My aim with The Fighting Queen was to produce as much of a professional atmosphere as I could. I came into contact with Assistant Director Gerard Wall (Lamb, 1985; A Dry White Season, 1989). Together we came up with a script which Wall then produced as a shot list and we worked together to produce movement annotations.

Gerard Wall is a credited Second Unit Director and Assistant Director on IMDb. He was the first assistant director for an episode of the TV series ‘Blunder’ (2006) and the TV documentary ‘Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind’ (2005). He worked as Third Assistant Director on Liam Neeson’s ‘Lamb’ (1985) and the TV Movie, ‘Florence Nightingale’ (1985).

He was a floor runner on ‘1984’ (1984) and a Unit Runner for the 1990 TV Movie ‘Blood Royal: William the Conqueror. In 2006 he worked as the Production Manager for the short movie ‘Death of the Revolution’.

His vision for the film: The Fighting Queen:

‘I want to represent her as a “fighting queen”, she needs to meet the demands of being a warrior like the Kings before her, everything around her needs to show she’s not the weak queen, she’s determined, confident. This portrayal of her will overcome restrictions of how she’s been portrayed in the past.’

‘The look of the film: image of weather being the antagonist, as well as the Spanish Armada, might be raining. Should be difficult weather, sun light at appropriate moments. It needs to be a staple of feminism’

‘I’m not sure yet how I would like Elizabeth’s hair. Maybe we need a chat with our hair and make up designers. Tight back would work with our ‘Fighting Queen’ image but her costume for the Tilbury scene would already adequately reflect that mantra. However a softer hairstyle may help the films narrative so that she still reflects the fact that she is a woman.’