Post your questions for GS director Terry Kinane

[ibindere]

Terry, i'm curious to know why you co-directed "a room with a view" (series 5 ep 1) with robin nash.

All other episodes seem to be directed solely by either robin, yourself, or nic phillips. Why was it decided that this particular episode needed two directors? And how did you split the duties?

[Terry Kinane]

Oct 20, 2011 11:16:04 GMT -5 ibindere said:

Terry, i'm curious to know why you co-directed "a room with a view" (series 5 ep 1) with robin nash.

All other episodes seem to be directed solely by either robin, yourself, or nic phillips. Why was it decided that this particular episode needed two directors? And how did you split the duties?

I think it was because I was working on another project when some of the location shooting had to be done. Robin therefore shot that footage.

[ibindere]

Thanks Terry!

Another quick question: in the various scenes where gary performs at the piano, it's clear that nick is doing the singing but i assume it wasn't him actually playing the piano as well. Who played the piano?

[Terry Kinane]

Oct 21, 2011 4:05:05 GMT -5 ibindere said:

Thanks Terry!

Another quick question: in the various scenes where gary performs at the piano, it's clear that nick is doing the singing but i assume it wasn't him actually playing the piano as well. Who played the piano?

Nick can play the piano...although he would agree that his ability is very limited in that area. We had a professional musician come in for those shots.

[ibindere]

Thanks again Terry :-)

[col]

Probably a silly question who's idea was it to make Ron a Man Utd fan seen as he is a Liverpudlian

[Terry Kinane]

Nov 4, 2011 20:00:42 GMT -5 col said:

Probably a silly question who's idea was it to make Ron a Man Utd fan seen as he is a Liverpudlian

Vic actually supports Everton. I can't remember why Ron supported Man u. I'll ask Vic and get back to you.

[col]

Nov 5, 2011 19:24:20 GMT -5 Terry Kinane said:

Nov 4, 2011 20:00:42 GMT -5 col said:

Probably a silly question who's idea was it to make Ron a Man Utd fan seen as he is a Liverpudlian

Vic actually supports Everton. I can't remember why Ron supported Man u. I'll ask Vic and get back to you.

OK many thanks Terry

[Terry Kinane]

Vic's answer....."The quirkiness of Ron . The only Liverpudlian who would support man u on the whole of the planet" .
..

[col]

Nov 6, 2011 18:01:40 GMT -5 Terry Kinane said:

Vic's answer....."The quirkiness of Ron . The only Liverpudlian who would support man u on the whole of the planet" .
..

haha i suppose that makes sense

[maximus]

Hi Terry,

I'd loved to hear your perspective on what each actor brought to their character. I know from experience that actors bring a little of themselves, or rather part of their own personality leaks through into the performance. I am particularly interested in what Emma and Liz brought, because they would have changed their characters personality in some way from the previous actresses portrayals'.

Thanks in advance Terry. Your insights have been very interesting. Much appreciated!

[Terry Kinane]

Nov 21, 2011 14:10:13 GMT -5 maximus said:

Hi Terry,

I'd loved to hear your perspective on what each actor brought to their character. I know from experience that actors bring a little of themselves, or rather part of their own personality leaks through into the performance. I am particularly interested in what Emma and Liz brought, because they would have changed their characters personality in some way from the previous actresses portrayals'.

Thanks in advance Terry. Your insights have been very interesting. Much appreciated!

It really happens in two ways, Maximus. Through the process of rehearsal, certain individual traits start to emerge with the cast. Little things that a Director will see at that point, and that the writers will see on the completed episode.

As an example, I learned very early on working with Nick (when we were making 'The Two Of Us' for LWT) that he can frequently deliver as much with a look as with a line. I would therefore find myself asking the writer simply to write 'ASHLEY REACTS' rather than an actual reaction line for Nick.

Nick and I would joke on Sweetheart when we saw an actual line written as a reaction. Nick would look at me and say "17", meaning that he would deliver his reaction look 17 at that point rather than say the line. He didn't actually have a list, but you get the point.

Regarding Emma and Liz; Emma wanted Yvonne to be softer with Gary. She wanted the character to be frustrated with Gary rather than angry as Michelle had played it. I agreed with her, because there's room for warmth and reconciliation in frustration.

As for Liz; she really just wanted to portray the fear of uncertainty that a young woman in Phoebe's position would have had during the war years. She was interested in looking at how Gary and Phoebe interacted with each other in the Dervla episodes, but she also wanted to keep that slight naivety that a woman from the 40s would have.

[maximus]

Thanks for the reply Terry. That's very interesting. I think Liz successfully portrayed Pheobe living with that underlying fear.

