DEPT. Q

We faced lots of difficult challenges on this production, very late scripts, complicated cast, limited time etc, but I feel the main reason was after the first 2 episodes the show runner (Scott Frank) rightly decided he wanted to direct the full show, which we weren’t set up for. It was too late to change anything for episodes 3 and 4 as the director, DP and first AD had already started, but episodes 5-8 had to be completely restructured. This meant that Scott went back to New York to re-write all remaining scripts while we planned the shoot, recces, endless meetings without the presence of the director. When he returned to shoot episodes 5-8, we were dealing with constant structural story changes that hugely affected the daily plan, creating significant additional page counts at short notice. A lot of the time we were doing 13-page days including stunts, SFX, with very complicated set pieces using 3 or 4 cameras in which we always pulled off, safely and calmly. Not only that, but we decided to reshoot work from episodes 3 and 4 of which we had to cram into our already jammed packed schedule. Working like this added so much strain across all departments, including the actors. Although everyone understood, at times we became the centre point of everyone’s frustration, as people were having to work to an incredible pace to keep up with the changes.

It felt like our team achieved the impossible at times and still managed to have fun. It was always calm and the crew went above and beyond to make it work. It really was an incredible team effort. Scott Frank is a fantastic creator and director – we all believed that the end product would be worth the challenge, and it absolutely was!

No matter how stressful a production feels, there’s always a way to get through it, and have fun at the same time. Film crews and your AD team are a rare bunch of people that will bend over backwards to help achieve the unexpected – they should always be treated with kindness and respect; without their help and expertise this show would’ve undoubtably been a disaster!