Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
Production people
often have one or more of the following questions with respect to my
choice of film directing as a career and ability to do the job. I address
the questions below, to demonstrate that film directing is perfectly
feasible for a visually impaired person. Not only this, I consider the
experience of living with a visual impairment contributes to my qualification
for the job. When a number of simple adjustments are made to the work
environment, what was perceived as a source of weakness becomes my source
of strength.
Q1: Film is a visual medium. How can a visually-impaired person be capable of directing a film?
Q2: Nevertheless, why choose such a challenging job when you have this additional problem?
Q4: Why not restrict yourself to making films for a minority audience?
Q7: Backing a visually impaired director seems too high a risk.
Q8: Even then what about health and safety concerns, and insurance?
Q9: It will cost more to hire a disabled director. How can this cost be justified?
Q11: Isn't it someone else's job to consider supporting you?
Q12: Is a disabled person ready for the responsibilty of creative control at this level?
Q13: How do you do the job of directing?
Q1: Film is a visual medium. How can a visually-impaired person be capable of directing a film?
'Seeing' as a director, that all important 'vision', resides in the cast of the mind, not in the physical eye. Just as a film is made by director and team, rather than by facilitating tools such as camera, avid etc.
In film, the unfolding drama is expressed via a stream of decisive moments of action/reaction. Arriving at these images involves an INNER process of the imagination, of feeling, seeing and hearing, in my case informed by but not dependent on the physical eye. I was fully sighted until the age of 14, and compose images using a conventional visual grammar where necessary.
Turning the imagination's vision into a film is the job of a team of people led by the director. The director works with the creative team to communicate the elements of this vision in whatever way works, and feedback from the team develops this vision into a shared one. All those involved then work out how to realise it in practical terms. All of this, in my case, simply depends on having good communication with a creative team I trust to listen and feedback carefully. And a production management prepared to make adjustments to accommodate my specific requirements at work: in how information is communicated to me, provision of appropriate technical tools. Such provision presents no problem for an organised production, whose job it is after all to resource the director in the best way possible.
With good production support, I hope to show that
visual impairment can be a catalyst for unusual creativity.
Q2: Nevertheless, why choose such a challenging job when you have this additional problem?
I'm not a film director DESPITE the fact I'm visually impaired, but arguably BECAUSE I am.
Arguably, it is the life experience I've had to date partly through being visually impaired that qualifies me to be a director:
One of the effects of visual impairment on me has been to consciously analyse how the brain uses sensory information, which gives me an acute awareness of and interest in the artistic organisation of this information. Where the brain's relationship to the eye has changed, as in my case, there is scope to explore new film aesthetics. Film is not purely a visual medium: The relationship between the elements of film - sound effects, dialogue, music, pix, cutting rhythms may be arrived at in a different way which may enrich the approach to a particular story.
I'm experimenting more freely with visual composition, arrangement of visual/sound elements, use of sound. My experience of seeing differently means I am open in a different way so that the ways I communicate and interpret reveal what may be otherwise unseen. The territory I inhabit is on the cusp of blindness and sight. Maybe this means I am able to bring some hidden treasures into the light.
Possibly film allows me to communicate the way I
see the world and tell stories as no other medium can.
Q3: There are plenty of new directors with potential and unique personal vision. In the end it's easier for production to hire a director that can see. Why consider you?
Consideration of my potential, free of misconceptions, is I hope reasonable to expect, given my level of experience.
I hope my work to date, and background in theatre and TV production, demonstrates my competence as a director and my potential for the film medium. I now hope to be considered alongside anyone else.
My visual impairment simply adds an extra dimension to this potential. I hope, by demonstrating I'm in a position to develop new and original project ideas, that any logistical adjustments will be counted as a small price for the experience I bring to a project.
There are many stories that I may be in a better
position to tell than a fully sighted director. And I would suggest
these are stories that need to be told, to as wide an audience as possible
Q4: Why not restrict yourself to making films for a minority audience?
The distinction between disability subculture and the 'mainstream' is ultimately an artificial division. Disabled people are not fundamentally different from other people. We are black, white, have families, relationships, desire to be loved, comfortable, to work, love and generally play a part in life, to be happy. What makes us seem weird is that our lives are still largely invisible. Since we often don't fit into the narrow mould of industrialised living. So our society is still held in a kind of apartheid.
Films can show different ways of doing things, different infrastructures that make it possible for us to be included in everyday life. It's this very challenge of becoming an integrated society that is throwing up all kinds of fascinating stories.
In the end, visual impairment is only one aspect
of a life experience that has sensitised me in a number of equally distinct
ways. I've lived in India, have a degree in Sanskrit, grew up and continue
to have roots in rural Scotland, know life in the country, know life
in London, share experiences with some of the most disadvantaged and
also most advantaged, know gay culture. I see my work as addressing
the human condition rather than any particular subculture group.
Q5: What comes over, with your white stick, is that you are disabled, blind director. People will always find you difficult to work with, to credit with any authority. How can you be invested with such a level of responsibilty?
