We have recently had the good luck of adding another talented director to our in-house team, James Gough. We sat down with him to ask him some questions and get to know him a little better.
From the corporate side, James is a car and sports specialist. His previous clients include Jaguar, Volvo, DriveTribe, and Auto Express. He has pushed the boundaries of storytelling in the automotive sector and used his background as a cinematographer to ensure the vehicles were captured with beautiful imagery. He has also created films for Mens Fitness and Fitbit, and he is driven to share his love of sports in the films he makes.
Read on to learn more about James a person and who has influenced his work.
Bold: It’s great to finally get to sit down with you! We’ve been so busy since you started with us. Why don’t we start with you telling our audience a little bit about yourself.
James: My name is James and I am a simple man. I like cinema, sports, music and chicken wings. Luckily my job crosses over into those first three things quite often but chicken wings are still my true passion.
Bold: You are described as a ‘car and sports specialist’—what exactly does that mean?
James: I guess it’s for other people to say when they see my work. I’ve worked with some of the biggest car manufacturers in the world and the best journalists in the U.K. to create car content. I think with cars and sports, it’s about making sure the feeling of the day, the drive, the event, etc. can translate to viewer. If we’re lucky enough to drive and shoot the new Porsche 911 GT3 then I hope I can use image and sound to convey exactly how that feels to the audience.
Bold: What is one of your recent projects that you feel represents you as a director?
James: I would have to say a film I made in January called Below Zero: The Ultimate Driving School.
We spent a day filming this on a frozen lake in North Sweden in -17 degrees temperature with just me and the journalist, so it was quite tough conditions, but I was proud of the film we came back with and it scooped best journalism film at this years London Motor Film Festival.
Bold: What is your favourite project you’ve worked on so far?
James: Earlier this year, I shot with the team at Carfection about taking a McLaren 570 GT to the territory of Clan McLaren in Scotland. I’m from a town in the Midlands called Corby, which is known as ‘Little Scotland’ and half of my family are Scottish, so its always been close to me. So for this film, what started as a bit of a car review evolved into a love letter to Scotland.
Bold: Could you tell us about the way you work with actors? Is there a set way that you work with actors, or is every project different?
James: The best piece of advice I ever received about working with actors–and something I always implement when working with them–is to give them next to no direction the first time round. If I tell them before, they read exactly what I’m looking for, then I will never see what they bring to the part themselves. I will always have a strong idea of the role or performance and I will know how I feel about it, but I’m also open to being surprised and a good actor/actress will add something to the part that I might not have even considered.
Bold: Do you have any subjects you want/like to explore?
James: I just got back from America and I watched a couple of sporting docs that ESPN do called 30 for 30. I would really love to work on something like that over here. Create a sporting series that really focuses on past or current sporting topics in great detail, and tell those stories in a really cinematic way. That would be a great project to have.
Bold: Who is someone that has influenced you?
James: A list of filmmakers that are too many to name, but my absolute hero is the cinematographer Roger Deakins. At this point it is easy to get blasé about how good he is and how it’s a crime that he hasn’t won an Oscar, but I remember the first time I saw the ‘Assassination of Jesse James’, and those images still stay with me. Coming from a documentary background, as well, it’s amazing to see how he’s become this revered king of cinema today.