location uk 2013

LOCATIONShOwCASINg The FILm & TV PrOduCTION INduSTry - NO 2 - mAy 2013

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EDITOR JULIAN NEWBY MANAGING EDITOR DEBBIE LINCOLN CONTRIBUTORS CLIVE BULL, ANDY FRY, JULIANA KORANTENG, JOANNA STEPHENS PUBLISHER RICHARD WOOLLEY ART DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN ZIVOJINOVIC - WWW.ANOIR.FR PUBLISHED BY BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD - 117 WATERLOO ROAD - LONDON SE1 8UL - UNITED KINGDOM - T: +44 20 7902 1942 - F: +44 20 3006 8796WWW.BOUTIQUEEDITIONS.COM ADVERTISING SALES JERRY ODLIN INTERNATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR - [email protected] LISA RAY SALES MANAGER - [email protected]

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LOCATIONSHOWCASING THE FILM & TV PRODUCTION INDUSTRY - NO 2 - MAY 2013

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Copsewood Road

High Elms Manor

Grand Union Canal

Hyde Park on Hudson: High Cannons

GREAT STUDIOS100 GREAT LOCATIONS

ALL WITHIN 30 MINUTES OF

Elstree Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6 1JGTel 020 8953 1600 Fax 020 8905 1135 [email protected]

www.elstreestudios.co.uk

The King’s Speech: Hatfield House Son of Rambow: The Rex Cinema

St Albans Cathedral and Abbey

Wish You Were Here!

Elstree Film Studios


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ALL YOU NEED IS KILLWho do you call if Tom Cruise needs

to land a military helicopter in Trafalgar Square, in the heart of London?

Andy Fry reports

08

RUSHDirector Ron Howard tells Julian Newby

about fi lming Formula 1 action in the UK

12

TRANCEDanny Boyle had a busy 2012. After working on the Olympic

ceremonies he put London centre stage again for Trance, starring

James McAvoy

14POST PRODUCTION

It used to be the end of the process, but now post production is integral

to fi lmmaking from the start. Juliana Koranteng reports

40 A NEW LONDON LOCATION

London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park off ers new opportunities

for fi lmmakers

43

STUDIOSTo meet increasing demand,

fi lm studios are popping up all over the UK off ering world-class facilities.

Clive Bull reports

47 MALEFICENT

Angelina Jolie was on location in the UK for her role as the bad fairy Malefi cent in

Disney’s retelling of Sleeping Beauty

49 WORLD WAR Z

Glasgow became war-torn Philadelphia for Marc Forster’s post-apocalyptic

zombie movie. Clive Bull reports

51

SUMMER IN FEBRUARYActor Hattie Morahan explains how

it felt to walk in the footsteps of the real-life character she plays

in this new British fi lm

52

FAST & FURIOUS 6Andy Fry hears how the latest

installment of this action franchise burned up the roads and cars

of the UK

56

HERITAGEThe UK is famous for its historical

buildings, many of which are willing and able to open themselves

up as fi lming locations. Joanna Stephens reports

61THE WIPERS TIMES

Northern Ireland stood in for the First World War trenches of Belgium

in a fi lm that tells the story of a satirical newspaper created by soldiers.

Julian Newby speaks to producer David Parfi tt

63SPONSORS

& SUPPORTERS

CONTENTS

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OUR COVER SHOWS MILLENIUM PLACE IN THE

CITY OF COVENTRY, ENGLAND

Millennium Place is part of a £50m city-centre facelift for the city of

Coventry in the West Midlands of England. The Glass Bridge that links Millennium Place to the Garden of

International Friendship was designed by British artist Alexander

Beleschenko. The Whittle Arch celebrates Coventry-born Sir Frank

Whittle who pioneered the jet engine, changing the world of aviation. The project incorporates other public works of art including Francoise Schein’s 24-hour clock and the

Peoples Bench & Obelisk, designed by Jochen Gerz. Recent fi lm

productions to have used Coventry locations include feature fi lm Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger! (2012)and ITV comedy drama series Love And

Marriage (2013).

(Photo, courtesy Creative England)

20 TAX RELIEF

Tax relief in the UK has been extended to high-end TV and animation. Clive Bull reports on this new

production incentive

23 DA VINCI’S DEMONS

Location UK talks to showrunner David S Goyer and actor Tom Riley about fi lming TV series Da Vinci’s

Demons in Wales

25IN PICTURES

A collection of images of stunning locations around the UK — some

famous on the big screen, some yet to be discovered

CONTENTSCONTENTS

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If James Bond needs to run down Whitehall in central London to catch a menace to the country, we can ensure he doesn’t get stopped by traffic.

Whether it’s Doctor Who switching centuries or Brad Pitt evading a horde of zombies, our extensive knowledge and network of partners can make your vision a reality.

Film London provides free support to over 1,000 film, television and advertising projects every year. Make us your first point of contact for filming in London.

www.filmlondon.org.uk


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ACTION fi lm star Tom Cruise doesn’t do anything by halves. Not content with climbing up skyscrapers and clinging to cli� s, his upcoming sci-fi spectacular, Doug Liman’s All You Need Is Kill (2014), sees him dropping into London’s Trafalgar Square in a military helicopter.

The scene took place on Sunday, Novem-ber 25, 2012. The crew had just three-and -a-half hours to fi lm the scene, from 07.30 to 11.00, while parts of key central London streets Whitehall, Strand, Charing Cross Road, Northumberland Avenue, Pall Mall, and Parliament Street were closed o� .

The shot of Cruise’s helicopter coming in to land was fi lmed by Flying Pictures, a Hampshire-based company that has done aerial fi lming work for hundreds of features

and commercials. In 2012 alone, it was involved with a list of titles that included Malefi cent (2014), Trance (2013), Red 2 (2013), Skyfall (2012) and Jack Ryan (2013). Not to be overlooked either was its work on the recent London 2012 Olympics.

According to Andy Stephens, head of fi lm services at Flying Pictures, scenes like this one for Warner Bros.’ All You Need Is Kill require an immense amount of on-the-ground planning.

“There are a lot of agencies involved in making a shoot like this happen,” he says. “Aside from the production’s locations people and organisations like Film London and the British Film Commission, you have to make sure you have local government, the police and Transport For London on board.

In addition, you need permission from the Civil Aviation Authority, because you’re dealing with a controlled airspace. And once you get the helicopters up in the air, they’re managed by Air Tra� c Control, because they’re the ones that have the bigger picture of London’s airspace.”

In the movie, Cruise’s character, Lt Colonel Bill Cage, is fl own into Trafalgar Square in a Puma military helicopter that came from RAF Benson. It was then fi lmed by Flying Pictures with cameras mounted on a lightweight craft called a Squirrel AS 355.

Liman was keen that the helicopter used in the scene was a Puma, because of its size and the dramatic impact it would have on the scene, but he and his team were strug-gling to get permission to use one.

SPOTLIGHT

IN NOVEMBER 2012 ROADS IN THE CENTRE OF LONDON CLOSED FOR A BRIEF MOMENT WHILE TOM CRUISE WAS HELICOPTERED INTO THE CITY’S ICONIC TRAFALGAR SQUARE. ANDY FRY REPORTS

ALL YOU NEED IS… THE RIGHT CONTACTS

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The British Film Commission (BFC) was contacted by Liman’s team, which in turn contacted the Royal Air Force (RAF). Samantha Perahia, senior production executive at the BFC, contacted the Air Vice Marshall and explained what was needed for the shoot, as well as the associated benefi ts for the RAF and the UK in terms of the economy, tourism, and employment. As a result Perahia was able to secure a provision-al agreement for use of the helicopter. Unit production manager and co-producer Tim Lewis took it from there.

In this kind of scenario, the key challenge is safety. “When you have two machines up in the air in close proximity you need to make sure you have eliminated all risk,” Stephens says. “You need to plan who is

going to fl y in what direction.”Shots like this require a lot of fl exibility

too. “There’s always an element of unpre-dictability when you’re using military equipment or personnel because of their day job commitments,” Stephens says. “And then there’s the uncertainty surrounding the weather. On top of this, you have to keep in mind that Trafalgar Square is an important business and tourist area. So if you want to shut down a place like that, you have to be willing to work within any restrictions placed on the production.”

Flying Pictures has been doing a lot of work in London recently, Stephens says — a clear sign of the city’s pro-fi lm attitude. Although every shoot comes with its own particular logistical challenges, he says the

city’s stakeholders “are extremely supportive to fi lmmakers, as they have a level of respect for the complex jobs everyone is trying to do”.

“One of the BFC’s key roles is trouble-shooting for major US feature fi lm and TV productions fi lming in the UK,” Perahia says. “As we sit between government and industry, and have established trust and strong working relationships with both over the years, the BFC is uniquely positioned to intervene when productions come up against problems.”

She adds: “More often than not, the issues relate to use of particular locations or visas for international talent or key crew, but once in a while the enquiries are more out of the ordinary.” •

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RUSH is set in the golden age of Formula 1, back in the Seventies when it was still regarded as one of the most dangerous sports in the world. With that danger came big prizes as well as fame and notoriety, and British playboy James Hunt was the embodiment of all that was right, and all that was wrong, with the sport.

His competitive spirit was without question, but fame, money and good looks often brought the wrong kind of attention to Hunt and to Formula 1. Meanwhile, driving alongside him

was a rival whose methodical approach and precision behind the wheel marked a change in the sport. While Hunt’s behaviour was at times undisciplined, Austrian Niki Lauda took a businesslike approach to motor racing — cool and calculated and shunning the high life and the fame that Hunt drew like a magnet. Today the sport is full of Niki Laudas, but back then the contrast between these two men at the top of their game, and their equal desire to be Nº1, created a rivalry that made headlines around

the world. Controversy followed Hunt on and o� the race track. One scandal that marred the period recorded by Howard’s fi lm was when his team, McLaren, was accused of using illegal fuel, setting back Hunt’s quest for the world championship during the pivotal year of 1976. Lauda would attract attention in di� erent ways, for example as a fi erce campaigner for safety in Formula 1. Famously he tried to persuade fellow drivers not to race on Germany’s antiquated Nürburgring race track, pointing out many

LIFE ON LOCATION

IN THE MOVIE RUSH, DIRECTOR RON HOWARD TELLS THE STORY OF THE RIVALRY BETWEEN FORMULA 1 HEROES JAMES HUNT AND NIKI LAUDA. HOWARD SPOKE TO JULIAN NEWBY ABOUT WHY HE ENJOYS TELLING REAL-LIFE STORIES, IN REAL-LIFE LOCATIONS

FAILURE IS A POSSIBILITY

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FIERCE RIVALS CHRIS HEMSWORTH AND DANIEL BRÜHL AS JAMES HUNT AND NIKI LAUDA RACE FOR THE 1976 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN RON HOWARD’S RUSH

dangers including the fact that it was too narrow for the modern racing cars of the Seventies. Lauda failed to win that support and the German Grand Prix that was staged there in 1976 led to an accident that almost killed him, left him permanently disfi gured, and threat-ened to take him out of contention for the rest of the year — and the rest of his life.

At this point some 63 drivers had lost their lives competing for the ultimate Formula 1 prize. As veteran racing driver Emerson

Fittipaldi puts it: “These were the terrible Seventies as we know them.”