I hadn't picked up on it before, but what you have said has made me think of a particularly pogniant moment in the final episode, when Gary tells Pheobe that Hitler is dead. When I saw that scene originally, I didn't consider why Pheobe was so devastatingly emotionally, beyond the fact that a particularly bad individual had just died. Now that I know Liz wanted to portray Pheobe as having lived with this latent fear mixed with nativity, that moment when she breaks down with emotion was a release of all that feeling. A beautiful piece of acting, which I'm embarrassed I didn't fully appreciate until now.

That is one of the reasons why I love GS. I have gained at least some insight into how people felt during the war. Looking backwards, everything always seems to flow logically, giving a false sense that people back then must have known things would work out in the end. That deceptively simple scene with Nic and Liz was perfect.

By the way, I completely agree with you about Nic's ability to act through gesture. He is one of the most gifted natural actors I have ever seen. Your frequent use of close up shots on Nic really played to his strength very well. I think, particularly in comedy, the use of body language can draw an audience into a scene or a moment. I can remember many hilarious moments with Nic that were based on his body language rather than a punch line. The scene where Pheobe meets Yvonne springs to mind!

[Terry Kinane]

I think the two episodes I enjoyed directing the most were the episode where Yvonne and Phoebe meet, and the spy episode...particularly the train scenes. Great memories.

[maximus]

I remember watching an interview with Liz, and she chose the Pheobe meeting Yvonne episode as her favorite too! I thought that episode in particular was very funny. It looked like you and the cast had a lot of fun with it.

The Welsh spy episode was very interesting. I didn't realize you directed that episode as well. Great pacing. Each scene in that episode carried the story forward at a tempo that was just like a real war time detective thriller. I presume the pacing was deliberate to provide a sense of urgency? That episode was one of my favorites.

Did you have much freedom as the director to interpret the script, or were the writers very specific? If so, is there a specific moment or detail in an episode that came solely from your direction?

[Terry Kinane]

Sweetheart was very much a team effort. John Bartlett (Producer) was in the rehearsal room for most of the scenes, and the writers were only a phone call away.

On my episodes, if anyone came up with a better idea than what we were doing, we'd look at it. I think it's fair to say that not much needed changing by the time we were rehearsing each episode. The scripts were third draft by that time, and John and I had flagged suggestions to the writers after drafts one and two.

The cast also had good suggestions on each episode.

The bottom line is that each scene has a rhythm. I saw my job being to get the cast into the natural rhythm of each scene. Once you do that, the episode just flows.

[maximus]

Thanks Terry.

Do you recall any episode, or perhaps a specific scene, that yourself and the cast felt was troublesome to make? I'm not thinking especially about technical challenges, such as getting a forklift on stage. What I am really interested in is any scene that didn't immediately work on stage the way it did in your mind when you first read it, and perhaps required a late change while being rehearsed.

There was a lot of subtlety emotional scenes in the series. Surely they weren't all easy to translate from paper to stage?

[Terry Kinane]

Bear in mind, Maximus, that I first read the episode as a Draft 1 script months earlier. At that time, it's easy to see where the problems are, and where an actor might have a problem with a scene for whatever reason.

In most cases, the second Draft script addressed those issues. Then, at the time we did the 'block read' of all of the episodes for the upcoming season with the cast, we could talk with them about any issues they might have with a particular script.

So, by the time we got to rehearse the episode where a cast member had an issue with a scene or scenes, the issues had been addressed.....not always to the satisfaction of the cast member, but it had been addressed, and the Executive Producers had signed off on it.

So, although there were a couple of times in rehearsal where one of the actors wasn't too happy with a scene, he or she recognized that Lo and Mo had signed off on it, and now we had to work it to get the most out of it.

I remember a scene with Gary and Ron at the time portal. I can't remember which episode it was, but I remember that it was a Geoff Rowley script, and Vic wasn't happy about what Ron was doing and saying in that scene. The four of us; myself, John Bartlett, Nick and Vic worked that scene for a couple of hours at the end of the rehearsal day, and in the end it was fine.

[maximus]

While we are on that topic, do you remember any issues with the final episode, Accentuate the Positive? It was such an unusual way to end the show, particularly Vic and Emma's final scene. Did each of the main cast have any particular input into how their character would end his/her journey? I presume Nic and Emma couldnt change much since their characters fate in particular was tightly decided by Marks and Gran. Did Liz and Vic have much to say on how they would like their characters end story to play out?

Apologies if you feel I'm flooding you with questions! Your answers have been very interesting. It's very unusual to have the opportunity to gain an insight into one of my favorite shows. Thanks again Terry!

[Terry Kinane]

I don't think any of us were really happy with the final episode. The honest answer is no, the cast didn't have a say in how the series would end.

There were so many parameters to consider. Should there be finality, or should we leave the door open for possible future episodes? Where should we leave Gary, Phoebe , Yvonne and Ron?

In the end, Lo and Mo decided how it would end and that was that. The final script was delivered very late...I think so that there wasn't time to change or debate it.

I think the final episode was disappointing.