Dan Bronzite Shadows Director on Ch4’s A Woman of Substance

“It was an amazing experience and I’m very grateful to all involved for allowing me to be a part of it.” said Dan who had been on set in Leeds for Block 3. The week-long shadowing was primarily for Episode 6 though as is the nature of HETV series productions, some scenes from eps 7 and 8 were also part of the shoot.

The Forge Entertainment’s “A Woman of Substance” production was commissioned by Channel 4 who also produced the original 1980s classic adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s novel starring Deborah Kerr, Jenny Seagrove, Liam Neeson and Barry Bostwick.

The latest production stars Brenda Blethyn as Emma Harte and Jessica Reynolds as the younger version of the iconic character — an impoverished ambitious maid in Yorkshire, England 1911 who goes on a dizzying journey to become the world’s richest woman.

“My last two short films have been fairly ambitious productions in terms of budget, scale and number of locations” said Dan who has developed several of his own original series projects while setting up his debut feature Antecedent.

“With that past experience, this shadowing opportunity ultimately gave me the confidence to know that I am ready to take on my own HETV production as director. Of course, the Channel 4 production had a larger budget and more crew, but ultimately the core of what you do as a director remains the same. The main thing that’s different from independent film and especially short film is that wrap times are much more rigid. Because of this prep is everything and you need to be able to pivot and think out of the box and above all you must make your day.”