How did you start out in docs?

I started off making films quite independently. Even though I was working out of production companies [Century Films and Blast! Films], I was off making films by myself or with a producer, pretty much just the two of us.

There wasn’t a masterplan at all, but since there were often just two of us, and they were often my ideas we were making, having my own company [Minnow Films] was just the next step. I do like doing new things and I like trying new things – it keeps you stimulated – but at the same time there wasn’t a great design. I didn’t know where that would lead.

The idea behind Britain in a Day is that people all over the UK made films on Saturday 12 November, and then sent the results to you. How did you feel about not having control over what footage you were going to work with?

That actually felt really good, because it’s so different from what I’ve done before. Obviously it’s worrying because you don’t know what you’re going to get, but that’s also what makes it interesting and exciting. I’ve always liked the idea of giving control to other people with documentaries; when I’ve given cameras to people before, for instance when they’ve done video diaries, I’ve had really good results. You get people capturing things from their point of view at a time when perhaps you couldn’t be with them, and it has a certain quality that you can’t achieve if you’re actually in a room with somebody.

I also like the idea that there are potentially thousands of filmmakers who are working on this project, so you have a kind of army of filmmakers, each of whom will do something that’s personal to them; and from that, you can form this collage that’s hopefully quite meaningful. 

Do you think you might dispense with the traditional documentary interview altogether in future films?

Those conversations will probably always be important for the kind of films that I make. The circumstances that they occur in are different – they can occur in somebody’s living room, in their bedroom, their car or it can be in a more formal setting, and those formal settings are a little bit more like an interview, but I’d rather think of it as a conversation. It’s not therapy, it’s not counselling but it can often go into significant depth I think, so to me they feel like conversations. And sometimes people through those conversations say extraordinary things that they wouldn’t say necessarily if they were on their own with a camera. 

What’s the most important thing to bear in mind when making a documentary?

You’ve got to care about people who are in your films, and if you care about them then hopefully other people will too; you need to feel something when you watch a film, it’s a very obvious thing to say but I need to care, I need to feel something, I need to be moved but hopefully without that being too contrived.

Do you have any tips for young filmmakers?

Buy some kit and get out there and start making a film about something that you are passionate about which you can gain unique access to, believing it has a genuine chance of going somewhere. Don’t fund the whole thing if you can help it, but cut a taster tape and try and get broadcasters/funding bodies passionate about it too – so they can give you the money and impetus to finish it and reach an audience. 

Are you a filmmaker? Our £5,000 award, Ideas Fund Shorts closes today. Apply now – and watch Olivia Humphrey's winning film from 2010.