who is the author of the book We Have Some Notes… The Insider’s Guide to Notes, Script Editing and Development. This book is an excellent resource and features chapter interviews from some of the finest Writers &...

This is episode 24 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad get candid about directing actors and building trust on set. From early mistakes to big lessons, they share stories about casting, blocking, and working with actors to elevate on-screen moments. Drawing on experiences from their respective works, they break down the craft of guiding performance. This episode covers: First experiences directing actors The...

This is episode 23 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Jess Hong a New Zealand actor who since graduating from Drama School landed the lead role in Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss Game of Thrones follow up, the Multi-Emmy award nominated show 3 BODY PROBLEM, which was also created by Alexander Woo. In this episode we break down her early journey, successes and learnings in order to...

This is episode 22 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Adam Pearson who is an actor and star of the new A24 feature film, A Different Man alongside Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) and is written & directed by Aaron Schimberg. Adam got his first acting break in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin starring Scarlett Johansson...

This is episode 21 in our second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Paul Davies, the legendary Sound Designer who is best known for being one of Director Lynne Ramsay’s closest collaborators, with their relationship spanning all the way back to her first feature film, Ratcatcher. He is exceptional in his own right however and his unique style has landed him work with directors such as Stephen Frears, Yann...

This is episode 20 in our second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Nichola Wong, a Writer and Director who has successfully navigated her way from making short films to directing over 20 episodes of the continuing drama Hollyoaks.  The transition from shorts to TV is one of the most challenging leaps to make as a filmmaker and continuing drama’s often come with a very systemic approach to delivering a...

This is episode 19 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Catherine Lyn Scott from London Flair PR, who specialise in running BAFTA and Oscar award campaigns for short films. Catherine has helped her clients gain 32 Oscar nominations including 6 wins with films such as An Irish Goodbye (2023), The Long Goodbye (2022) starring Riz Ahmed and The Silent Child (2018). She was also attached to the most...

This is episode 18 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Andy Harrower who is the CEO of DIRECTORS UK, who help amplify the collective voice of working directors in the UK in tackling the multitude of issues that they might face. The TV & Film industry has undergone massive amounts of change over the last decade and beyond, so we wanted to get Directors UK’s perspective on the challenges...

This is episode 17 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by legendary VFX Supervisor Angus Bickerton, whose career has stretched over 40 years and landed him jobs on films such as Lost in Space, Tim Burton’s - Dark Shadows & Batman (1989), Kingsman Gold Circle, Rocketman, HBO’s House of the Dragon and most recently on Tim Burtons sequel to his 80s hit BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE starring Michael...

This is episode 16 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by legendary TV Director Greg Yaitanes, whose career has stretched over 30 years and landed him jobs on shows such as House M.D., Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Prison Break, Banshee, House of the Dragon and most recently on Apple TV’s most watched Drama of all time, PRESUMED INNOCENT starring Jake Gyllenhaal. In Part 2 we go in-depth to explore his...

This is episode 15 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by legendary Emmy winning TV Director Greg Yaitanes, whose career has stretched over 30 years and landed him jobs on shows such as House M.D., Heroes, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Prison Break, Banshee, House of the Dragon and most recently on Apple TV’s most watched Drama of all time, PRESUMED INNOCENT starring Jake Gyllenhaal. In Part 1 we cover...

This is Episode 14 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Sebastian Thiel for the second part of their conversation on how he directed three episodes of the global number one Netflix show, SUPACELL. Sebastian is also a writer, producer and all-round creative, so we brought him on to talk us through his journey toward Directing the phenomenon that is SUPACELL.   This conversation covers the...

This is Episode 13 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Sebastian Thiel, who is one of the directors on Netflix’s global number one show, SUPACELL. Sebastian is also a writer, producer and all-round creative, so we brought him on to talk us through his journey toward Directing the phenomenon that is SUPACELL.     This conversation covers the following…   -What is directing? -How did he come into...

This is Episode 12 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Brian Gilbert, a BAFTA and Oscar Nominated Director and one of the lead tutors at the National Film and Television School, who specialises in the art of performance and working with actors.  This is the second part in our conversation with Brian, as we break down the fundamentals of working with actors and how you shape their performances...

This is Episode 11 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Brian Gilbert, a BAFTA and Oscar Nominated Director and one of the lead tutors at the National Film and Television School, who specialises in the art of performance and working with actors.  Your ability to draw performances from actors is at the heart of the directors’ job, so we brought on an absolute expert in Brian Gilbert to break that...

Episode 10 of The Directors Take Podcast is AVAILABLE NOW on all major platforms. In this week’s episode your hosts Oz Arshad and Marcus Anthony Thomas are joined by absolutely no-one, as they break down how they became Writer/Directors… With a special emphasis on the writer part. Writing is one of the first skills we learn as humans and writing stories is a craft that can be learnt just like any other… So we will tell you how we did it. This chat covers:   -How did we both start...

This is Episode 9 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast… and we’ve hit a very special milestone as this is our 50th Episode overall! To mark this special occasion your hosts Oz Arshad and Marcus Anthony Thomas are joined by one of the directors of HBO’s HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and our mentor Clare Kilner. She is an exceptional filmmaker whose craft has allowed her to direct shows such as Pennyworth, The Alienist, Snowpiercer, Gen V and the other recent smash hit show, FALLOUT.  Clare...

This is Episode 8 in the second season of The Directors Take Podcast. In this week’s episode your hosts Oz Arshad and Marcus Anthony Thomas are joined by Writer & Showrunner Lauren Sequeira. A BAFTA nominated writer and a member of the BBC’s Hotlist, they wrote on Kiss Me First and seasons 1 & 2 of Gangs of London before Showrunning their very own show, BBC3’s original series Domino Day. As ever we break down Lauren’s journey and craft to uncover those delicious nuggets of...

This is Episode 7 of our brand new season of The Directors Take Podcast. This week's episode is a conversation with Producer Oliver Kassman from Escape Plan, who have made waves in the genre space in creating films such as SAINT MAUD, OUT OF DARKNESS and the recent feature LOVE LIES BLEEDING starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian & Ed Harris.  Oliver is a champion for first time filmmakers having made the above work with Rose Glass and Andrew Cummings, and there are absolutely many more...

This is Episode 6 of our brand new season of The Directors Take Podcast. This week's episode is a conversation with Dr. Thomas Curran, a renowned Psychologist and Associate Professor in the esteemed Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Author of ‘one of Bloomberg’s best books of 2023’, The Perfection Trap.  In this chat we cover…   -What is perfectionism? -Where does perfectionism come from? -How is perfectionism linked to mental...

This is Episode 5 of our brand new season of The Directors Take Podcast. This weeks episode is a chat between Marcus and Oz, where they talk about their experience as Director Shadows/Mentees on House of the Dragon for the very first time. -What was the scheme and selection process? -Our first few weeks on the production.   -Reading the scripts.   -Creating our workflow.   -How we helped the production.   -How we constructed our learning.   Our wonderful sponsor for this episode is The...

This is Episode 4 of our brand new season of The Directors Take Podcast. This weeks episode is with the exceptional Costume Designer, Cynthia Lawrence-John. She has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world such as Adidas, Samsung, Amex and with a slew of directors such as Melina Matsoukas (Queen & Slim), Kibwe Tavares (The Kitchen) and Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive). She also recently earned herself a BIFA nomination for her work on the beautiful RomCom RYE LANE and helped to...