Category: JOB DESCRIPTION
Thinking outside the box
Costume designer Maja Meschede opens up about her work bringing Victorian London to life for Disney+ period drama A Thousand Blows, which saw her partner with actors Malachi Kirby, Erin Doherty and Stephen Graham for this epic saga set in the world of illegal boxing.
Team building
Rivals, Mary & George, Kaos, Bridgerton and The Tattooist of Auschwitz meant 2024 was a stellar year for television – and for casting director Kelly Valentine Hendry. She tells DQ about her approach to her role, self-taped auditions and why TV must continue to take risks.
Preparing for battle
Rise of the Raven recreates the 15th century Battle of Belgrade and one warrior’s determination to protect Europe from an Ottoman invasion. Costume designer Bea Merkovits and production designer Márton Vörös detail their work on this historical epic.
Casting the net wide
Lucy Hellier offers insight into her role as a British casting director working overseas and how she came to work on productions such as Spain’s La Templanza (The Vineyard) and France’s Mort sur la piste (Death on the Track).
Cracking the accent code
Dialect coach Natalie Grady explains how she uses her love of accents to help actors perfect their voice for a new role, revealing the keys to learning a new accent and why practice makes perfect.
Into the Whoniverse
VFX creatives Will Cohen and Seb Barker share the secrets behind realising dramatic stunts and otherworldly creatures in the recent Doctor Who specials that heralded the arrival of Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor.
Tick, tick, boom
Former British Army bomb-disposal expert Joel Snarr recalls working with Vicky McClure and the team behind ITV drama Trigger Point, filming scenes in a deserted London street and balancing reality with television fiction.
Access to success
Actor turned access coordinator Julie Fernandez is leading the charge for the television industry to become more accessible for disabled creatives on and off screen. She talks about how the role has evolved, the most common problems on sets and what more the industry needs to improve.
Authentic Antigua
Baden Prince Jr tells DQ about his role as a consultant on forthcoming BBC drama Mr Loverman, an adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s novel of the same name that stars Lennie James as an Antiguan man hiding a decades-old secret.
Becoming Eric
The unusual title star of a dark, gritty Netflix period drama set in 1980s New York just happens to be a giant puppet. DQ speaks to creature creation firm Stitches & Glue and puppeteer Olly Taylor about bringing Eric to life.
The sounds of Silo
Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson reflects on his Bafta-winning work creating the soundtrack for Apple TV+ drama Silo, enhancing its themes of loneliness and isolation, and returning to the studio for its upcoming second season.
A cut above
Hair & make-up designer Lisa Parkinson takes DQ inside her Bafta-winning job on ITV true crime drama The Long Shadow and discusses working on a budget and being mentored by a Hairy Biker.
Talking my language
DQ swots up on its Dothraki to find out how conlangers David and Jessie Peterson create original languages for film and television series, with credits including Game of Thrones, Dune, Vampire Academy, Shadow & Bone and Halo.
Breath work
During the Covid pandemic, doctor-turned-actor Thom Petty returned to the hospital frontlines – and then used that experience to help shape the dialogue, setting and atmosphere on the set of ITV drama Breathtaking.
Gentlemanly appearance
Production designer Martyn John and costume designer LouLou Bontemps escort DQ into the world of The Gentlemen to detail how they created the look and fashion of Guy Ritchie’s series based on his 2019 film.
Introducing Echo
Stefan Draht, creative director of Sarofsky, walks DQ through the creative process behind designing the title sequence for Marvel Studios’s Disney+ series Echo, which follows the title character on a journey to reconnect with her Native American roots.
Scary Christmas
A Ghost Story for Christmas has become a festive tradition for the BBC – and composer Blair Mowat. He speaks to DQ about partnering with writer and director Mark Gatiss on the horror stories, including this year’s effort, Lot No 249.
Building The Buccaneers
Jacquetta Levon, hair and make-up designer on The Buccaneers, tells DQ about creating the styles for the Apple TV+ period drama, working with the cast and why she has a 3D printer as part of her toolbox.
Breaking through
Cynthia De La Rosa, a hair and make-up designer and one of this year’s Bafta Breakthrough creatives, speaks to DQ about her journey from stage to screen, her work on Channel 4 comedy Everyone Else Burns and her efforts to tackle hair and make-up discrimination in the performing arts.
Running up that Hill
Chris Crow, the creator of the title sequence that accompanies Welsh drama Pren ar y Bryn (Tree on a Hill), discusses how he sought to capture the essence of this absurdist crime drama to draw viewers into the series.