Much of Rush was shot in the UK. The main race track used in the fi lm was Brands Hatch, in Kent just south of London, which hosted the 1976 British Grand Prix where Lauda, barely recovered from Nürburgring, had to pull out with car trouble. Hunt won that race, showing the fi rst signs that he could catch up with — and even move ahead of — his Austrian rival for the world championship. “We shot in the UK

because the story is UK-based,” Ron Howard says. “We did some of the fi lming in Germany, but we also shot at Brands Hatch where James won that year.” Howard also used British race tracks Snetterton and Cadwell Park, “because some of the undulations and turns on those two tracks matched with moments in other races around the world. So those tracks were used as doubles — and then we digitally added signage and grandstands, and so on, after initial fi lming.” He adds: “The race footage we shot

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was so authentic in the end that we used probably 50% more of it in the final cut than I had ever intended to use.”

A priority for howard is always to film as close to the place where the story is set. “The actual location is always the first thing you go for when making a film,” he says. “For Frost/Nixon (2008), for example, we were able to shoot at richard Nixon’s home and at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, which was Nixon’s final resting place.” The same applied to his two-Oscar-winning and multi-Oscar-nomi-nated 1995 hit Apollo 13: “We were able to shoot that at the Kennedy space Center in Florida, and also in houston.” he adds: “I was a TV actor for some years before I started directing and a lot of what I do in my films as a director comes from what I always tried to do then — which was to give an authentic performance if I could. so with filmmaking, if you do enhance the image on screen in some way or other after you have shot the scene, you’re always better off if you have an original location in the frame in the first place.”

howard’s more recent films have focused on real-life people as well as real-life locations, telling stories that bring to life dramatic post-war memories that still live in the minds of howard’s fellow baby-boomers. Like Frost and Nixon, hunt and Lauda are names that are forever linked to his generation. “With charac-ters like that you get drama, you get surprises

and then, of course, there’s this unbelievably cinematic possibility, which is capturing that world, capturing Formula 1 — particularly in the seventies, which was a pretty reckless, sexy time.”

howard says that to work with a real-life story about real-life people helps with the filmmaking process. “Apollo 13 was the first film I did that was based on real characters,” he says. “The astronauts were at the screening and it was nerve wracking. Failure is always a possibility!

“I learned a lot about audiences when making Apollo 13. When a film is based on a true story the audience goes with you to vastly more emotional highs, and lows, because they know that what they are watching on the screen actually happened.” But that can depend on age. “There was one young guy who didn’t like it — he described the story as ‘more made-up hollywood bullshit’ he said: ‘They would never have survived in real life’!”

rush also shot at Blackbushe Airport on the border of the counties of surrey and hampshire. The site was used to recreate the paddocks, pit-lanes, starting grids and spectator stands for

a number of Grands Prix including Nürburgring, Monza, sao Paulo and Fuji. The production was there for some five months including build time and during that period the British Film Commis-sion (BFC) worked closely with howard’s team in liaising with the local community, members of which got involved in the movie on a number of levels. Locals appeared as extras; visits were organised for local schools and colleges; and work experience positions on the production were organised through the local job centre. Local people were given access to the site at all times and were able to watch filming — from a safe distance — and, importantly, were able to walk their dogs around the site in safety throughout the five-month period. “having liaised so closely with the production team and the local community, it was a real pleasure to spend a day on set and see the fruits of every-one’s labour, and to meet the local film students who were getting the experience of a lifetime,” BFC senior production executive, samantha Perahia, said.

As ever with the films of ron howard it was a great story that drove the creative process from the outset. “It’s a great screenplay. When I read it I didn’t know very much about Formula 1, or James hunt and Niki Lauda. Those guys offer so many surprises. And I was just knocked out by the script by Peter Morgan — he’s great. We did Frost/Nixon together. he also did The Queen. he’s a great writer.” •

ron howard The ACTuAL LOCATION

Is ALWAys The FIrsT ThING yOu GO FOr WheN

MAKING A FILM”

Ron HowaRd on set with actor Daniel Brühl

///

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SET IN London, Trance sees James McAvoy play the part of Simon, a fine-art auctioneer who teams up with a criminal gang to steal a Goya painting worth £25m. After a head injury sustained during the robbery, Simon has no recollection of where he has hidden the painting. So the gang, headed by Franck (Vincent Cassel), hires a hypnotherapist to try and unlock the location of the missing work.Shot exclusively in London, both on location and at 3 Mills Studios in the capital’s East End, a key ambition of the film was to avoid using familiar locations, aiming instead for a look that could be associated with any modern European city. “I love filming in London but I always try to make it look fresh if I can and choose locations that are a bit surprising,” Boyle says.

The job of sourcing and delivering locations was shared by location managers Alex Gladstone and Charlotte Wright. The first big challenge was finding somewhere that could double as a high-quality art auction house. “In a perfect world,” Glad-stone says, “the production would have shot somewhere like Sotheby’s or Christie’s. But that’s not really possible because of the high security at places like that. We were fortu-nate though, Sotheby’s allowed us to go behind the scenes and see how the world of auctions works.”

As a bonus, Sotheby’s Europe deputy chairman Mark Poltimore appeared in the film as an auctioneer, lending that section of the film an extra level of authenticity. “Danny had been looking for an actor to play the auctioneer when he said ‘Why not use the real thing?’” Fortunately Poltimore agreed to do it.

“We used four locations to get the overall effect. County Hall provided the auction hall, the V&A Museum gave us some great basements and we used the National Liberal Club in Whitehall and St Bartholomew’s Hospital for exteriors,” Wright says. “St

Bart’s was where James McAvoy was filmed being hit by a red car.” Most of the gangster elements of the plot are set in East London. “Danny had an idea that Franck’s apartment should be above the club he owned — a bit like a penthouse suite,” Wright says, “and the location we used to capture that idea was the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. It had great rooftop views and was perfect for night filming. The only drawback was that there was no lift access so we had to carry every bit of kit upstairs.”

Keen to get the best out of Oscar-win-ning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle’s high-octane approach to filming, Boyle wanted to create an evocative skyline. So one of Wright’s responsibilities was to keep three nearby buildings lit up during the night shooting at Truman Brewery. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds: “One of the buildings had eco-friendly lights that automatically turn themselves off, so I had to arrange for an army of cleaners to keep the lights on during the shoot,” she says. “Another building was student accommoda-tion, so we held a prize draw. Anyone who kept their lights on throughout filming got a chance to win tickets to the premiere of Trance.”

Gladstone and Wright sought out other interesting locations in the East End. Their favourite discovery was Tilbury Docks, with both of them enthusing about the scale of the place. “It’s incredible,” Gladstone says, “there are big ships coming in and out, huge consignments ready to be shipped around the world and great big gantry cranes. It was fantastic to take a film in there and point cameras at the place.”

Both Gladstone and Wright agree that one of the big thrills of being a locations manager is finding new places to shoot. At the opposite end of the spectrum from Tilbury, another favourite Trance location of

Wright’s was St Bart’s MRI scanning facility: “It was the first time they’d allowed a film in there — and it was only possible because they have two units. We had to be very sensitive to the fact that this is very expen-sive kit, and also that seriously ill people might need to use it at any time.”

Gladstone was also delighted to get permission to shoot a sequence at the Petroplus refinery on the eastern stretches of the River Thames.

The studio elements of the film were handled out of 3 Mills, a world-class facility that has hosted movies such as Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Attack The Block (2011) and Made In Dagenham (2010). Studio execu-tive Derek Watts says Boyle’s decision to bring Trance to 3 Mills continued a long and fruitful relationship between the two:

life on location DANNy BOyLE ACHIEVED WORLDWIDE ACCLAIM LAST yEAR FOR HIS WORK ON THE LONDON 2012 OLyMPICS OPENING CEREMONy. BuT SOMEHOW, THE OSCAR-WINNING DIRECTOR OF SLuMDOG MILLIONAIRE ALSO CARVED OuT TIME TO MAKE TRANCE, A THRILLER STARRING JAMES MCAVOy. ANDy FRy REPORTS

The fine arT of filming

FIlm NoIr: Danny Boyle on set with trance star Vincent cassel. (Photo: susie allnutt)

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“Danny’s a big fan of the studio. He’s shot Millions (2004), 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007) here previously. In the case of Sunshine, he was here for nine months and took over nine stages.”

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London, believes the availability of studios like 3 Mills is vital when trying to keep filmmakers like Boyle in the city: “It has a fantastic reputa-tion. It is part of the city’s roster of world-class studios, which are crucial for us to successfully promote London as a film-making capital to the international and domestic industry.”

Trance was directed by Danny Boyle and produced by Pathé, Cloud Eight Films, Decibel Films and Film4. It was distributed in the UK by Twentieth Century Fox.•

THE OLYMPIC LEGACYIN A REMARKABLE juggling act, Danny Boyle worked seven-day weeks at London’s 3 Mills Studios towards the end of 2011, spending five days on Trance and two days on preparations for the Olympics Opening Cer-emony. Trance only required two stages, but was filmed pretty much concurrently with Boyle’s work on the Ceremony. “He based both projects out of here,” studio executive Derek Watts says. “Starting in 2011 he was either filming Trance or rehearsing the Olympics Ceremony for months. They fit together very neatly!”London 2012 resulted in the transformation of some 2.5 square km of formerly industrial or waste land into green space. This parkland has been expanding since the games with the introduction of new trees and other planting. There are also numerous sporting venues within the park area, and related businesses — all of which are offering new locations to directors like Boyle who are looking for a different look to London. Eight months following the Games, British government culture secretary Maria Miller announced a tour-ism strategy that aims to bring private and public organisations together to grow visitor numbers by 29% by 2020. “Our opening and closing ceremonies gave the world an opportunity to look at Britain anew and were perhaps surprised by what they saw — a modern, diverse and creative country,” she says. Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London says: “There aren’t many places in the world that can say they’ve got Pinewood and Shepperton and Leavesden and Elstree and Ealing and 3 Mills — and the Olympic Park.”

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POST PRODUCTION USED TO BE THE AFTERTHOUGHT THAT FOLLOWED THE LIGHTS-CAMERA-ACTION PRIN-CIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY. HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED.

JULIANA KORANTENG REPORTS

FEATURE

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Jonathan Liebesman’s alien invasion

thriller Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

with VFX provided by Cinesite

of the trade

haVe you seen chauffeur, the scrumptious Galaxy chocolate tV commer-cial starring the young Hollywood beauty Audrey Hepburn in her 1950s heyday? set in a fictional Mediterranean coastal town, it has been shot to give it a vintage technicolor look.

And if you thought a post-production technician had superimposed an image of the chocolate bar into a scene from one of Hepburn’s movie clas-sics, you couldn’t be more wrong. in fact, the spot, commissioned by ad agency AMV BBdo with visual effects (VFX) by London-based Framestore, is an original production, and the real Audrey Hepburn is not in it. What we see is the actress brought back to life today with digital technology.

Framestore used numerous state-of-the-art post-production techniques, including FAcs (facial action coding system), which recorded more than 70 possible facial muscle movements, and used high-resolution computer-gen-erated imagery (cGi) and an Arnold renderer to replicate Hepburn’s features and skin texture on the face of an actor. now the actor didn’t just look like Audrey Hepburn; she had become Audrey Hepburn.

