Podcast – Insights from Game of Thrones, True Blood and more

19 March 2019 By Caris Bizzaca

Writer/producer Raelle Tucker and writer/director Jeremy Podeswa talk career and how premium TV gets made.

Raelle Tucker and Jeremy Podeswa

Find this episode of the Screen Australia Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Pocket Casts

What do Game of Thrones, True Blood, Jessica Jones, Six Feet Under and American Horror Story have in common?

They were all worked on by either US writer/producer Raelle Tucker or Canadian writer/director Jeremy Podeswa.

These two powerhouse creatives were in Australia to lead a four-day genre masterclass with 12 female creators (as part of Gender Matters: Brilliant Careers), and stopped by Screen Australia to share their industry knowledge on the podcast.

Podeswa and Tucker give their insights into the mechanics of making premium TV, including on new platforms like Facebook Watch.

“It’s no accident that I chose to stay in television and haven’t really made a run at film,” Tucker says. “Because I think television really does honour our work in a way that film historically just doesn’t.”

Tucker reveals how early in her career she left a huge hit series because that she knew her voice and her writing didn’t work on it. But also how it led to her work on True Blood.

The pair, who met making an episode of True Blood together, unpack an issue they had to navigate on the set and how they balance the writer/director relationship.

Podeswa also talks about the difference between working on several episodes of an established series compared to working on a first season of a show.

“In every case, there’s a big role for a director coming into a show,” he says, adding that while you need to make the episode feel like it’s part of the series, “I think the expectation is you are going to bring something fresh and new and exciting.” (He may or may not use a Game of Thrones reference from the season 7 finale to illustrate this point).

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