DGC Ontario Member Jeremy Podeswa is one of the biggest Directors working in television today, with credits on critically acclaimed shows like Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Station Eleven, and this year’s hit The Three-Body Problem on Netflix, nominated for six Emmys.
How did you transition from being a feature filmmaker to primarily a Director of TV?
Director Jeremy Podeswa: I started as an independent filmmaker in Toronto, and my aspirations were just to make small, personal films. This was a trend at the time with filmmakers like Atom Egoyan, Don McKellar and Patricia Rozema. These are all friends of mine, and we grew up together as Writer-Directors in the business. I made one film, Eclipse, that went to Berlin and Sundance, and I made another movie called The Five Senses, which went to Directors Fortnight at Cannes. That film attracted a different kind of attention, and I got an agent in LA and the opportunity to direct some television. This was not something I had planned on doing in my career, but I was open to the idea. This was before what we now call “The Golden Age of Television.” At that point, it was still a novelty for someone like me to move into television directing. But working as an indie filmmaker, it would take around five years to get each film made. Directing for five weeks every five years was not what I wanted to do; I wanted to be on set directing more.
When I was younger, most of the opportunities that came up were procedurals or network TV, but cops and lawyers weren’t my thing. But then suddenly, I was being asked to direct shows like Queer As Folk for Showtime, then Six Feet Under for HBO, and that was the beginning of a new shift in television. The tagline for HBO in those days was, “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” It was a specific kind of statement about what they were trying to do, and it began with shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and Six Feet Under. You were starting to see more cinematic and complex shows with fantastic writers like Alan Ball, who had come from the theatre world. Doing Six Feet Under really changed my perspective on moving into television. I got more offers to do TV, and they became increasingly interesting projects. They were also the kind of projects I would never have the opportunity to work on as an independent filmmaker, like the show Carnivale set during the Dust Bowl period in America or Rome, which was this epic ancient Roman drama. I had the opportunity to work with very healthy budgets and great scripts with amazing casts, and it was so liberating for me as a filmmaker to try so many different things. I was working with high-level people like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, doing exciting work and travelling around the world to do it. I didn’t give up on movies, but television directing was very enticing and creatively satisfying, so it felt like a good move for me to make, and it’s been feeling good for a long time.
What are the most recent shows you’ve worked on, and what’s next on your slate?
Jeremy Podeswa: If people haven’t seen The New Look on Apple, it’s a great show about Coco Chanel and Christian Dior during the German occupation of Paris. It has a fantastic cast, with Juliette Binoche, Glenn Close, John Malkovich, and Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones. The 3 Body Problem is a huge show on Netflix made by the creators of Game of Thrones, which I highly recommend, and there will be forthcoming seasons of those shows, too. I’m also writing something now, which is exciting.
How do you adapt to directing within the tone and style of an established series with its own aesthetic and lore?
Jeremy Podeswa: I think of myself as a good student, and I think that’s a big part of it. So when I come on to a show that has a historical context or a different genre or style, I become a student of that thing. You just do a lot of research and understand the context of your episodes, and you talk with historical advisors and the showrunner, who’s very steeped in the world of the show. I don’t have to become a master on this topic because everyone else on the show already is, but it becomes a collaboration. The most interesting and complex part is how to tell this human drama. It doesn’t matter if it’s Game of Thrones, or you’re in ancient Rome or World War II: you’re telling a story about people and emotions, and you need to have an understanding of humanity. You want to make it believable and relatable, and that’s the work between you and the actors. I’m always trying to ground things in a kind of reality, no matter what time or world the story takes place in.
Is there a difference in your approach to directing and storytelling within a television series versus a feature film, where you have a more limited amount of time to tell a story?
Jeremy Podeswa: Starting off as an indie filmmaker, you’re used to never having enough time or budget, which can happen in TV. I’ve been fortunate with the shows I’ve worked on because the schedule is a little more expansive than something like a procedural, and the approach to storytelling is more cinematic. I still storyboard and plan things for the DP, and I select the locations. The biggest difference is that television has a longer arc, so when you’re storytelling, you have to think about a character’s arc over an entire season, and you’re telling a part of that story. I’m not capturing the entire arc of this character over 10 episodes, but I have to know where I am in this arc for this character over this longer journey.