“computers have got faster, software has got more sophisticated, our art-ists have grown more experienced and our clients’ expectation of what we can create have increased in equal measures,” Matt Fox, joint managing direc-tor, film, Framestore, says. “We are no longer considered to be computer programmers and technicians, but collaborative digital artists and filmmak-ers in our own right.”

Long gone are the days when post-production technicians were seen as a team of computer-programming geeks whose box of tricks could add a touch of 3d computer graphics here, or inject some sophisticated sound effects there. it would then take costly trial and error to ensure that the jux-taposition of human actors or artificial models of aliens or otherworldly environments made sense visually.

But thanks to advances in digital technology, post production is now listed higher up in the production credits. And in the uK, where government tax relief has boosted movie-production work and is expected to do the same for animation, video games and high-end tV drama from 2013 onwards, the revenues earned from VFX alone are forecast to reach £600m next year.

the uK is now home to a line-up of post-production experts whose skills are integral to the total creative process. innovative techniques such as pre-visualisation (or previs), motion capture (or performance capture), augmented reality and virtual production are not exactly new. But in the last

couple of years, the uK offerings have become slicker and faster, resulting in amazing on-screen effects.

You can catch them in scenes from skyfall (2012), the latest James Bond movie that cost up to $200m; in the $195m Jack the Giant slayer (2013) from Warner Bros.; and in oblivion (2013), the new futuristic block-buster starring tom cruise, distributed by universal studios.

releases for next year featuring more of the same include disney’s $200m Maleficent (2014), which stars Angelina Jolie; and Warner Bros.’ $140m All You need is Kill (2014), based on the young-adult sci-fi novel by Japanese author Hiroshi sakurazaka.

in addition to Framestore, uK post-production stal-warts include dneg, nvizage, cinesite, the Moving picture company, the third Floor London and the divi-sion at the iconic pinewood studios Group.

Giles Farley, pinewood studios Group’s managing director of group digital content services, says: “We have a range of services but, increasingly, we’re also getting involved in production management and post-produc-tion management. one new trend is the recognition that the technologies involving film, tV and games are con-verging and the glue that binds them is digital.”

His colleague darren Woolfson, pinewood’s group director of technology, adds: “We recognised that pro-duction services, stage facilities and other services such as in-house sound, picture post production and data management can be linked to that glue.”

When smartphone cameras can deliver photographs good enough for commercial usage, post-production practitioners know that today’s discerning movie audi-ences will not suffer sub-standard work. in response, pinewood has spent millions upgrading the technology infrastructure required to transmit raw shots on digital, film, tape and other data throughout the chain of pro-duction command, from the producer and director to

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when production companies go pitching to movie studios.

such demands have made the concept of ‘virtual pro-duction’ popular. this uses a combination of cG previs environments, live-composited visuals and motion cap-ture to rehearse and record live-action performances and camera moves.

“now, we can visualise everything. We have refer-ence points and tools such as simulcam to sync up cG elements, live elements and the shooting camera,” Bur-bidge adds.

new digital technology is being used to enhance the realism of cG scenes of the natural world. Whether the creative post-production technician is working with Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max models or softimage, or a vid-eo compositor with blue or green screens, the goal is to contribute visuals that are as lifelike as possible.

“ten years ago, anything to do with water or fire would require extensive r&d of proprietary tools,” Michele sciolette, cinesite’s head of VFX technology says. “today, visual effects involving natural phenomena are still very challenging, but it is often possible to deliver great work using commercial products. other areas of production have followed a similar pattern, with com-mercial [as opposed to proprietary] options now covering most of the production pipeline.”

Martin chamney, co-founder and previs supervisor at nvizage, says that cloud servers have equally become game changers.

“otoy [us-based cloud service provider] uses soft-ware such as its octane render to allow people to create complex 3d scenes by tapping the computing power of the cloud. Graphic artists don’t need a workstation with high-end hardware. instead, they can use as many

the post-production supervisor, regardless of where in the world they hap-pen to be.

Framestore has invested in capture Lab, a world-class performance-cap-ture team and technology based in its soho studio in central London. “We can deploy the entire set-up on studio or location shoots and scale to any size a project demands,” Fox says.

Framestore offers its expertise in previs via the third Floor (ttF) Lon-don, a Framestore joint venture with Los Angeles-based the third Floor inc. previs enables producers and directors to see a high-resolution animated version of scenes — even the entire movie — before the very first shoot.

“previs is more common than ever before, especially as film productions get more complicated,” duncan Burbidge, producer, ttF London, says. “if a project is big, the previs can provide an effective means of communication among the different film departments. it shows everyone what the produc-tion is trying to achieve. it gives people a chance to ask more specific questions for their respective departments — questions that might not occur to them just by looking at a storyboard or script alone.”

directors bring in previs experts early in the production cycle because, Burbidge says, previs is increasingly being deployed for development work

/// Ralph Fiennes as Lord

Voldemort in Harry Potter And

The Deathly Hallows — an “excellent VFX

training ground”

GOVeRnMenT BaCKinG FOR VFXaS Part of the 2013 uK budget announced in March 2013, the uK’s VfX industry is to receive further support from the government. announcing that it will launch a public consultation on options to provide further sup-port for the VfX industry through the tax system, the British film Commis-sion welcomed the decision which aims to make the uK more attractive to international investment. adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British film Commission and film London, says: “there is no disputing the uK is a centre of VfX excellence. these new measures will ensure that we can continue to compete globally on a level playing field; and continue to attract the biggest and most technically challenging film and television projects to the uK.”

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The Moving PicTure

coMPany’s credits include an

Oscar for Ang Lee’s 2012

release Life Of Pi

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eign rivals. “But keeping great talent is extremely important,” he says. “Being able to solve problems cre-atively and minimising wasted effort is crucial in this environment.”

the post-production experts at pinewood, for example, believe that an evolving but reliably robust technology infrastructure will ensure growth and lon-gevity for the VFX sector.

pinewood’s Woolfson says: “We are archiving the data on the data tape and managing them in very simi-lar ways. that has allowed us to invest in knowledge, not just for the movies, but because we always have an eye on the future. in parallel, we work on the col-our management, the final part of [visual] post-production. We help bring that process to the front end. then, the production team can see what the set, the costumes, the wigs will actually look like during the early stages of production.”

His colleague Giles Farley adds: “the production team now has more time to do more at the front end, rather than at the back end.”

Looking forward, uK post-production companies are seeing movie technology being extended to other forms of audiovisual content, including video games, tV commercials and even the design of theme-park roller coasters, and vice-versa.

“i feel that, in the very near future, the wide avail-ability of easy-to-use geometry acquisition technologies will affect some of our workflows,” cine-site’s sciolette says. “We started using proprietary technologies to automatically generate textured geometry out of image sets a few years ago, but this is now becoming easily accessible.”

He foresees the use of Microsoft’s hands-free Kinect sensor, as well as real-time or near-real time renderers, used for video games, being used more often on final output images.

Like sciolette, nvizage’s chamney is a big fan of the progress of digital technology. Yet, he reminds us that technology creates tools to be used and does not replace the technician’s competence. “these tools cer-tainly make our lives a bit easier,” he says. “But they are no substitute for the core skills that are taught in education institutions and then utilised professionally in the industry.” •

cloud graphics processors as needed for a short time and pay for only that usage,” he says.

chamney does not hide his enthusiasm for the progress being made: “Action camera moves and shots can be planned out in advance of shoot-ing in the most intuitive and effective way possible, helping to solve production issues, minimising risk and saving costs.”

it isn’t only the uK’s VFX skills that impress the international audio-visual community, part of a global media-and-entertainment sector forecast to be worth $2tr by 2016. uK companies such as WB de Lane Lea in London are seeing the momentum pick up in audio post-produc-tion as well. its facilities enabled the firm to ensure crystal-clear audio of characters in ridley scott’s sci-fi prometheus (2012) when speaking while wearing space helmets.

Most experts agree the Harry potter series shot at the uK’s Warner Bros. studios Leavesden provided an excellent training ground. At last year’s summit hosted by the uK government, Harry potter producer david Heyman said that by the sixth instalment of the Harry potter films — Harry potter And the Half-Blood prince (2009) — 95% of the effects were being handled in the uK. nvizage’s chamney says: “the Harry pot-ter franchise has helped uK companies grow and expand, and now they offer serious competition to other VFX companies worldwide.”

cinesite’s sciolette also believes the uK has nothing to fear from for-

///

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CINESITELONDON-based cinesite was sold by Eastman Kodak to private-equity firm Endless last year. it has retained its high capacity and VFX team to produce a wide range of digital effects for features and tV shows. the VFX services include digital environments, on-set Hdri (high dynamic range imaging) photography and previs. recent and current work includes columbia/Fox’s World War Z (2013), Jack ryan (2013) and iron Man 3 (2013). cinesite, also contributed to skyfall (2012), John carter (2012) the Harry potter series, and the HBo television series Generation Kill (2008).

CENTroId moTIoN CapTurECeNtrOiD recently relocated to shepperton studios and now has access to a vast soundstage for full performance and body motion capture shoots. the studio is equipped with up to 168 Motion Analysis high-resolution Eagle cameras. For snow White And the Huntsman (2012) centroid captured the movements for the troll, the Fairies and the shadow Army. For Hugo (2011) centroid captured the body data for a scene featuring Hugo, the station inspector and his faithfull doberman. other recent projects include prometheus (2012), John carter (2012), total recall (2012) and World War Z (2013).

douBLE NEGaTIVE (dNEG)FOuNDeD 15 years ago with a team of just 30, double negative has grown to become one of Europe’s biggest providers of VFX for film. dneg has been recognised with a number of Visual Effects society awards for films including inception (2010) and sherlock Holmes (2009); BAFtA awards for inception and Harry potter And the deathly Hallows part 2 (2011); and an Academy Award for inception. recent projects include the Bourne Legacy (2012), skyfall (2012) and Les Miserables (2012). its most recent work features in: Man of steel (2013); rush (2013); captain phillips (2013); cuban Fury (2013); Fast & Furious 6 (2013); the Hunger Games (2012); catching Fire (2013); thor: the dark World (2013); and the World’s End (2013).

FramESTorEFOuNDeD in 1986 as a television and commercials operation, Framestore employs over 600 staff. the company creates photo-real settings via services that include visual development, previs, VFX supervision, performance capture, digital humans and environment creation. its capture Lab offers clients virtual worlds and characters via virtual and augmented-reality technologies. dedicated previs services are supplied via sister company the third Floor London. Framestore won an oscar and a BAFtA for the Golden compass (2007). recent projects include iron Man 3 (2013), Gravity (2013), 47 ronin (2013) and robocop (2014).

NVIZaGELAuNCHeD in 2003 as a mobile outfit specialising in previs, nvizage is now based in London’s soho. its services include storyboard and animatic creation, scene-sequence creation and motion studies. related post-production VFX services are handled by its sister company nvizible. recent credits include the dark Knight (2008), Alice in Wonderland (2010), snow White And the Huntsman (2012) and prince of persia (2010). nvizage provided the previs for the oscar-winning Hugo (2011) and also picked up the Visual Effects society award for the film.

pINEWood STudIoS GroupWitH its uK sites at pinewood, teddington and shepperton pinewood continues to live up to its reputation as a global production service provider. James Bond producer Eon has remained loyal to pinewood for good reasons. over the past five years, it has installed a fibre-optic cable network around its massive 100-acre site containing many stages and facilities. the move responds to its clients’ round-the-clock need for high-speed connectivity and large bandwidth when transmitting raw data from pre-production, production and post-production content. the uK’s first dolby audio facilities were fitted at the pinewood and shepperton mixing theatres. other facilities include sound design, restoration and mastering, cGi and VFX, grading, colour correction and 3d post-production. projects for 2013 include Kick-Ass 2 and Jack ryan.

