Brenda and Anna love working together because their producer/director relationship is based in creative collaboration and genuine respect.  They share story sensibilities, and, thus, find each other’s creative incites invaluable in the story development and script writing process.  With QUEEN, Brenda and Anna sought a simple story with complex, believable characters.  They wanted their characters to struggle with issues that seemed small on the surface but were universal in their appeal.  Too many short films attempt to unlock the mysteries of the universe in 15 minutes; a mistake these partners were determined not to make.  Instead, Brenda and Anna chose to focus on the theme of humility and overcoming self-doubt.  They wanted to tell the opposite of the underdog’s story – the story of a winner not winning for the first time.  Their story’s motto became: sometimes you learn more from a game you lose than a game you win.

With these themes in mind, the filmmakers felt it was important to develop the characters first.  They started with photographs compiled from books, magazines, and personal collections, to define the personalities of each character in the film.  They knew the protagonist would be the antithesis of the typically portrayed teenage girl; she would be outspoken, ambitious, a tomboy, and anything but submissive.  Chess was chosen as Billie’s area of expertise because not only is it a male-dominated activity, but it is a highly intellectual one as well.  Anna wanted Billie to run the risk of getting lost inside her own head and potentially psyching herself out, creating a situation where Billie’s downfall would be the result of her own internal weakness as opposed to an uncontrollable external situation.  Neither Brenda nor Anna knew enough about chess to create the necessary chess sequences, so Brenda’s husband, Rob, and Anna’s dad, Alex, became the official chess consultants.

Initially, the friendship between Billie and Achak, her best friend, was not the focal point of QUEEN.  However, as the story developed, it became clear that this relationship would provide the catalyst to bring Billie’s internal struggles to the surface; it became apparent that this story was as much about the value of their friendship as it was about Billie’s own personal struggles.

In true collaboration, Anna wrote the final draft of the screenplay with Brenda by her side and notes from Sarah and Dominique in her hand.