Peek behind the scenes of ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’

Luckily, when the request to film “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Carolina’s campus came in, it landed in the inbox of one of its biggest fans.

“I immediately assigned it to myself,” said Gabriella Neyman, media relations manager in University Communications and Marketing, of the email she got on March 4, 2024. “I wanted to do everything within my power to make this happen.”

And she did. For proof, tune into Prime Video for new episodes on Wednesdays through the finale Sept. 17. (Read an interview with showrunner and author Jenny Han ’02 about the filming.)

Then take the new “TSITP”-themed tour from the UNC Visitors Center, which launches Aug. 27. Led by another fan, the tour focuses on campus locations that appear in the series, with plenty of behind-the-scenes dish.

UNC-Chapel Hill transformed into Finch College over several days in July 2024.

 ‘Summer’ comes to campus

The request didn’t name the show, but Neyman quickly figured it out. Two seasons of the wildly popular YA romance series about a teenage girl in love with two brothers had been filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. In the third season, main character Isabel “Belly” Conklin is going to be at college, so why not film at nearby UNC-Chapel Hill, Han’s alma mater?

Neyman grew up with Belly, reading the “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “It’s Not Summer Without You” in high school and “We’ll Always Have Summer” in college. “I felt a deep connection to these books and this character, and when it became an Amazon show, I was obsessed with it,” she said.

After two scouting trips, the crew arrived for a whirlwind three days of filming in July 2024. Carolina briefly became “Finch College,” down to temporary seals covering up the University’s real ones. The stars hung out in Graham Memorial and background actors in Hill and Person halls while the production crew took over much of McCorkle Place for filming. Watch the show and you’ll see Belly moving into Old East (Han’s old residence hall) and visiting the “study abroad office” in Pettigrew Hall. Also making cameo appearances are New East, Old West and Swain halls, all referenced on the Visitors Center 13-stop tour.

Staffing this project required extra work by University employees from grounds, facilities and housekeeping, transportation and parking and campus police, among other units.

“They worked so hard and put in so much extra time because they knew how important it would be to the campus and our community,” Neyman said. “There was so much camaraderie and care.”

Responsible for overseeing the film crew, Neyman was on-site daily from 5 a.m. to as late as 11 p.m. Nearly a year later, she finally saw the results of those long hours in the third season teaser.

Neyman’s favorite scene is a nighttime view of Belly and Jeremiah twirling flirtatiously on the walkway crossing McCorkle Place. The bricks had been hosed down before filming for what the crew called a “dreamy, romantic effect,” Neyman said. “And when I saw the trailer, I completely got the vision.”

Izzie Deneka was an extra during “The Summer I Turned Pretty” filming and is now the primary guide for a new Visitors Center tour about the show. (Submitted)

That scene is also a favorite for Izzie Deneka, a senior double-majoring in psychology and public policy and the primary guide for the Visitors Center tour. She’s also a fan.

“I was sitting on the steps of Morehead Planetarium during the filming, and, honestly, the energy in person was even more vibrant and electric than what you see on screen,” Deneka said. “I went home with a few mosquito bites, but it was absolutely worth it!”

Both Neyman and Deneka are proud that the campus shines in a show whose season premiere attracted 25 million viewers in its first week.

“Working on this filming was one of the hardest things that I’ve done in my career. And it was also one of the most gratifying,” Neyman said. “I’m so excited for the episodes to come out, and then to see people come to campus and try to recreate those scenes.”