PRODUCTION QUEENIE
and another for the hostel they stay in afterward. We had to tent out the whole house – which was a challenge as it was a big space. We worked mostly with LEDs – it was the height of summer and we needed to keep things cool!” Pitters wanted Roy’s house to have a ‘sickly’ and unsettling mood. To achieve that: “we balanced the light to tungsten, then added some plus green and gelled the light with CTS. The colour temperature ended up around 2700K with a half plus green,” she explains. Similarly in the hostel scenes, she created a mix of cosy, warm tungsten and unpleasant, green-blue fluorescent hues, aiming for an environment that felt both homely and slightly hostile. Additionally, they incorporated practicals in the form of street lighting from the outside. One of the most challenging scenes to shoot was Queenie’s birthday in episode 7, which required creative problem-solving from the team. “The way the script was written versus the geography of the house meant we’d be jumping around rooms in a way that didn’t make geographical sense,” reveals Pitters. “We needed the scene transitions to make sense, so we worked closely with Makalla, the AD, the production designer and continuity, and made a cardboard model of the house with stick-figure characters to map out the scenes. We kind of rewrote the scene in a way that made sense for the layout of the house, and basically filmed a little stick-man disco!” she laughs. “It meant that, on the day, we were completely seamless, and we knew who was where and what was happening next at all times – we had a lot of cast on-set so it could have all exploded, but it didn’t because we put so much work into the prep. I’m really proud of the collaboration during that process.” The first few therapy session scenes were challenging due to their closed- set approach, which initially excluded
DREAM JOB Looking back on the experience of
even Pitters. This created an intimate atmosphere but proved impractical, leading to adjustments. “We wanted a sense of stillness, with set designs incorporating green for growth and calmness,” shares Pitters. The first therapy session was designed to be neutral and cool, focusing on the actors’ performances without flashy techniques. For the session in episode 7, the warmer tone reflected Queenie’s progress. The team conveyed claustrophobia and the stigma of therapy in the Black community for the initial session by keeping distance from Queenie, avoiding direct eyelines until her panic attack. This approach required balancing the need for tight shots with the actors’ ability to connect, sometimes compromising on ideal set-ups to prioritise performance. “At the time, I wasn’t sure if we’d made the right decision by not pushing for the shots we wanted, but the performances were stronger for it, and ultimately that’s all that matters,” Pitters reports.
shooting Queenie , Pitters describes it as a beautiful process, offering the kind of dynamic she has long hoped for in her working life. “I had such a nice time, and it was a situation where I really got that one-on-one time with the director. Due to the fact that we were shooting block two, decisions for casting and locations were already taken care of by block one because they were shooting before us. “So that meant Makalla and I were able to sit in our production base, and made it our weird little home,” she continues. “We wrote things on the whiteboard, and we would just sit and analyse and bounce ideas back and forth; it was such a collaborative process.” Looking forward, Pitters highlights the importance of communication with the crew, a lesson reinforced by the logistical challenges of prepping while her camera team, gaffer and grip shot block one. “There were times I wanted to recce or discuss a scene, but they couldn’t because they were on-set. Ultimately, it taught me the importance of communication with the crew and finding their best way of communicating, not just mine,” Pitters reflects. “Maybe this person works better with diagrams, that person works better with video. It’s about understanding more about each crew member’s preferred method.”
WE WERE SEAMLESS: WE KNEW what was happening at all times ”
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