NFTS graduate director Yann Demange, who has won Best Director at the British Independent Film Awards for his first feature ’71 spoke to NFTS students ahead of the awards ceremony on Sunday.
Speaking in conversation with Directing Fiction senior tutor Ian Sellar (Venus Peter, Prague), Demange talked about his approach to filming ’71, which is set on the streets of Belfast during The Troubles of 1971. The film is a taut drama about a British soldier (BIFA nominated Jack O’Connell) who is caught behind enemy lines during a street riot.
To plan the huge riot scene – a key turning point in the film – Yann Demange told students that the design department built a model of the streets so he and the cinematographer could map out each shot. Demange’s attention to detail meant and desire for “authenticity,” led him to spend eight hours speaking to the hundreds of extras actors before shooting the riot scene.
He also revealed that to achieve the film’s flow and heart-thumping pace, he listened to the music score composed prior to shooting, and got feedback from the cutting room to ensure each scene informed the next shot.
The film has already screened at the Berlin Film Festival 2014 and the BFI London Film Festival and won the best film award – the Golden Athena – at the 20th Athens International Film Festival. It received nine BIFA nominations ( more than any other film).
Reflecting on the two years he spent at the NFTS, Demange advised current students to take every opportunity they are offered when they graduated. Soon after graduating in 2006, Demange directed hit TV series, Secret Diary of a Call Girl; BAFTA-nominated Dead Set (written by Charlie Brooker); 5-part BBC series Criminal Justice, receiving a BAFTA nomination for Best Director; and four-part series Top Boy, for Channel 4, which won Best Drama Series at the Royal Television Society Awards, and got him nominated again for Best Director at the BAFTAs.
With this impressive list of credits after only a few years of leaving the NFTS, it was no surprise that Broadcast Magazine picked him out as the hottest director in the UK.
Congratulations to Yann Demange and the two other NFTS graduates involved in making his film '71:
Paul Davies - Supervising Sound Designer
Jens Petersen - Dialogue Editor
Apply HERE for the NFTS Directors Series Short Course that runs in August 2015.
Contact Registry to apply for our 2-year Directing Fiction MA starting in 2016 info@nfts.co.uk.
Pictured: Yann Demange with Ian Sellar ( centre) and NFTS students.
Photo credit: Simona Susnea.
