Eastenders masterclass for Broadcast Media students
A TV director usually found working in Albert Square gave a masterclass for students at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) recently.
Steve Finn, who has worked on some of Britain's most famous and established shows, gave a special lesson in directing actors to first year Broadcast Media students at the Maidstone TV Studios where the course is based.
Over his 30-year-career, Steve has directed hundreds of episodes of Casualty, Holby City, Brookside and The Bill, where he famously blew up Sun Hill police station, but he is best-known for his work on Eastenders which he has directed for the past 13 years.
His masterclass focused on how to get a performance out of every kind of actor and how scenes can be directed differently.
Steve Finn said: "Coming here and teaching these very keen students the art of directing actors has been a great experience for me. Having a course based in working studios like this is a great starting point for their careers in the industry."
First year student, Neil Morris, said: "Having first-hand tuition from a working professional like Steve is just brilliant. He's doing the job I want, so to hear from him personally has been mind blowing."
Simon Welsford, Senior Lecturer for Broadcast Media, said: "Having a director of Steve's calibre and experience come into our course is a great coup and again highlights the unique industry links that our course has.
"The students really benefited from his unique industry insight and learned a great deal. They, of course, also loved hearing all of the stories Steve had from the Eastenders set."
UCA's Broadcast Media course is unique in its industry setting and the way in which it prepares students for a wide variety of television formats, including documentaries, dramas, gameshows, reality TV and live studio productions.
Every year, students come together to record a 30-minute studio production in their Maidstone TV Studios base, which is home to major network programmes such as ITV1's Take Me Out.
For more information contact:
David Reilly, Press Officer, UCA
T: 01252 892939
E: dreilly@ucreative.ac.uk