THE moVING pICTurE CompaNYWitH offices in London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Bangalore and new York, the Moving picture company (Mpc) is part of France’s technicolor global conglomerate. it has worked on such top-flight box-office winners as Harry potter And the deathly Hallows (parts 1 and 2, 2010); Watchmen (2009) and the chronicles of narnia: the Voyage of the dawn treader (2010). Mpc’s services include its VFX software ALicE (Artificial Life crowd Engine), which has been used for crowd scenes in several movies, starting with the epic troy (2004). its awards include an oscar for Life of pi (2012).

THE THIrd FLoor LoNdoNtHe tHirD Floor was launched in Los Angeles in 2004 by a group of previs artists who worked on star Wars: Episode iii - revenge of the sith (2005) on the third floor of George Lucas’ skywalker ranch. the London office, opened in november 2011, is a joint venture with Framestore. clients are mostly motion-picture studios, directors and producers. recent projects include Jack the Giant slayer (2013), oz the Great And powerful (2013), oblivion (2013) and iron Man 3 (2013), as well as commercials for nissan and pepsi. the company has also worked with major game developers and helped design theme-park rides.

WB dE LaNE LEatHe 65-year-old company, based in dean street in London’s soho district, had its scope broadened last november when the former de Lane Lea was snapped up by Warner Bros. studios Leavesden. the company’s services include sound recording, audio mixing, Adr (automated or additional dialogue replacement), dry and wet hire cutting rooms, and a 37-seat preview theatre. With credits including skyfall (2012), Harry potter And the deathly Hallows (part 2, 2011) and cold Mountain (2003), its Adr skills can be heard during the turbulent crowd scenes in the itV version of titanic (2012), and the BAFtA award-winning effects on tinker tailor soldier spy (2011). •

WHo’S WHoIN uK poST produCTIoN

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THE UK’s already robust fi lm and television production sector is experiencing another uplift thanks to recently launched Creative Sector Tax Reliefs announced for high-end television and animation, with a games incen-tive pending EC State Aid Approval. The schemes include provision for tax relief on television productions where the budget exceeds £1m per broadcast hour, amounting to a 25% rebate on qualifying production spend within the UK, capped at 80% of the budget. To a large extent, the new television incentive is based on the existing Film Tax Relief (FTR), which is credited with bringing numerous major productions to the UK. As with the FTR, there is a points-based cultural test to establish whether the production qualifi es as British.

“The Film Tax Relief, since it was launched in its present form in 2007, has been a great success,” Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London, says. “It’s attracted an awful lot of inward invest-ment, which has allowed the British fi lm industry to invest and expand.”

But while fi lm companies were fi nding the UK an attractive proposi-tion both in terms of the facilities available and the fi nancial incentives, there was a growing feeling that large-scale television productions, par-

TAX RELIEF LAUNCHED IN THE UK FOR HIGH-END TV AND ANIMATION, IS BEING HAILED AS “ONE OF THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES WE’VE HAD IN A GENERATION”. CLIVE

BULL REPORTS

FEATURE

’s already robust fi lm and television production sector is experiencing another uplift thanks to recently launched Creative Sector Tax Reliefs announced for high-end television and animation, with a games incen-tive pending EC State Aid Approval. The schemes include provision for tax relief on television productions where the budget exceeds £1m per broadcast hour, amounting to a 25% rebate on qualifying production spend within the UK, capped at 80% of the budget. To a large extent, the new television incentive is based on the existing Film Tax Relief (FTR), which is credited with bringing numerous major productions to the UK. As with the FTR, there is a points-based cultural

“The Film Tax Relief, since it was launched in its present

But while fi lm companies were fi nding the UK an attractive proposi-tion both in terms of the facilities available and the fi nancial incentives, there was a growing feeling that large-scale television productions, par-

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ticularly from the US, were not being o� ered the same competitive edge. Television producers, Wootton says, were “looking enviously at their cor-porate partners in the fi lm divisions and thinking, ‘Hang on, they’re benefi ting from this Film Tax Relief. Look at these locations, look at these studios, look at these visual-e� ects companies, look at the infrastructure they’ve got in the UK — and we can’t take advantage of it because there is no incentive to anchor it’.”

That case was conveyed by the industry to the UK government and the result was the announcement of a tax relief which already appears to be attracting ambitious drama projects that might previously have had to look elsewhere. The lack of an incentive had led to ‘runaway’ productions being shot in far-fl ung parts of the world, even when the story itself was set in the UK.

Director Edward Hall, who shot his production of William Boyd’s Rest-less in South Africa, says the tax relief will make a big di� erence. “It’s got to be in everybody’s interest that more work comes back here,” Hall says. “I have no desire to spend half my life abroad, miles away from my family. I also feel that work that’s generated in the UK, written by people here and conceived here, should be made here. There were so many people just not getting jobs, basically. There was a culture of going elsewhere because there were coun-tries that would make it ludicrously easy for you.”

So the new incentive will help drama productions set in the UK to be based in the location suggested by the story. “I don’t know a fi lmmaker who, given the choice, doesn’t want to shoot the real thing, if it exists and they can get access to it,” Wootton says. “If they are a high-end television director or they are one of the top feature fi lmmakers, they want it to be real. And that’s normally what they’re demanding from their production managers and, ulti-mately, the location managers.”

Wootton says a lot of creative decision-making informs television com-panies’ choice of location, unless that choice is ruled out on the grounds of fi nance. Companies like HBO, he adds, were insisting that they wanted to come to the UK but needed the level playing fi eld that a competitive incen-tive a� ords in order to make that choice. “They said, ‘We’re spending billions of dollars worldwide and where’s the one place we want to shoot and we can’t? It’s in the UK. So give us the reason to do it. We know what you can deliver and we’d rather make it with you if we could.’”

It’s clear that the fi nancial incentive is not the only motivation behind productions preferring to be based in the UK. “Think about the concentra-tion of facilities that we have, the quality of the crews, the amount of investment we have made in training, the time zones — and also the lan-guage factor is not an inconsiderable one,” Wootton says. “There’s a whole multiplicity of factors and what we needed was the missing piece in the jig-saw puzzle. We’ve got that missing piece now and I think we’ve got a really competitive and exciting o� er that people will want to grab.”

The worldwide shift towards high-end serial drama is another signifi cant factor behind the new incentive, as terrestrial broadcasters, along with cable, satellite and online players, seeking to give themselves an audience USP, move increasingly towards more lavish shows with higher production values.

Richard Williams, chief executive of Northern Ireland Screen, cites HBO’s Game Of Thrones as a case in point. “It is the perfect example,” he says. “I think our being able to articulate what the value of Game Of Thrones was to the development of the sector here, and its value to the economy, was one of a number of very signifi cant arguments that led to the tax incentive.”

The HBO epic fantasy series is now confi rmed as shooting for a fourth season in Northern Ireland. Williams says help from the Northern Ireland Assembly in funding the pilot was the clincher: “We provided the same level of incentive for the pilot that we did for the fi rst season, on the logic that if you don’t get the pilot, you can’t get the series. So that was a bit of a risk, but it paid o� for us. And that is one of the important pieces of the legislation — that the incentive needs to be available to pilots, because for a lot of the broadcasters that’s still the way they do it. Game Of Thrones wouldn’t have happened in Northern Ireland if the pilot hadn’t happened in Northern Ireland.”

John McVay, chief executive of Pact, which repre-sents UK independent content, was on the Treasury working group that advised government on the struc-ture of the new tax relief. He agrees that high-end series will be attracted to the UK by the scheme. “If you look at the strategies of a lot of the US networks that produce high-cost drama, they are looking to try and fi nd ways to fi nance that,” he says. “They look around the globe for co-production partners, co-fi nancing and incentives, because the TV industry has gone global very quickly. So the UK is well placed to be a hub for that type of production internationally. But also it’s a great opportunity for us, because we have very high-quality international producers based in the UK. Having an incentive in your pocket when you go out into the market is very, very helpful.”

McVay says the Starz/BBC Worldwide production Da Vinci’s Demons, shot in South Wales with the help of the Welsh government, is another example of the kind of high-quality drama already shooting in the UK. “They started that without incentives and I’m quite sure those sorts of channels and producers will be look-ing at the UK with even more interest now that we have an incentive,” he says. “People like to work in the UK because we o� er very high quality, have a very can-do attitude, and the people are generally welcoming to production. We have very good technical skills, and very good post-production and CGI — that’s been the rationale for so many US feature fi lms to come here.”

Already prompting widespread interest from around the world, Wootton says the initiative will bring inward investment from big international dramas, co-productions with UK companies, and domestic drama that was previously going o� shore.

“I think it’s one of the biggest opportunities we’ve had in a generation,” Wootton adds. “This is a brand new opportunity and, certainly, if the volume of enquiries and level of interest that we’ve been getting both in London and in the US o� ce of the British Film Commission is anything to go by, the UK will soon be fi rst choice for international high-end production.” •

BOOST FOR UK CREATIVITY THE BRITISH government announced in a 2013 budget statement a £10m ($16m) increase in funding for skills development. This adds to the £6m announced at the end of 2012. This means co-investment with industry of a total of £16m, leading to a total of £32m. This will provide entry- and professional-level training for over 5,000 people working in fi lm, high-end TV, animation, video games, and VFX. Industry body Creative Skillset is managing this investment through its Skills Invest-ment Fund. Responding to the news, Stew Till, chair of Creative Skillset and CEO of Sonar Entertainment said: “Our industries have identifi ed the UK’s skills and talent as one of the principal drivers of growth and of our global reputation.” He added: “Crucially, this news is totally aligned with employers’ ambitions to develop an innovative industrial partner-ship for the creative industries to take end-to-end responsibility for skills in our sectors.” Stephen Garrett, chairman of Kudos, executive chairman of Shine Pictures and Creative Skillset board member said: “The UK Creative Industries are renowned for having a world-beating skills base. A new challenge is making sure that we can boost growth and properly resource increased levels of production so that we compete even more successfully on the global stage.”

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The multi-million pound Skills Investment Fund is there to support your production.

Don’t miss out on:

• Set-ready and subsidised trainees

• Interns and apprentices

• Funding for training for:

- Craft & technical skills

- Management and leadership

- Health and safety

• Head of Department training schemes

• Short courses to address skills shortages

• Shadowing and mentoring schemes

There has never been a better time to choose the UK as a destination for fi lm and TV production

Production companies can take

advantage of the new tax breaks for high-end TV

and animation to complement the

ongoing tax relief on fi lm production.

