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Jeremy Podeswa has an impressive list of credits for directing TV shows, from Six Feet Under to Boardwalk Empire. He will be speaking at the Vancouver International Film Festival about his work on the Game of Thrones.

After about 16 years of directing episodes of other people's television series, Jeremy Podeswa is developing his own shows. The film-studies graduate of Ryerson University – although it was a Polytechnic Institute when he attended – fesses up to drawing lessons from the programs he has worked on. It's a long list, establishing a record that has led to his being invited to speak to the Vancouver International Film Festival this weekend.

Although once more of a big-screen filmmaker, Podeswa says he was turned onto TV by directing five episodes of Six Feet Under between 2001 and 2005. Since then, he has directed for such series as Nip/Tuck, Rome, The Tudors, Weeds and Boardwalk Empire, for which he was nominated for an Emmy.

More recently, he has called the shots on episodes of True Blood, Homeland, American Horror Story: Asylum, The Walking Dead and six episodes of Game of Thrones, including the recent season finale.

"What I have learned from working on those great shows is what is the DNA that makes them so deeply involving and interesting for an audience over a long period of time. So much has to do with character, complexity and sophistication," he said in an interview.

This Saturday, he will be talking about his Game of Thrones work during a "Creator Talks" session at VIFF, appearing with Thrones cinematographer Greg Middleton, who also worked on Podeswa's two key feature films. In a statement, festival executive director Jacqueline Dupuis said Podeswa's ambition and risk-taking have made him one of Canada's greatest directors so she was glad to have him – and Middleton – share their knowledge and experience with festival audiences.

Podeswa, who divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles, says there are "millions of interesting ideas," but few that would make a compelling, sustainable TV series. "You have to think about storytelling over the long haul, what is going to engage an audience for, potentially, years and how characters can become deeply involving for an audience."

For years, Podeswa has worked on shows that cracked this formula. While he declined to provide details about his own in-the-works TV projects, he did explain why it was time to develop them. "I am working with writers and producers to have a more proprietary relationship over shows, having more ownership and creative control."

Directing a TV episode, he says, is a balance between respecting the show, but also being innovative. "What [producers] are looking for is someone who can play well with others; you can fit into an apparatus that is already established; you can understand the vocabulary of your show, and work within a system," he said.

However, there's a twist. "At the same time, if you only did that, that wouldn't make you very interesting to anybody." Producers, he said, also want directors who can elevate the material, and bring some personality and style to the material and enhance and elevate what has already been established.

Podeswa was born in Toronto. Initially a filmmaker, his works include the 1999 film The Five Senses, which pivots off the role of senses in the lives of its characters, as well as the 2007 film Fugitive Pieces, an adaptation of the Anne Michaels novel.

"When I started as a filmmaker, I never, ever imagined in a million years that I would be doing television because, at that time, TV was a very different medium," said Podeswa, 55.

But he says the medium evolved, largely through such networks as HBO and Showtime at the beginning, and series including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood and Sex and the City to a more sophisticated, novelistic storytelling, that featured programs with which he had a strong aesthetic connection. "I know for a fact that's why I was hired to do Six Feet Under, because the producers saw something in The Five Senses … that they felt had a similar aesthetic sensibility to the show."

Since then, he said, he has been fortunate to be associated with shows that similarly connected to his sensibilities.

Other filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and David Fincher, have come to a similar conclusion, blurring the lines between TV and feature-film work, he says. "I really don't think there is a division any more. Everything is filmmaking,"

He says opportunities have kept coming. "It was always to do really interesting with interesting, creative people."

That includes Game of Thrones. "It came about as everything has come about, with a phone call to my representative," he said. The outreach came from the creators of the show while Podeswa was working in New York City on Boardwalk Empire. Both Thrones and Empire were HBO series.

He marvels at Thrones' appeal. "I've been involved in a lot of popular shows, but there's something about Game of Thrones that just transcends everything, every expectation in terms of its international appeal, and the scope of its appeal, and the passion of the people who are fans of the show."

Future projects, he said, include a pair of episodes in the second season of The Handmaid's Tale, adapted from Margaret Atwood's novel. He is also working on a new show with Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball tentatively entitled Here and Now and starring Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins.

Podeswa said there is still a kind of authorship for a TV director although such directors are serving the vision of those who create and manage such series. For example, he said gets feedback from people who can pick out the specific elements he brings to individual episodes. "I do feel that there is something that we bring to our work that is really singular."

Sarah Polley says the many layers in Margaret Atwood’s novel Alias Grace drew her to the story. Polley adapted the novel into a six-part CBC-TV series starring Sarah Gadon and directed by Mary Harron.

The Canadian Press

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