An Interview with Justine Evans & Erin Ranney from ‘Queens’

Photographs of Justine Evans and Erin Ranney Courtesy of Oscar Dewhurst and Alicia Russo for Disney/National Geographic.

Justine Evans and Erin Ranney are a pair of accomplished cinematographers that helped to bring together the new National Geographic series, Queens. And we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss their work on this important series.
 
John Betancourt: What it was that attract to each of you to this very ambitious project?
 
Justine Evans: I was asked to come in on the project back in 2019. Long time ago, yes. And with fellow Director of Photography, Sophie Darlington, and yeah, well, when it was described to me by Vanessa, what the ambition was, I just couldn't believe it. It was like, “Well, finally, finally, we're going to do something which is female focused. And it's going to look at these iconic matriarchal societies.” And the ambition behind the scenes, the legacy aspect was the thing that really attracted me to it, that you know that there would be more than just the programs that were being made, there was going to be something else, a backdrop with helping bring people on, young women and women in other countries. And also, that there would be what is now the Wildstar Academy, something that would follow on and would continue with this ambition to empower women around the world.
 
Erin Ranney: I was interviewed in 2018, for the project. And it was just this opportunity to work with some of the best wildlife cinematographers in the world, people I had always looked up to Justine, Sophie, I also had some great male mentors on the project, Johnny Rogers, Tom Walker, who worked with me on more specialized things like the gimble, GSS shot over. So, it was this opportunity to just submerse myself in this giant pool of knowledge. And I don't know how you could say no to that. It was just an incredible opportunity.
 
John Betancourt: What kind of challenges each of you run into in the field, in capturing the incredible images in this show?
 
Erin Ranney: Oh, there are always challenges in the field. One of the biggest challenges I think I had on this series is I was on birth watch for the elephant. Which meant I spent over a month following around a very pregnant, grumpy elephant. She didn't end up giving birth while we were there, they have a 24 month plus gestational period. We didn't hit it quite right. But we did it did get to film a brand-new baby with the umbilical cord still showing at the end of it. But following around a pregnant elephant takes a lot of patience and a lot of you know sitting in your own head going “Okay, any moment now, any moment now.” And yeah, I think that was probably the most challenging that really tested my patience.
 
Justine Evans: I mean, in a bigger picture, saying that the challenge was COVID for us, because it started when the whole series started, and almost, you know, down to the week that we were supposed to start kicking off with all the shoots, the UK, and then everywhere in the world was locked down. And so that changed things a lot. And I mean, fortunately for us, a lot of the filming was being done in Africa and the country we were going to were still open for visitors. I mean, you know, many of these countries that just could never have afforded to just shut down. So, when I finally did the first shoots, I went on to Ethiopia. And then there was a whole set of challenges there with political unrest. Because we were going up to the Tigray region, into the Simien Mountains to film the Gelada Baboons. I remember finally getting there, and just thinking, “Oh, my Goodness me. I mean, the challenges that we've had to overcome to just get here we haven't even started filming yet.” It was… yeah. Anyway, we overcame it.
 
John Betancourt: What you each most proud of when it comes to your work on this series?
 
Justine Evans: I have. I'm proud. I'm just proud of the series generally. I mean, in all sorts of ways. I’m proud of the quality of it. How beautiful it looks. I'm proud of the team. Erin, Tanya, Faith. Gail Kukula. There have I left somebody else… out… Erica! You know, the women that have been mentored. And I'm also, I'm proud of what's coming. The resonance of this, the fact that this is on a global stage, it is going to be seen all around the world. And what may happen from that, you know, ripples on the pond. And how you know what will unfold as a result of the series being made. The legacy of it.
 
Erin Ranney: Oh, that's it's tough. Because there's so many things, I think I'm proud of in this series, I'd say probably the thing I'm most proud of, I met Faith, early on in this production, Faith and I both were starting out in it together, and we ended up becoming really close friends. I think the moment I watched her episode; I was just overwhelmed with pride for her because she's such an incredible storyteller and getting to see her put her voice onto the screen. I don't think you could ask for a better moment. She just did such an amazing job. And I met her when we were both new on this project. And it just to me, that was just such an incredible moment. Yeah, I was just blown away by it. I couldn’t be more proud of her or the whole team.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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