Find out more at: www.creativeskillset/sif

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being ‘liberal’ with his script. “i’m calling it a historical fantasy,” he says. “i think we’ve been true to the spirit of the characters and the relationships… and then there’s a little bit of invention.”

so where is the lair of screenwriting superhero david s Goyer? a penthouse in Gotham, sorry, new York? a private Pacific island where the bad people he creates can’t reach him? a sprawling mansion in the Hollywood Hills? Well, at the moment it’s in Wales, somewhere near swansea. Because that is where producers, cast and crew are filming the series — a process that might last for up to five years, as da vinci’s demons’ initial success has already led to the commissioning of a 10-part second series.

Why Wales? “They have so many good castles, and the local government was very gracious in allowing us to film in them and blow things up, set fire to things and whatnot,” he says. and there are other reasons, for which location and studio manager Gareth skelding takes some credit. “i was the first person to meet david Goyer, to show him Wales and to try to convince him to come here,” he says. skelding was approached by Julie Gardner of BBc Worldwide to work on the project, Gardner having previously served as head of drama at BBc Wales — notably bringing hit sci-fi series doctor Who to swansea.

STARZ’ new series about the life of the young Leonardo da vinci, starring Tom Riley, turns upside-down the enduring image of the thoughtful, grey-bearded artist, scientist and inventor, instead looking at his early life and portraying him as a young swashbuckling, wise-cracking maverick.But then its creator is david s Goyer. along with christopher nolan he reinvented

Batman; he was script consultant on one of the world’s biggest selling video games call of duty: Black ops; and continuing in the same vein, with his boyish enthusiasm and his genius for creating characters with enormous gravitas peppered with humour, he has just reinvented superman too, for Zack snyder’s man of steel (2013). Goyer admits that historians would accuse him of

life on location THe sTaRZ TeLevision seRies da vinci’s demons sees THe ReinvenTion of THe GReaT 15TH cenTuRY Genius BY BaTman TRiLoGY WRiTeR david s GoYeR. JuLian neWBY meT GoYeR, THe seRies’ sTaR Tom RiLeY, and some of THe PeoPLe THaT made iT PossiBLe foR THe seRies To Be sHoT in WaLes

Shedding new light on the Story of da Vinci

Tom Riley as Leonardo da Vinci in da Vinci’s demons

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Margam Castle, South Wales.Main location for Da Vinci’s Demons, TV drama supported by the Welsh Government’s Creative Sector team.

Contact us for further information on how we can assist your production in Wales:

[email protected]

+44 (0)300 061 5634

walesscreencommission.com

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DAVID S GOYER AND TOM RILEY ON LEONARDO DA VINCI“THERE was almost nothing Da Vinci wasn’t good at,” Da Vinci’s Demons’ show-runner David S Goyer says. “He was also a very good musician, he was known to be a very good horse rider, he was ambidex-trous and a very good swordsman… and some people said ‘Oh, you’re turning him into an action star!’ Well, you know, he wasn’t just a painter, he really wasn’t. And if you read the biographies of him, he was tall and a strapping guy. I also don’t think that he wanted to be remembered as a painter. I think he wanted to be known as an inventor or scientist, but it was painting that got him the money to pursue those interests.” Tom Riley’s Leonardo Da Vinci shatters the image of the wise, bearded old man we have in our heads from one of the very few pictures that exist of the man. “I knew the high-school version of who he was — this fi gure frozen in stasis in his 60s, incredibly wise, having lived a long life, having seen an incredible amount of things and cre-ated these beautiful works of art. And that image has lived on through generations,” Riley says. “What I didn’t know about was so much of the other stu� that he was involved in that wasn’t art-based. I went to the anatomy exhibition at the Queen’s

Gallery at Buckingham Palace, and saw his work as an anatomist. I was there with my girlfriend and I went very silent, because not only was there this whole section to his life — but at the end of the exhibition it stated that, had all of his work been published, he would have been the most important anatomist who had ever lived. And yet this was just a sidebar to everything else we know about him.” Riley turns Da Vinci into a wise-cracking action hero, regularly getting into trouble. While clearly a genius, Da Vinci is also someone that the people of Florence treat as something of a maverick, even occasionally a local nuisance. “First and foremost it is wildly entertaining. We set out to make something that would be like a summer blockbuster on the small screen, but that happened to rooted in one of the greatest minds in history,” Riley says. “And it’s full of things that are potentially educational, as well as exciting. If I was at school or if I was having to study that old man with a beard who painted the Mona Lisa, this would certainly give me more of an incentive to do so.”

Goyer and Gardner had looked at 10 other countries as possible places to double for 15th-century Tuscany where the series is set. “But when I saw the scripts I thought, yes, we can throw something together here, not least because of the number of castles we have — we have I think 360 of them,” Skelding says. “And we have such a wide range of locations here, that once we had driven around for a day or two, David could see that we had so many options in a really small radius.”

Margam County Park, about two miles from Port Talbot, is the principal location for Da Vinci’s Demons. Set in 850 acres with lakes, a monastery, abbey and castle, “that became our Medici palace and our Tuscany countryside”, Skelding says. Another base for the series is the 24,600 sq m former Ford car parts factory now known as Bay Studios, in Neath, Port Talbot. “It had been empty for fi ve or six years,” Skelding says. “It was a dark, leaky warehouse with no power when we got here, and now it’s a fully-functioning studio that’s looking to expand.”

“Wales is in a unique position in that the Welsh Government is able to o� er property grants on vacant buildings,” Penny Skuse of Wales Screen Commission says. “Da Vinci’s Demons took advantage of this o� er by using a property grant from the Welsh government to pay for some of the refurbishment costs involved in transforming the former Ford factory into a suitable space for such a high-profi le TV drama series.” She adds: “This meant a signifi cantly high proportion of the total budget was spent in Wales, providing work for companies and freelancers in the creative industry sector as well as boosting revenue for the hospitality and tourism sectors. A number of Cadw (the Welsh Government’s historic environment service) sites were also used in the series, including Caerphilly Castle, Castell Coch and Neath Abbey.”

Welsh National Assembly Economy Minister Edwina Hart describes Da Vinci’s Demons as “a truly made-in-Wales production that utilised much of the talent in Wales, creating jobs across the sectors and boosting the regional economy”.

Da Vinci’s Demons was conceived and written by David S Goyer and developed and produced by the BBC’s Adjacent Productions for Starz in the US. It was fi lmed almost entirely in Wales with a second unit in Tuscany, Italy. •

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LOCATION UK HAS TEAMED UP WITH FILM COMMISSIONS, LOCATION SCOUTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS, TO BRING YOU IMAGES OF STUNNING LOCATIONS AROUND BRITAIN. SOME ARE WELL-TRODDEN BY FILM CREWS, OTHERS STILL

TO BE MADE FAMOUS ON THE BIG OR SMALL SCREEN...

LOCATION UK IN

SHOWCASE

PICTURES

THE OLYMPIC STADIUM, LONDON

This picture was taken during the glittering Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics at The Olympic Stadium, located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the

east of London. As well as staging the opening and closing ceremonies for London 2012, all the major track and fi eld events took place in the stadium. It now forms part of an area

of parkland and state-of-the-art sporting and other facilities that will become regular locations in fi lm and television productions, both local and international.

(Photo, courtesy London Legacy Development Corporation)

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Sutton bank, yorkshire

Described by author James Herriot as “the best view in England”, Sutton Bank is a high point in the Hambleton Hills and North York Moors National Park. The area provides spectacular landscapes with a patchwork of farms amid miles of beautiful, untouched rolling countryside, evoking an idyllic picture of rural England. Although this area has been used for various countryside reports for national TV and commercials, it is awaiting top billing for a film or TV production. (Photo, courtesy Creative England)

fort george, nr. inverness, scotland

This Ministry of Defence property is the finest example of 18th century military engineering in the UK. The vast military camp and surroundings offer filmmakers authenticity and variety. Following the 1746 defeat at Culloden of Bonnie Prince Charlie, George II of England was motivated to create the ultimate defence against further Jacobite unrest in the construction of Fort George. Its garrison buildings, artillery and cannon, and superb collection of arms — including muskets, pikes, swords and ammunition pouches — provide a fascinating insight into 18th century military life. (Photo, courtesy Creative Scotland location services)

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king’s cross station, london

The new semi-circular station concourse for this important station in the northern central London area, opened in 2012. The striking diagrid glass roof tops off the sympathetic redevelopment of the previously run-down terminus. Network Rail, which manages the station, is a film-friendly organisation and has managed a number of high-profile shoots. Famously, the station starred in the Harry Potter books and films, as the starting point for the Hogwarts Express, taking students to the school for wizards. A memorial to this is incorporated in the redevelopment of the station, with a plaque on the imaginary Platform 9 3/4 and a luggage trolley that seems to disppear into the brick wall below it.(Photo, courtesy Network Rail)


ballintoy harbour, co. antrim, n. ireland

This beautiful working fishing harbour, which also has a small beach to its left, is reached by a steep winding road. Though a peaceful beauty spot in this picture, when it is windy and stormy the sea comes crashing over the rocks and the breaking waves can be enormous. It forms part of the famous Causeway Coast and Glens route which goes north from Belfast up to the Giant’s Causeway, and Ballintoy is about 40 minutes out of Belfast on this road. This location came into its own in the second season of TV fantasy series Game Of Thrones (2011-), where it was used as Lordsport harbour on the island of Pyke, in the Iron Islands. (Photo, courtesy Causeway Coast & Glens)

roman baths, Bath, somerset

The Roman Baths is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the centre of the city of Bath, in the southwestern English county of Somerset. The site of the only naturally hot spring water in Britain, which can be seen flowing through original Roman lead pipes, the Roman Baths complex comprises the Great Bath, the Sacred Spring and many other features including a temple. The Pump Room, an elegant dining room with an ornate ceiling and chandeliers, is attached to the Roman Baths and was built in the 18th century to allow people to drink the spring water, becoming a focal point of Georgian society. This unique location has recently been used for TV film Persuasion (2007), TV series Bonekickers (2008) and Mariah Mundi And The Midas Box (2013). (Photo, courtesy Visit England/Bath Tourism Plus/Colin Hawkinds)

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great orme church, LLandudno, waLes

On the northern side of limestone headland the Great Orme, at Llandudno in North Wales, stands the church of Saint Tudno, looking out to the Irish Sea. The churchyard and adjacent cemetery is approximately two miles from the town and still in use. Built in the 12th century on a Christian site that dates back to the sixth century, the church is dedicated to Saint Tudno, who established Christian worship in the area, his contemplative cell being in a cave on the headland. The area was used as a stage in the motor rally competition Wales Rally GB in 2011, but is awaiting its debut on the big screen. (Photo, courtesy Vinnod Jassal, Guild of Location Managers)

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leadenhall market, city of london

Leadenhall is one of the oldest markets in London, dating back to the 14th century. It is located in the historic centre of the City of London, and formed part of the marathon course during the 2012 Olympic Games. The ornate roof — painted green, maroon and cream — and cobbled floors of the current structure were designed in 1881 by Sir Horace Jones, who also worked on Billingsgate and Smithfield markets in London. Originally a meat market, it is now home to shops and restaurants, busy with city workers through the week, and quieter at weekends, when it is easier to film. The market was used as a location to represent an area of London near The Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (2001), and also featured in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Love Aaj Kal (2009) and Hereafter (2010). (Photo, courtesy Film London/James Dewar)

river thames, london

This shot is taken from a Livett’s Launches boat on the River Thames. Marine consultant Livett’s is a specialist in filming on the river, working with The Port of London Authority, and played a major role in both the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee river pageant and the Olympic Games opening ceremony in 2012. Behind Westminster Bridge stands the famed Victorian Gothic Houses of Parliament, the third floor from which Robert Downey Jr jumped into the river in Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011). The Parliament building was blown up in V For Vendetta (2005), and the Doctor Who TV special An Adventure In Time And Space (2013) sees fantasy monsters The Daleks making their way across Westminster Bridge. Another unforgettable image of the River Thames was in the opening sequence of James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). (Photo, courtesy James Dewar)

