Debs Paterson

Things moved very quickly after that first successful short – it led to three other award winning shorts, producer relationships and a first feature with Pathé and BBC Films within two years. And then my first movie itself happened crazy fast – we had the idea January 2009, my shorts and the script gave Pathé the willingness to risk letting me direct it, we were on location in Africa shooting 35mm February 2010, and premiered at the Toronto Film Fest and as a red carpet gala at the London Film Fest in September and October to standing ovations before releasing in cinemas internationally. It was both an incredible experience and an insane learning curve. I was suddenly a director, first feature under the belt, with industry reps in London and LA – but next to no experience of how to get more directing work, and no real peers. At that time I didn’t know any other female directors who were doing anything like studio movies – and I didn’t have many male director friends either. I was mad ignorant about the industry – didn’t know what a manager did, didn’t know how to go about pitching future projects. I was very ambitious and very tired after the film came out. So did a lot of meetings, that were mostly enjoyable – but I didn’t realise how important it was to connect the dots between the work I had done and the work I wanted to do next, so sort of missed capitalising on that ‘hot’ window when my movie came out. (I also had some bad personal stuff go down, which definitely didn’t help.)  

So obstacles and setbacks actually came more after my first feature in many ways. I had three high profile feature projects in a row which got development investment but then disappeared before production – which represented something like seven years of work with nothing onscreen to show for it at the end of the day. Yes, I learned a lot in those years – yes, I met good people and wrote good scripts – but having nothing to show for all of that work was really discouraging, and the rejections affected how much I trusted my instincts and believed in my own talent. I found myself trying to write the thing that people would be happy to read, and started waiting for yeses, rather than making stuff happen. I did shoot one or two commercial projects and a couple of music videos during this time – but was mostly bunkered down writing in my flat or in Starbucks, not making movies and wondering where it all went wrong. Plus really stressing about money. 

I had a Hollywood agent and manager as well as a London agent. I had a Pathé/BBC Films first feature which had released internationally to decent reviews. I had done a lot of meetings in Hollywood and London, and got to hang out with some stars along the way – and I was not getting any closer to getting a second feature made. 

Some of this was down to it being unusual at that time (thankfully, less so now!) to be directing features as a female in her early 30s. But there were also some key mistakes I made which are worth sharing: 

• I was interested in more dramatic material after my ‘feel good’ debut. But I didn’t account for financiers and producers needing to see a track record of this kind of material in my work. If I had to do it again, I would make sure that the new features I was pitching could connect more obviously to the work I had already done. This ‘movie maths’ is really important I think. Your track record, plus your collaborators, plus your new material really needs to ‘add up’ to the next project – otherwise you’ll have a tough time get it funded.
• I thought I had to make a movie that was ‘bigger and better’ than the last. My first film was about £2.5M. So I thought the next needed to be bigger. It didn’t, that was daft. 
• I was writing prestige projects that I didn’t have the clout to pull off, but I didn’t know this. In retrospect, I could have written prestige projects for others to direct, and learned (and earned!) that way. Or I could have written smaller projects that were less risky to package and finance. I took some very big swings – and I’m proud of coming pretty damn close a couple times – but when those didn’t pay off, it looked from the outside like I had done nothing for seven years, and that was very demoralising, very scary financially, and very hard to change the outlook on. 

There were a few things that I think generated a new energy to turn that around: 

• I had been nominated for a BIFA debut director award and named a BAFTA Brit to Watch for my movie – both of which made me feel like I might have a place in the industry and came with hilariously glitzy events. The huge value of those events was in getting to know the other nominees/awardees and the networks. I didn’t have a network from film school so I only really started to build a peer group through these events, and future BAFTA & BIFA talent initiatives – and that is and has been invaluable. Knowing other filmmakers who are at a similar-ish age/stage to you is so important as you share experiences and advice and sometimes shoulders to cry on. Moving forward, celebrate the massive wins people have, and commiserate the heartbreaks and near misses. Invest in those friendships! They are make and break, both ways. 
• While I was struggling to get the next film made, I started mentoring for Film London, BFI Network and Raindance’s MA program, among other programs. As soon as I started mentoring, I stopped feeling sorry for myself, and realised how much I already had in my arsenal. I firmly believe that the best way to get yourself out of a slump is to help someone else get ahead, as much as anything as it helps you realise how much you’re able to do. (If you haven’t already, watch Ava DuVernay’s brilliant keynote on the difference between passion and desperation at the 2013 Film Independent Forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFoBks5ly0)
• While I was struggling to get the next film made, I made a short for the Holocaust Memorial Trust, which was unpaid and a totally open brief. Made with friends, made just to honour a survivor’s story and to try and communicate how it felt to hear her tell it. That short was made on a small budget plus favours, in two weeks from start to finish – but it’s a good piece of cinema. It made me remember how important it is to do things for the love of it – and actually a lot of future employers saw it as a sample. 
• While I was struggling to get the next film made, I got an 80% Skillset-funded spot on a diploma in Meisner technique at the Cuba Film & TV School, and took a month out to study method acting (for directors and actors). A lot of hirers had questioned my ability to work with ‘real actors’ because my shorts and feature had often featured untrained cast. Doing this Meisner course was a real shot in the arm – both incredibly illuminating about human behaviour (my own included!), but also really gave me confidence to support actors in creating performances. It was scary – financially and professionally – to take that time out, but it has paid off in spades. 
• While I was struggling to get the next film made, I was lucky enough to receive the inaugural Pia Pressure grant – both a much needed cash injection and a bit of industry heat because it was written up in the trades. The grant was to write an action spec script. NB: Headlines in the trades do unfortunately really help – so make the most of the them as and when they come. Also make sure you have a good-looking website (plenty of good-looking self-build sites out there which are a few quid a month) so you can post them up, and people can easily see your news as well as your work and find out a bit about you.

After seven years of writing and developing projects that were not being made, I was desperate to direct long-form again, and had been very slow to realise how much exciting work was happening in TV. I started going in for meetings – but despite a decent film track record, producers were nervous about my lack of familiarity with the TV machine. So when I heard about a Channel 4 paid shadowing scheme in high-end drama, I jumped at it and was lucky to bag the spot, shadowing a block of Humans from prep through post, and getting to pick up 2nd Unit directing credits across four episodes. I didn’t love going back to shadowing, but it was crystal clear how valuable it would be to go through a TV block, and particularly to get the 2nd Unit credits. 

During the course of working on Humans, I realised I was getting to know other female directors who were potentially about to make the mistakes I had already wasted time making – AND I was meeting producers who were struggling to hire female directors for their high-end projects. So producer and friend Ivana MacKinnon and I spoke to BAFTA about creating an initiative which would look to address the lack of female director hiring in high-end drama. We spent six months having informal meetings with key figures all along the hiring process, asking where it was going wrong and what we might be able to do – the result was Bafta ELEVATE, which was and continues to be a genuine success. I’m really proud of being part of that, and learned again that investing in others is a good way of getting back in the flow. 

Around that time, partly because of my interest in action, and partly because he had got to know me during ELEVATE, Sky Head of Drama Cameron Roach recommended me to Left Bank who were looking for a female director for their action show Strike Back – and I got to start directing long-form again.