CHICAGO MED: Nikki Taylor-Roberts Share Insight into Directing ‘The Winds Of Change Are Starting To Blow’

The Wednesday, May 10 episode of CHICAGO MED is an important milestone for director Nikki Taylor-Roberts—“The Winds Of Change Are Starting To Blow” serves as her television directorial debut.

Taylor-Roberts, who is an alum of Ryan Murphy’s Half initiative, AFI Directing Workshop for Women, and the Commercial Diverse Directors Mentorship 50/50 Program, came to the NBC series through their Female Forward initiative.

Prior to her episode, Taylor-Roberts shadowed the series. “Because there are other directors directing, I was able to see their style as well,” she tells Give Me My Remote. “[I also got to] see how just the machine of the show runs and the staples of the show that make the show the show.”

When it came to prepping the hour, Taylor-Roberts’ priority was finding “what was the emotional through line of the scripts?” she shares. “So that was number one, talking it over with writers and producers. And then walking it out, being able to walk it out. I didn’t have time [to discuss it pre-filming] with the actors—that’s [something you do] on set, [when] you’re in the moment with them…they inhabit their characters for so long, so they already know.”

Though much of MED is inside (and filmed on the show’s stages), “The Winds Of Change Are Starting To Blow” had a couple of important scenes set outside.

“Well, that was exciting, because it’s normally [an] interior show,” Taylor-Roberts notes. “To get outside gives a different feel, give some more breadth to it. [The filming was done at] the convention center downtown—it’s a location that we use all the time for the show. So being able to carve out a piece of that property that made it feel alive was great. The blocking, same situation…walk it through, talk it over, map it out…[you] talk it over with your DP, your ADs are there, all of that.”

And, of course, being MED, there is more than one memorable medical moment in the episode—including a couple of surgeries—which allowed for Taylor-Roberts to collaborate with the real-life consultants on the show.

“Well, the great thing about this show—and for all medical shows—is we have experts, we have actual doctors and nurses and people in the medical fields who have seen something like this, dealt with something like this,” Taylor-Roberts notes.”So they’re our go-to to consult on everything down [to] the look, feel of the prosthetic, talking with our props people, special effects people, all those pieces come together under the consultation of the actual medical staff who consults for the show.”

CHICAGO MED, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC

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