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wisley church, surrey

Wisley is a small village in the southern English county of Surrey, and home to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley Garden. The village dates back at least to the 11th century, where it was named in the survey, the Domesday Book, as Wislei. The church was built in 1150 and is one of a number of medieval churches in the area. This picture was taken while scouting for the HBO/BBC documentary-style comedy TV series Family Tree, co-written and directed by Christopher Guest, and starring Chris O’Dowd. (Photo, courtesy Harriet Lawrence, Guild of Location Managers)

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banks of the tyne, newcastle

The northeastern English city of Newcastle straddles the River Tyne. The mixture of old and new architecture, incorporating examples of the best of contemporary design, as well as a number of unique bridges, creates a spectacular riverscape. Famously the 1971 gangster film Get Carter put Newcastle in the spotlight. More recently Billy Elliot (2000) filmed here, and TV series Tracy Beaker (2002-), Wire In The Blood (2002-) and Inspector George Gently (2007). (Photo, courtesy Creative England)

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snowdonia national park, wales

This picture takes in the landscape of Snowdonia seen from a mountain road near the village of Nebo. On the western coast of Britain, Snowdonia National Park boasts the highest mountain in England and Wales and the largest natural lake in Wales. The Park was established in 1951 as the third National Park in Britain, and the first in Wales. It covers 823 square miles (2,140 sq km) and has 37 miles (60 km) of coastline, including sandy beaches, spectacular cliffs and estuaries. Films making use of Snowdonia include: Inn Of The Sixth Happiness (1958); Carry On... Up The Khyber (1968); Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life (2003); Clash Of The Titans (2010); and Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, the second unit (2011). (Photo, courtesy © Crown Copyright (2012) Visit Wales)

killyleagh castle, Co. down, northern ireland

This fairy tale-style castle dates back in part to 1180, though its 19th-century redesign by Sir Charles Lanyon gives it the look of a Loire chateau. Killyleagh has self-catering apartments that can be used by production crews, and is only a 30-minute drive from Belfast. Strangford Lough, a huge beautiful sea loch, is also close by. Cinderella (2007), part of a BBC TV series, filmed here, as did kid’s series Dani’s Castle (2012-). (Photo, courtesy Northern Ireland Screen)

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five sisters of kintail, scottish highlands

One of the last few areas of wild land in Scotland, this rugged and remote estate in the West Highlands offers a true wilderness experience. The dramatic landscape encompasses the Five Sisters — a mountain ridge incorporating three Munros (a Scottish mountain higher than 3,000 ft/914.4 m) — and the Falls of Glomach, Britain’s second-highest waterfall, as well as lochs, glens and coastline. (Photo, courtesy National Trust of Scotland)

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belfast, river lagan northern ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, is a vibrant city that developed on the flood plain of the River Lagan. The city grew and prospered as a centre for industry and commerce, including linen production, tobacco and shipbuilding — the main shipbuilders being Harland and Wolff, which built RMS Titanic. A rich history has left the city with a wide variety of architecture including Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian, as well as industrial buildings and ultra-modern steel and glass. Consequently Belfast has doubled for cities as diverse as New York, Copenhagen and London. Costs are competitive and within an hour or two you can reach beaches, mountains, lakes, forests and castles. The city airport is five minutes from the city centre, and the international airport is only 20 minutes away. (Photo, courtesy Northern Ireland Screen)

brecon beacons national park, wales

The Brecon Beacons National Park contains stunning and diverse landscapes. This view takes in Pen y Fan, with its distinctive table-top summit, and the neighbouring mountain in the ridge, Cribyn. The Park is also home to some of the UK’s most spectacular waterfalls, caves and wooded gorges. The National Parks in Wales all feature mountain landscapes that are easy to access and have therefore been used by numerous film and TV productions, including: An American Werewolf In London (1981); Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005); Stardust (2007); Killer Elite (2011); Wrath Of The Titans (2012); The Dark Knight Rises, the second unit (2012); Snow White And The Huntsman (2012); and TV series Merlin (2008-) and Da Vinci’s Demons (2013). (Photo, courtesy © Crown Copyright (2012) Visit Wales)

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george square, GlasGow, scotland

George Square is a large civic square in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. It boasts grand historic buildings, including the City Council, and an important collection of statues and monuments dedicated to, among others, Robert Burns, James Watt, Sir Robert Peel and Sir Walter Scott. The streets surrounding the square are laid out in a grid system which can double for North American cities. Recent productions to use this area of Glasgow include: Cloud Atlas (2012), Under The Skin (2013), Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and World War Z (2013). (Photo, courtesy Creative Scotland location services)

FreeMasoNs’ HaLL LoBBY, london

Freemasons’ Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the principal meeting place for Masonic Lodges in London. The Grand Lodge has been in Great Queen Street in central London since 1775, the present Hall being the third structure on the site. The stunning Art Deco building can double for institutional buildings anywhere in the world, and for UK TV series Spooks (2002-) it took the role of the secret service MI5 headquarters. Other productions using this location include: Sherlock Holmes (2009), Parade’s End (2012), and The Muppets... Again! (2014). (Photo, courtesy Freemasons’ Hall)

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rhossili cliffs, gower peninsula, south wales

The westernmost bay on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales, Rhossili Bay has a three-mile-long sandy beach, popular with surfers, and overlooked by the Old Rectory, a National Trust holiday cottage. The Bay was voted the Best Beach in the UK in February 2013, and the third-best in Europe, in the Travellers’ Choice awards. At low tide there is a huge expanse of sand and it is possible to walk across the bay to the village of Llangennith or even cross to the Worm’s Head islet, and there are many nesting birds in the cliffs. Productions that have used this location include TV series Doctor Who (2005-) and Torchwood Miracle Day (2011), the music video Lover Of The Light for Mumford & Sons, and the shot of a choir singing on a beach in the Olympics Opening Ceremony was filmed here. (Photo, courtesy © Crown Copyright (2012) Visit Wales)

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FROM the Velodrome to the copper Box (formerly known as the Handball Arena), from the Arcelormittal orbit — the UK’s tallest sculpture — to the Aquatics centre, there is a diverse range of architecture and open spaces situated at london’s Queen Elizabeth olympic park. The back-of-house areas are likely to become of particular interest to high-end productions looking for alternative construction space set against an exciting backdrop that can double for many things — from interior spaceship walkways, modern reception areas and interrogation rooms through to barren sci-fi landscapes and established parkland, and local waterways within the park.

With thousands of square feet of undevel-oped warehouse space, offering a potential 60 feet clear height, robust connectivity as well as office space and parking, Film london and the British Film commission are already fielding enquiries for filming at the site. The press and Broadcasting centre also offers an ideal space for film houses.

Film london has the job of mapping the park as it is being deconstructed and re-emerges to take its place among london’s iconic locations. it is also handling all filming enquiries which have included site recces for three major Us feature films. susie Williams, Film london’s Filming Advisor: industry, who handles

enquiries for the park’s owners, says: “With its blend of unique and generic features, the park holds endless possibilities for filmmakers. We are already hosting recces in the park and look forward to welcoming further enquiries.”

According to Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film commission and Film london: “it is an exciting time for Film london to be developing the potential of such a unique new london location set to attract filming from all areas, including commercials and high-end TV benefiting from the new TV tax relief.” it seems that the 2012 london olympic and paralympic Games were only the beginning for this iconic london landmark.•

spotlight WiTH mAny THoUsAnds oF HoUrs oF TElEVision FooTAGE BroAdcAsT in THE sUmmEr oF 2012, london’s QUEEn ElizABETH olympic pArK HAs FAsT BEcomE A WEll-KnoWn lAndmArK AroUnd THE World. As THE pArK BEGins To opEn Up, THErE Will BE nEW opporTUniTiEs For FilmmAKErs To UsE iT As A locATion

A new London LocAtion

The VelOdROMeBMX TRack in the Queen elizabeth Olympic park

The aRcelORMiTTal ORBiT, the uk’s tallest sculpture

40 Olympics+D+J.indd 40 14/05/13 14:33

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THE UK is renowned for its famous fi lm studios, many of which are among the great names of cinema history. Pinewood, Shepperton, Teddington, Elstree, Ealing and Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden are continu-ally in demand from major fi lm producers — so much so that there’s a great deal of expansion under way.

Elstree Studios has secured funding for a multimillion-pound redevelopment. Pinewood is expanding with 45,000 sq ft of additional space. After a £100m investment, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is now open, following a full-scale refurbishment and rebuild.

But there are times when productions need to look fur-ther afi eld, often bringing an entirely new purpose to some unexpected locations. “On the one hand we are absolutely work-ing with the existing studios to help in any way we can to sustain and develop their business,” Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London, says. “But at the same time we’re also aware of capacity. In the last few years, in fi lm terms, there have been instances where we’ve had to work with fi lm companies to bring into play, temporary, largely indus-trial spaces, whether they be warehouses, big hangars or disused runways.”

With the prospect of high-end television productions attracted by the new tax relief, Wootton believes another aspect to this will be the possibility of ongoing drama series looking for studio space, potentially on a semi-permanent basis: “It’s not beyond the bounds

THE NEED FOR STUDIO FACILITIES IN THE UK IS ON THE INCREASE. PINEWOOD STUDIOS, WARNER BROS. STUDIOS LEAVESDEN, AND ELSTREE STUDIOS ARE MORE IN DEMAND THAN EVER BEFORE. AND THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY HAS TAKEN ACTION, WITH A NUMBER OF NEW SPACES BEING ESTABLISHED TO MEET THAT DEMAND.

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of possibility that people will come here and say, ‘That works — we can be here for a long time’. They can have a kind of ownership of that space, which is frankly what happened with Leavesden and Harry Potter. Leaves-den was not a permanent studio facility — it was an extensive piece of land in which Warners saw huge potential and look what’s happened 10 years later: Warner Bros. has spent £100m making it a state-of-the-art permanent facility.”

With the introduction of the new tax relief, it appears that a number of new studios are becoming active around the country. “This is an exten-sion of what we’ve seen happen in fi lm and shows our desire to get ahead of the curve and meet the demand,” Wootton says. “I’m con-fi dent that, with the partnership with the existing studio complexes, the brown-fi eld industrial sites that we’ve already brought into play with fi lm, and other spaces, developments and opportunities that our partners around the UK are looking at, we will have the studio capacity to cater for new productions coming to the UK.”

TITANIC STUDIOSThe Paint Hall forms part of Titanic Studios, an eight-acre (3.2 ha) site that also includes two new purpose-built sound stages, o� ces, work-shops, a green room and its own internal electrical substation.

Originally part of the historic shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where parts of the Titanic were built, this is now one of the largest fi lm studios in Europe. Home to some prestigious productions, the Paint Hall once housed the gigantic component parts of ships while they were paint-ed in climate-controlled conditions.