For someone just coming into TV Directing today, how has the landscape changed?
Jeremy Podeswa: HBO isn’t the same anymore, and how and where we watch things is different. You have shows on demand and watch things when you want, and I think it’s changed how things are received. In the golden age of HBO, Sunday night would be Six Feet Under, Sex in the City and The Sopranos, and then later, it was Game of Thrones. We had the whole “watercooler effect,” where everyone was watching the same show worldwide on the same day. It was exciting if you were making those shows because 100 million people would be watching your show on the same day, which is pretty incredible. The biggest change now is the constriction of the market, where the streamers spent a bit too much money when they started because they were trying to get an audience. So now they have to make cheaper shows, and they have to make less of them. I think there will be fewer Game of Thrones types of shows, but you still need those tentpole series. Netflix is still making The 3 Body Problem, which just got renewed. Amazon is doing big shows as well. You gravitate towards the material and the creative people that you want to collaborate with. I could have just stayed at HBO forever because they were doing all the shows I wanted to make. I did do that for many years – between HBO and Showtime I worked almost exclusively for them for 15 years. I have come quite late streaming, actually, because I was still doing shows I liked that were on networks. But if I want to direct The New Look, I have to go to Apple, and the creators of Game of Thrones now have a deal with Netflix. That’s what’s changing, but it’s not so much what you make, and there are amazing shows that aren’t being done on an epic scale but are fresh and exciting, like The Bear or Ripley. There are still great shows out there, and as a Director, you have to find them.
How do you approach giving a masterclass or a talk on Television Directing? How do you structure it to be informative and include takeaways that you think are helpful to the audience?
Jeremy Podeswa: It really depends on who the audience is. Sometimes, you have very experienced filmmakers who haven’t done exactly what I’m doing, but they’ve been working for a long time. Then there are people who have no experience at all and are just trying to break in, or they’re in film school. For a masterclass like this at Blue Mountain, it’s a one-hour talk with a more broad audience. There are people there who are interested in getting into the business, and there are people who are just curious about how it functions. I can talk about the basic principles of how I started and what my path was, which could be a model for some people. I can’t really speak too much about the craft because that takes a little bit longer, but I can discuss certain things like how to work with actors, how you collaborate with others, how you work with a Showrunner and make their vision concrete, and just generally how to get along well with people. It’s a little bit general, but it can actually be really helpful advice. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve picked up a lot of things, and I do find that even within an hour or two, you can really convey a lot.
What do you think makes a great TV Director?
Jeremy Podeswa: There are positive attributes that successful Directors have and negative attributes that less successful Directors have. You have to have a combination of craft skills and personal skills because, as a Director, you also have to be a psychologist, you have to be a traffic cop; you have to be many different things to different people. There are many character traits that, if you naturally have them in life, are very helpful. And if you don’t, they’re very good skills to cultivate because you’re working every day with 150 people you have to get to know very quickly. It doesn’t matter how much of a creative or technical genius you are, if you don’t master that side of it, it’s gonna be a tough road.
As a Director, you’re constantly working with different crews of people. If you’re making a feature film, you’re with this crew for months and months. When you’re in television, you have to bond with people very quickly and find a common language. You have to adapt pretty quickly to a show that’s already up and running and has its own rhythm. Everyone you’re working with has a different personality, so you have to be able to adjust to what their needs are and what their expectations of you are. I always say to people that you never have to be afraid of coming onto a set because you don’t know something. It takes a lifetime to know everything, and especially when you’re starting out, you’re working with people who are way more experienced than you. The Director of Photography has probably been DPing for 10 years longer than you’ve been directing, and they’re there to help you. Nobody wants you to fail when you’re on a show. When you’re starting out, you can lean on people, and you can be humble, and you can ask them to explain things. At the same time, you can’t come in knowing nothing. You need to be prepared, and you have to know that you’re prepared. But once that’s established, you don’t have to fear the process. You will learn as you go and grow that way.