There is still so much internalised fear around impairment, so much misconception and superstition, that only someone who has methodically worked through their own myths can see at all clearly. However, anyone who has experienced difference for any reason, and exclusion because of this, will be able to translate this experience into an understanding of some of the barriers I face as a disabled person .
There will always be crew members who may have difficulty
with the idea of a 'blind' director. This happened on the DRIVE shoot.
It is then the job of First AD and Heads of Dept. to ensure negative
attitudes don't interfere with the work.
Q6: How can a disabled person have the necessary resilience to cope with the rigours of a feature film production?
Getting to this point of my career is a mark of
resilience in itself. In particular, DRIVE was made against all the
odds. To get this far, without back-up, means that WITH SUPPORT I will
be able to go a lot further.
Q7: Backing a visually impaired
director seems too high a risk.
There is risk in supporting every new director, and in pretty well every aspect of making films. Undoubtedly I need someone to take this risk. So far, this has happened twice: Once when I joined BBC TV's 'One In Four' magazine programme as a trainee director. The second time when I was admitted to NSFTV. In both instances my work was picked out as accomplished. I hope my track record may inspire confidence in my ability to meet challenges and steep learning curves.
I have tested my physical resilience against a number
of physical challenges e.g.. SCUBA (PADI Openwater Diver certificate);
hunter-trialing at open competition level, ski-ing trekking (high altitude
certificate). Through these activities, I've developed an automatic
health and safety awareness.
Q8: Even then what about health and safety concerns, and insurance?
My visual impairment is a STATIC CONDITION. Therefore, it's possible to do an accurate risk assessment for each situation, to identify hazards and put in place counter measures. In most instances proper observance of health and safety practices means I am able to negotiate locations and sets, including obstacles without extra risk, to myself or others.
I'm currently working on a document, ASSISTANCE
WITH SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS, that goes through the entire writing and
directing process, detailing my requirements and how these can be met.
E.g.. On set, the best way to ensure H+S is by me having my own experienced
3rd Assistant Director, whose job is to ensure a smooth interface between
myself and the rest of the production. This person acts as: a) an extra
pair of eyes, pointing things/people out, reading, audio-describing,
b) personal equipment minder c) interface between myself and the environment
including crew and hazardous elements, thereby greatly reducing risk
factors. Another measure is to give a H+S note to the entire crew: to
verbally inform my 3rd about changes e.g. Location of equipment etc.
Q9: It will cost more to hire a disabled director. How can this cost be justified?
It is true that without an adequate support infrastructure I cannot do an effective, safe job. I need the right equipment and a personal assistant.
Value for money has to take into consideration the
creative return: It may be I am the best person for certain jobs: to
tell certain stories; or to tell a story in a certain way, from a certain
perspective. If this is thought to have value, making it happen in terms
of logistics is minor by comparison, especially in the film-making arena
which is Zen and the art of problem-solving par excellence. My price
is the support and back up I need, in return for the benefits my experience
and particular perspective will bring to a project.
Q10: We have no schemes or plans to take on a disabled director. How can it be fair to expect you to perform alongside non-disabled people?
The majority of new directors do not progress as a result of specific schemes, but on consideration of what they would bring to a particular project. I hope to be considered purely on this basis.
However, there are industry agencies responsible for furthering EO in film. For them, supporting someone such as myself would be a pioneering step, helping to further the employment of disabled people in film, and to confront in practice related issues such as who should be responsible for access and employment support costs.
The Disability Discrimination Act now exists. Lottery
criteria also concentrate minds around the need for the film industry
to address its inbuilt walls of exclusion. With the formation of the
Film Council, the British Film Industry has the opportunity to begin
to give British Film a more inclusive reputation.
Q11: Isn't it someone else's job to consider supporting you?
The point of moves such as anti-discrimination legislation
is to bring disabled people into the mainstream of life. I hope to be
considered alongside other directors at my stage of career. The potential
and projects I present will of course only appeal to certain producers.
Q12: Is a disabled person ready for the responsibilty of creative control at this level?
The timing is always right for a disabled person
to take creative control of a project. Equally, there is always a forest
of thorny excuses why the Sleeping Beauty cannot be reached. The question
could equally be reversed: is there a producer ready to responsibly
employ and represent a disabled director such as myself?
Q13: How do you do the job of directing?
PREPARATION
1. Have my requirements articulated in writing for
the benefit of production and other crew members.
2. Be well organised and prepared for each day's work so that any improvisation
can take place within clear boundaries.
COMMUNICATION
1. Build a team that I can rely on to give me accurate
information when I need it.
2. Make sure I do my job in communicating clearly what I want.
3. Communicate my requirements well in advance to production.
ADAPTED TECHNOLOGY
1. Plan to have appropriate equipment e.g. Large monitor in cutting room/viewing facility; video assist wherever possible on set.
PRODUCTION ADJUSTMENTS
1. Ensure I am provided all production info e.g. Daily call sheets/sides/schedules in a format that is accessible to me.
PERSONAL ASSISTANCE
1. Ensure I have a suitably experienced and briefed assistant (my 3rd) at hand.