The sheer scale of the space is a major attraction for fi lmmakers. Most recently — and with a fourth season now confi rmed — HBO’s epic TV fantasy Game Of Thrones chose the Paint Hall as the perfect site in which to locate parts of its giant mythological kingdom. Game Of Thrones is the largest and most expensive television production ever to be made in Northern Ireland.

Production designer Martin Laing says he searched throughout Europe for a location big enough to feasibly build a whole city for City Of Ember (2008). “We came to this building, saw this facility and it was absolutely amazing, because it did allow us to build the city as we wanted to,” he says.

The space is made up of four 16,000 sq ft (14,864 sq m) areas, which are set out in a square, each connected by an internal road and streets. “It actually makes it easier to shoot,” Laing says. “Rather than move from one stage to the next, here we have the luxury of fi lming the whole thing.” Each of the connected areas is 90 ft (27.4 metres) tall with one three-foot thick external wall. Noise pollution is also reduced by the building’s dou-ble skin.

BAY STUDIOS - THE OLD FORD FACTORYIf Game Of Thrones is one good example of long-form drama moving into an unusual space and taking it into another dimension, then Da Vin-ci’s Demons is certainly another. Formerly a Ford components factory on the outskirts of Swansea in South Wales, it has been transformed into 15th century Florence for this big-budget television series from US cable channel Starz.

The historical drama — written by David S Goyer, writer on Christo-pher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and 2013’s superman movie, Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel — imagines the early life of Leonardo da Vinci and has been crucial in establishing the former car components factory as a working fi lm and television studio. A second series has been confi rmed and the production team will remain in Wales at Bay Studios.

The eight-part series has also helped create hun-dreds of part- and full-time jobs and there are hopes that a second series will be commissioned. There is certainly room for expansion, with some areas of the massive factory still as yet unused.

CARDINGTON STUDIOSOne of the most striking and unusual studio spaces in

the UK is at Cardington. On the site of a former RAF airfield are two enormous hangars,

originally built for barrage balloons and the construction of airships.

“The scale of it is awesome. Nelson’s Col-umn could easily stand in the hangar. There’s

nothing in comparison to it,” Hayley Arm-strong, Creative England’s production liaison manager for the east of England,

says. She adds: “It’s the largest structure of its kind in Europe. You could fi t Warner

Bros.’ largest studio in Burbank in it six times over.”

Warner Bros. had a lease on the site for eight years, taking advantage of the cavernous space to shoot Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Clearly a fan of Cardington, Nolan chose to con-struct an immensely complicated set in the hangar for Inception, where a long hotel corridor was able to rotate a full 360 degrees to create the e� ect of zero gravity.

With Warner Bros. now based at Leavesden, Card-ington became available for new productions at the beginning of the year. Situated in Bedfordshire, the

massive space is just over an hour from the centre of London, an hour from Pinewood and 55 minutes from Elstree. The site also o� ers production o� ce space, workshop areas and a 20-acre backlot.

METROPOLITAN STUDIOSO� ering more than 100,000 sq ft of studio space, the London Metropolitan Studios is another unconven-tional site that is now open for fi lming.

“There are two pillar-less chambers without sky-lights, that are really well sound-insulated,” Anthony Iredale, managing director of The Collective, which manages the location, says. “They are adjacent to each other and are 35,000 sq ft each.” There is also a fur-

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HAYLEY ARMSTRONG: “THE SCALE OF CARDINGTON IS AWESOME. NELSON’S COLUMN COULD EASILY STAND IN THE HANGAR”

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ther 35,000 sq ft warehouse (each have 9.7 metre height clearance), plus production o� ces, a kitchen with canteen, storage areas and extensive secure parking for more than 200 vehicles. Situated just nine miles from central London, the studios are also within easy access of Ealing, Pine-wood, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavesden.

Originally a depot, the change of use is a sign of the times on the high street, with the site becoming vacant after the demise of Woolworths. “We are trying to fi nd a mid- to long-term tenant ideally,” Iredale says.

“We see it as one of the higher quality unconventional studio spaces avail-able in London, purely because most of the infrastructure is already there. Not a lot of money needs to be invested to be able to walk in and it be, in e� ect, a sound stage.”

Iredale says high-end drama producers from overseas are already looking within the UK for semi-permanent locations, in part because of the new television tax relief. “I think there are some huge announcements in the pipeline and we will need this studio space,” he says. “Our ultimate objective was to o� er this up across the globe as alternative studio space at a time when London really needs it.”

THE BOTTLE YARDThe South West of England’s largest dedicated studio space is The Bottle Yard, a site that for more than 50 years operated as a winery and bottling plant. But with fi lm and television production space in the UK at a pre-mium, this once empty warehouse has been brought back to life.

The main warehouse alone is nearly 200,000 sq ft, and there are four smaller ‘tankhouses’ — buildings formerly used to blend and store wines and grape concentrate, one of which was the former home of six one-million litre vessels of fortifi ed wine. Eight miles from Bristol’s international airport and 15 minutes from Bristol city centre, the studio also has a large backlot that can be used for exterior set builds, with large exterior wall spaces for green screen use.

The Bottle Yard is a controlled and secure environment capable of hosting driving and stunt sequences. For location shooting, the site has exteriors and interiors that have doubled for police stations, schools, hos-pitals and science labs. The facility can house two major productions at one time, both with separate production o� ces. Among the recent pro-ductions to use the facility were TV projects Sky’s Trollied and the BBC’s Dirk Gently and Inside Men.

LONGCROSS STUDIOSA former tank factory and British Ministry of Defence site, Longcross Stu-dios in Surrey established itself as a production centre in 2006. Since then, the studios have proved immensely popular with major fi lm pro-ducers, with Skyfall (2012), Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Jack The Giant Slayer (2013) and Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) among the numer-ous blockbusters that the studios have hosted.

As well as a 200-acre backlot, the site also features a two-and-a-quar-ter-mile test track. Once used for testing 80-ton military tanks and now regularly in demand for fi lming, the track allows long shots to be created at high speed. There is also a 150-year-old manor house in the centre of the backlot, which is often used as a location, particularly for period dramas.

Longcross has four main stages, the largest of which, at 42,000 sq ft, was used to create sets for Hugo (2011) and Clash Of The Titans (2010).

The smallest of the stages (4,225 sq ft) was formerly a testing chamber for military helicopters and is con-sequently an ideal height for housing larger sets. A wide range of workshops is available, along with o� ce space and canteen facilities.

THE GILLETTE BUILDINGAnother impressive location given a new lease of life is the Gillette Building on the Great West Road in Lon-don. This Art Deco factory and o� ce was once the European headquarters of Gillette and remains a prominent local landmark, with its high brick tower topped by an illuminated clock.

Some of the larger sets for Rowan Atkinson’s spoof spy movie Johnny English (2003) were constructed inside the building. More recently, Great Expectations (2012) took over the site, transforming the interior into a large Victorian scene, complete with appropri-ately muddy streets and a selection of farm animals.

Red 2 (2013), the crime caper starring Bruce Wil-lis, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones, spent in excess of six months at the Gil-lette Building, constructing Russian and Parisian streets at the facility. The production used the main warehouses, the outdoor space and the more indus-trial-looking factory area.•

ANTHONY IREDALE: “I THINK THERE ARE SOME HUGE ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE PIPELINE AND WE WILL NEED THIS STUDIO SPACE”

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ONCE upon a time... classic tales like Snow White, Jack And The Beanstalk and Hansel And Gretel were handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. Nowadays it’s fi lmmakers who are re-telling these stories, and they are coming to the UK to do it. With such a rich vein of material, and the kind of technological advances now available to major studios, it’s no surprise that these timeless tales are being re-visited, and the UK has emerged as the natural choice of location.

Snow White And The Huntsman (2012)and Jack The Giant Slayer (2013) were both fi lmed in the UK, taking advantage of the British countryside and the expertise of some of the world’s leading studios.

Due for release in 2014, Disney’s live-action fi lm Malefi cent is a fresh twist on the Sleeping Beauty story, told from the perspective of the princess’ evil nemesis, played by Angelina Jolie.

Exploring the origins of the evil fairy Malefi cent and what led her to curse Princess Aurora, the movie also stars Elle Fanning and Juno Temple. Director Robert Stromberg based the production at Pinewood Studios,

using a total of 12 di� erent stages, including the world-famous 007 stage, the four-acre Paddock Lot and the 16-acre North Lot, which provides a vast open area that can accommodate massive standing sets and comes complete with its own cobbled street, originally constructed for The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970).

Members of the public reported catching occasional glimpses of Angelina Jolie as the production ventured into the English countryside for some of the exterior scenes.

Supervising location manager Bill Darby selected several sites within easy reach of Pinewood, including Bullstrode Park in Gerrards Cross, where an enormous set was constructed.

“We had space there for 125 horses and soldiers and we built a large green screen that we couldn’t fi t in the studio at the time,”

Darby says. “A wall 40 ft (12.2 metres) high and 120 ft long gave us the scale and the coverage we needed.” Darby also took the production to the National Trust’s Ashridge, a country estate and stately home that has previously hosted fi lms including Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005). Just 20 miles north west of London, Ashridge is in the Chiltern Hills, an area of outstanding beauty o� ering thousands of acres of commons and woodland.

Malefi cent also took advantage of the conveniently situated Black Park, a 500-acre area of heath and woodland adjacent to Pinewood Studios. Numerous productions including Thunderbirds (2004) and Phantom Of The Opera (2004) have used Black Park, a location that has also doubled for 19th century France, 19th century upstate New York, the Balkans, and a US summer camp.

Meanwhile the fantasy theme continues with Disney’s forthcoming live-action production of Cinderella, the next fairy tale to be shot at Pinewood and in the surrounding countryside.•

SPOTLIGHT

DISNEY’S RE-TELLING OF THE STORY OF SLEEPING BEAUTY, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE WICKED MALEFICENT, IS THE LATEST IN A SUCCESSION OF FAIRY TALE MOVIES TO BE SHOT IN THE UK. CLIVE BULL FINDS OUT WHERE

A TALE FROM THE DARK SIDE

ANGELINA JOLIE AS MALEFICENT

IN ROBERT STROMBERG’S FILM

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Kent County Council Film Office offers a first class film commissioning service for all manner of productions. Offering a vast, eclectic range of locations, Kent has 350 miles of varied coastline and a range of studios including the largest independent HD Stage in the UK. With over 600 local contacts for crew, equipment hire, facilities and production services, let Kent open possibilities.

www.kent.gov.uk/filmoffice • Tel: +44 (0)1622 696822


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effectively closed for the duration. Brodie Pringle, Creative Scotland locations manager, says it was a huge operation, involving weeks of prep and two days of flooding George Square. “adding street signs and american street furniture, as well as fully functioning american traffic lights, created a convincing set that pulled together with the appearance of around 150 imported american cars, buses and taxis,” she says. “while filming, the VFX team scanned the entire area, which then allowed them to add a variety of skyscrapers and bridges to really give it the Philadelphia mark in post.”

The shoot involved some complex action and stunts, including a car-crash sequence that sees a dustcart ploughing into a busy street of traffic. a cast and crew of around 1,200 people were assembled for the shoot, with hundreds of locals taken on as zombie extras.

