This week I spoke with writer and director, Dide Su Bilgin about the influence of improv on her work, select projects from her filmography, and the upcoming release of her brand-new podcast.

Dide Su’s passion for filmmaking began at a young age when her parents bought her a stop-motion animation kit containing a simple camera. With these basic tools, she started filming stories showcasing the day-to-day lives of her toys, and this emphasis on character has followed her throughout her filmmaking career. Dide Su also moved around a lot during her childhood, living in Hungary, Turkey, Connecticut and San Diego before coming to Vancouver. A constant presence throughout these moves was what she described as her “travelling film Bible,” a set of binders filled with SNL DVDs indicative of her love for comedy. I’ve only ever moved across Vancouver, and even I can sympathize that weight matters in a move; individual DVD cases simply did not make the cut and therefore necessitated the binders.

Improvisation in Filmmaking

As university approached, Dide Su debated whether she wanted to study animation, design or one of several other creative pursuits. Eventually, she came to the realization that filmmaking afforded her the opportunity to combine all of these interests into one. While studying Film Production at The University of British Columbia, she successfully auditioned for the UBC Improv team and continued a passion that she had developed late in high school. While she said that joining the improv team was a great experience in its own right, it also gave her several skills that she was able to translate into her directorial work. At first glance, the structured schedule of filmmaking and the freeform landscape of improv may not offer many obvious parallels. However, Dide Su says that there are always opportunities for spontaneity and experimentation in filmmaking, but it is often up to the director to take advantage of these moments. She says the takes where she momentarily veers away from the shot list are often the takes that prove most valuable once filming is completed. Having more options to choose from in the editing room can be a luxury and grant her more flexibility to effectively shape the narrative.

Finally, Dide Su has found that “the false confidence that improv provides you is key,” when trying to navigate the inevitable hiccups presented to her as a director. The many moving parts on a film production can bring “a level of excitement you might need to tone down or focus,” and Dide Su says her time in improv has helped her massively in this regard.

Select Directorial Projects: Plain Jane and “Too Good”

Dide Su made her directorial debut in university with a self-written film titled, Plain Jane. In addition to Film Production, she studied Cognitive Science, and this had a large influence on the inspiration behind this film. While learning about the various forms of amnesia she was inspired to write a script starring a hoarder who finds herself in a hospital. With her script in hand, Dide Su remembers bringing it to class with confidence but subsequently feeling devastated upon receiving a heavy critique. Elaborating on taking criticism as a creative, she says that feedback is always good, and “a lot of understanding criticism in your own work is understanding biases that you’ve had for a long time”. However, she says that creatives also have to acknowledge that you can’t please everybody and that the external reception of your work will often be out of your control. The most important lesson she took away from this experience is learning to prioritize addressing what is in her control, saying that “if you’re not happy with it, then it’s important that you alter it”.

Moving from her first directing gig to one of her most recent projects, Dide Su recently shot a music video with Haley Blais, for her song, “Too Good”. From their first meeting, Dide Su was excited to collaborate with another artist who already had a loose idea of where she wanted to take the video. She describes this process as a “moulding of minds” to build a story around Haley’s original concept of a beauty queen running away from her contest. The video was shot handheld in the earliest stages of COVID-19 hitting Vancouver, which created a great juxtaposition between the prom dress Haley was wearing and the backdrop of a “weird dystopian downtown Vancouver”.

One scene that stood out to Dide Su was the closing scene in which Haley runs on the beach into the low tide, eventually disappearing in the distance. In the pre-production planning, Dide Su had intended to include a shot at low tide, but she didn’t expect to be able to do it given the shooting schedule and projected weather patterns. But on the day of shooting, a low tide presented itself and given the handheld nature of the shoot, they were able to quickly capitalize on the moment. Once Haley began running into the tide, Dide Su says that her experience in improv kicked in and they continued to roll as Haley ran further and further away from the camera. Dide Su describes this as “one of the greatest moments” of this shoot, having the ability to be spontaneous and capture what proved to be a key feature in the video.

Speaking on the differences between shooting music videos and films, Dide Su describes music videos as great exercises to improve her filmmaking as a whole. She says that to clearly communicate a narrative in such a short amount of time, “you really have to convey it in the most efficient way possible, or leave it abstract” to capture the feeling of the song. This particular shoot helped Dide Su break out of a writing slump she was in, and focus all her efforts into telling a simple story within these constraints. She also comments on the teamwork needed for filmmaking in general, saying that “there’s something really comforting” about tackling such a big project with every individual cast and crew member moving towards a common goal.

Writing for Films… and Podcasts?

As a writer, Dide Su has never written for anyone else, describing her writing style as clear to her but perhaps less so for another director. Another obstacle is that she thinks that it would be very difficult to hand over a script, remove herself from the shoot, and not be “that writer on set… like two inches away from being in the frame”. We’ve all seen Dance Moms. Dide Su has always enjoyed writing character-heavy scripts, and she attributes this in part to creating characters on the fly in improv. But much like improv, one of the greatest difficulties she encounters as a writer is identifying the point at which to end a scene. She says that she can find herself overindulging in a scene when she is enjoying what she is writing, and passing over the right beat to end the moment and progress in the story. Despite her passion for her work, Dide Su also stresses the importance of not letting filmmaking consume her life, explaining that “if you don’t live life, what are you going to write about?”. The answer to this question is how we have six Transformers movies.

During this downtime for the film industry, Dide Su has found herself pivoting her writing towards her own cultural identity to bring attention to Turkish cinema and female directors. Another endeavour is the launch of her very own podcast, Blood In The Water. In this podcast, she interviews guests about the hot-button topic they cannot pull themselves away from in a conversation. The first episodes of Blood In the Water cover service animals, fast food chains and Norwegian black metal, which coincidentally all share the same tier on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Stay tuned for its release, and I’ll be sure to share it when it comes out.

According to Dide Su, the common thread in all her experience as a director has been the joy of meeting “people who are so excited about making films, telling stories, and trying something new”. If this sounds like you, follow Dide Su on Instagram and check out her website to see more of her work. If you missed it before, also check out the music video for “Too Good” by Haley Blais.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Dide Su and the other creatives in this series.

And lastly check out last week’s article with comedian, Maddy Kelly.

-BF