E220 - From Directing Shorts to Continuing Drama with Writer/Director Nichola Wong

This is episode 20 in our second season of The Directors Take Podcast.

In this week’s episode your hosts Marcus Anthony Thomas and Oz Arshad are joined by Nichola Wong, a Writer and Director who has successfully navigated her way from making short films to directing over 20 episodes of the continuing drama Hollyoaks. 

The transition from shorts to TV is one of the most challenging leaps to make as a filmmaker and continuing drama’s often come with a very systemic approach to delivering a constant stream of episodes for their audiences, so we brought on Nichola to break that process down for you all. 

This chat covers: 

 

-What is directing?

-How and why did she want to be a filmmaker?

-How did she break into the industry? 

-Gaining and losing an agent.

-How did she get her first break in TV? 

-What were the challenges she came up against in directing continuing drama? 

-How have mentors helped her career so far? 

-How has that helped her career going forward?

 

Our wonderful sponsor for this episode is THE NATIONAL FILM and TELEVISION SCHOOL.

We’ve also partnered with SCRIPTATION to offer our listeners an EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT on their software, which you can find on the link below… 

http://scriptation.com/thedirectorstake 

 

Nichola’s Bio

Nichola is an award-winning Writer-Director, Sundance Fellow, BFI NETWORK x BAFTA Crew listed Director, and a graduate of the prestigious NFTS Directors Workshop, supported by Walt Disney. Her 1st TV pilot won All3 Media’s New Drama Script award at Edinburgh TV Festival and was one of eight out of 3000+ projects to be selected for the Sundance Episodic Lab.

Her short films have screened at film festivals all around the world, as well as on Hulu, US broadcast TV (FX, Freeform) and Film 4/All4.  She is currently developing various TV ideas and her 1st feature film with Ardimages. She has been mentored by Hong Khaou, Nick Rowland, Claire Tailyour and Tessa Hoffe.  

She also directs the 2nd unit on high-end TV shows, as well as directing over 20+ episodes of the continuing drama Hollyoaks.

 

Nugget of the week

 

Nichola: Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Hague

Oz: Song Exploder

Marcus: 6 days to air: The Making of South Park

 

Nichola’s Films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssb7wRrdMOc

 

Credits

Music by Oliver Wegmüller

 

Socials

Nichola Wong: Twitter (X) & Website

The Directors' Take: Twitter (X) & Instagram

Marcus: Twitter (X) & Instagram

Oz: Twitter (X) & Instagram

 

If you have any questions relating to the episode or have topics you would like covering in future releases, reach out to us at TheDirectorsTake@Outlook.com