“what was truly fantastic was the excitement the residents and businesses showed in welcoming the filming,” Harm says. “There was constant interest in the shooting of the sequence and, although filming can be very disruptive, the vast majority of the public that were asked to make a detour around the action did so happily. The shoot went so well, very much through the support of the City of Glasgow and its residents.”

Harm says that Glasgow City Council together with the Glasgow Film office were

THE PROSPECT of Brad Pitt tackling a zombie pandemic in Glasgow’s city centre might seem unlikely — but that’s exactly what happened when world war Z (wwZ) came to Scotland’s largest city.

Pitt plays UN worker Gerry lane, who travels the world attempting to halt the progress of a zombie takeover that could threaten the future of humanity. Based on the Max Brooks novel of the same name, the action-horror movie is directed by Marc Forster, who chose Glasgow as the city to take on the role of Philadelphia.

“The opening sequence, in both the book and the script, is set in Philly and we needed to find a section of streets in the UK that

could double for US streets,” location manager on world war Z, Michael Harm, says. “as it happens, I’d been to Glasgow many years before and remembered the grid layout and wide streets, which are uncommon in the UK.”

Harm had noted that Glasgow’s side streets were often as wide as its main streets, echoing the style of US cities, while the architecture of the buildings also looked appropriate. “all we had to do was extend the buildings upwards in post production to make them taller,” he says.

wwZ was the largest ever example of a city-centre shoot in Scotland. Glasgow’s central district and surrounding streets were

life on location GlaSGow’S CITy CeNTre waS TraNSForMed INTo THe war-TorN rUINS oF PHIladelPHIa laST SUMMer For THe FIlMING oF MarC ForSTer’S PoST-aPoCalyPTIC ZoMBIe MoVIe world war Z. ClIVe BUll rePorTS

The day zombies invaded GlasGow

CHaOS on the streets of PhiladelPhia, shot in GlasGow for world war Z

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www.glasgowfilm.com [email protected]

Wide streets, an easily manageable grid system and eclecticarchitecture make Glasgow a top destination for your on-location filming

WORLD WAR Z IN THE UKAS WELL as Scotland, director Marc Forster and his vast crew shot in many other parts of the UK. A speedboat scene and other beach scenes were shot at picturesque Lulworth Cove in the southwest of England, and shots from a ship out at sea were shot a little further south-west off the coast of Falmouth in Cornwall. Other UK locations were Aldershot in Hampshire, England; Duns-fold Park in Dunsfold, Surrey, England; Southwark’s Heygate Estate, London; and a Royal Airforce base at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, England.

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central to the success of the shoot. “They helped on all levels to bring the right people together to look at the smallest detail of how to facilitate a very large film unit in the heart of Glasgow for 17 consecutive days,” he says. The success of the wwZ shoot combined with the fact that the grid layout of the city-centre streets is reminiscent of many major US cities has prompted a number of other filmmakers to see Glasgow as highly

versatile with a talent for impersonation. “Glasgow features as Philadelphia in wwZ, San Francisco in Cloud atlas (2012) and, most recently, london in the forthcoming Fast & Furious 6 (2013),” Pringle says. “as a city, I think it’s fair to say that Glasgow is very proactive in promoting its availability as a location. It has worked hard over the years to pull together the logistics of supporting large-scale filming and can boast an impressive CV. Glasgow is very much open for business and has the experience throughout all the different city departments to make shoots of this scale happen quickly, smoothly and affordably.”

Pringle says the city council and film office managed the wwZ shoot impeccably, and credits the crew with not missing a single deadline when it came to returning the streets to their original condition and re-opening them for business. “This is exciting because we now have a great template for working partnerships between the city and incoming filmmakers,” she says. “It’s also reassuring for

local residents and businesses to see that a proposal of this scale is entirely achievable and beneficial to the city.”

once filming was completed each day and the set made safe and secure, families would arrive to take photographs, go on unofficial tours of the adapted square and enjoy the hospitality of the surrounding bars and restaurants.

So how did the people of Glasgow react to a zombie invasion? “No-one really knew what to expect the first day the square was made accessible to the public, especially considering the scale of the closures,” Pringle says. “However the response was tremendous and the set created a real holiday atmosphere for its short spell in the city. There was a real buzz around the area and an influx of visitors from all over Scotland curious to see the transformation,” Pringle adds. “The zombies were kept well under wraps in between the action sequences. You never want to see the monster before you see the movie, do you?” •

A ZOmbIE takes a yellow taxi ride through glasgow

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SUMMER In February is based on the 1995 novel by Jonathan Smith — who also wrote the screenplay. Set in the years running up to the First World War it tells the true story of the bohemian Lamorna Group of artists, dominated by the charismatic Alfred — or AJ — Munnings (Dominic Cooper), who was at the heart of a love triangle involving aspiring painter Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning) and Gilbert Evans (Dan Stevens), the land agent in charge of the Lamorna estate in Cornwall, on England’s south west peninsular. The film also stars Hattie Morahan as impressionist painter Laura Knight, with Shaun Dingwall as her husband Harold.The first half of the seven-week production schedule involved many of the dramatic coastal locations where the story took place almost exactly 100 years ago. The cast stayed at a hotel in the tiny hamlet of Lamorna, which has evolved from the original Jory’s Hotel where the story of AJ, Florence and Gilbert is played out. Just down the hill from there is The Wink pub, where the artists used to gather, and which is still popular with locals. While it was not possible to film in the newly modernised hotel, the production found its own version of Jory’s Hotel nearby. “We had all read the real characters’ memoirs, biographies and autobiographies — and they all describe the area, who lived where, where all the parties took place and so on,” Hattie Morahan says. “And the novel itself has wonderful descriptions of the beautiful coastline — and then suddenly we were all actually there. It was uncanny really. And for me it brought a whole new element to the part. I could leave the hotel before a day’s filming and in two minutes I’d be on the cliff’s edge, on the same path that my character describes as she walks carrying her canvasses — you know, literally treading in her footprints.

And we’d go to the pub that they all used to go to — it’s something really magical to be able to do that, especially when you are playing a real character. You can just immerse yourself. “It was a most peculiar thing staying in the hotel. Even though it’s been revamped, the layout is the same as the old building. And the lead actress, Emily Browning, actually stayed in the room where her character killed herself. She would say that she could feel the presence of Florence — which, I have to say, would have freaked me out!” But a rare gift for an actor to be able to have that experience to bring to a performance? “Oh yes. And I’m sure that while film crews are always looking for authentic locations, nine times out of 10 they’ll go to the original place and it will look absolutely dreadful — there’ll be a Taco Bell there or something.” Producer Pippa Cross says that to shoot Cornwall properly they had to avoid the holiday season. “The obvious time to go to Cornwall is when the sun is shining and it’s a bit warmer, but then it’s also very busy. The great joy about being there in January and February was that we had it all to ourselves. And we shot

the hell out of it.” The uncertain weather brought the right look to the film according to director Christopher Menaul: “Although it looks sumptuous, it doesn’t look chocolate-box, which is another advantage of shooting it in the winter. Whenever you have good days, it has this sort of edge to it that you wouldn’t get in the summer.” Porthcurno, a windswept tidal beach beneath the Minack open-air theatre, provided the atmospheric setting for AJ’s night-time barbecue, while the panoramic Holywell Beach with shining sand and jagged rocks, was the backdrop for the film’s horse riding sequences.Other filming locations were found in the grounds and buildings attached to a castle in Oxfordshire; a 900-year-old Buckinghamshire pub; the Athenaeum Club in London’s Pall Mall; a church in Deptford, south London; York House in Twickenham, west London; and the courtyard of Burlington House in Piccadilly, home of the Royal Academy, of which Sir Alfred Munnings was president from 1944 to 1949. Distributed by Metrodome Distribution, the film’s producers are Apart Films, CrossDay Productions and Marwood Pictures. •

spotlight FOR THE FILMInG OF SuMMER In FEBRuARY, CAST AnD CREW STAYED WHERE THE REAL-LIFE ACTIOn HAPPEnED FOR MOST OF THE SHOOT. JuLIAn nEWBY SPOKE TO CAST MEMBER HATTIE MORAHAn

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life on location fast & furious 6 is the sixth installment in a series of universal studios action films that stars vin diesel and dwayne ‘the rock’ Johnson. the movie continues a long-running saga based around a group of street car racers who specialise in pulling off ambitious heists

THEY’RE BACK

Dwayne Johnson and Gina Carano in a sCene from fast & furious 6 shot on London’s Lambeth bridGe

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THE FAST & furious series of movies started to plateau after the fourth film. But the introduction of Dwayne Johnson as a hardcore fBi agent in fast 5 helped trigger a bounce-back, with global box office revenues hitting $626m — double what fast 4 had taken. that persuaded universal to back the release of director Justin Lin’s fast 6 with a big budget.

all of which is good news for the uK, which hosted the fast 6 production in 2012. London in particular was a big beneficiary, with producer Neal Moritz “excited to bring the next chapter of the fast & furious franchise to one of the world’s most amazing cities”. Moritz has worked in London previously, on the movie Jack the Giant slayer (2013). Explaining why he brought

fast 6 to the uK, he says: “Locations availa-ble only in London play an integral part of our story, and we’re grateful to the city’s people for welcoming the production.” initially, the fast 6 production team was concerned that shooting during the London 2012 olympic Games would be a problem — particularly given the number of ambi-tious driving sequences being lined up. so film London carried out an extensive feasibility study, liaising with councils and key agencies to see what they might be able to facilitate. the result was that the produc-tion shot in two blocks — first in June and then a main shoot from early september. By doing so, it avoided any clashes with the olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jenny Cooper, filming partnership

manager at film London said: “the produc-tion came to film London early in pre-production with a wish list of iconic London locations.” scenes were shot in the central areas of Piccadilly Circus, Lincoln’s inn fields, King’s Cross, Wembley, Canary Wharf and Lambeth Bridge — which was turned into a war zone with Dwayne Johnson at the heart of it. “Even central government contributed by granting permission to film in an HM treasury parking lot,” samantha Perahia, senior production executive, British film Commis-sion, says.

fast 6 director Justin Lin had one minor setback when he was unable to obtain permission to shoot an action sequence at Piccadilly Circus involving an exploding oil

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Freemasons’ Hall is an extraordinary Art Deco Grade II* listed venue. Its spectacular corridors, fl oors and remarkable fi ttings provide a uniquely memorable atmosphere to fi lm depicting either modern or period settings. All this within one, extraordinarily evocative labyrinth makes it a truly wonderful hidden treasure in Covent Garden, London.

FREEMASONS’ HALL

Contact: [email protected]

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tanker. But fortunately he was able to turn to nearby shepperton studios, which was tasked with building a replica for Lin to play with.

While London was the big draw for fast 6, other pockets of the uK also got involved in the madness and mayhem. these includ-ed Hertfordshire’s raf Bovingdon. a military airfield that was frequently used in the 1960s for World War 2 movies such as the 633 squadron (1964), Bovingdon was used by fast 6, from october to November 2012, to stage a plane crash.

it wasn’t just the southeast of England that benefited from the arrival of the fast 6 circus. Heading north, the production team filmed a series of car chases in central

Liverpool and the nearby Birkenhead tunnel. there was also a series of stunt and chase work for Glasgow. spread over two weeks, that part of the filming took place at night and involved 250 crew — a major shot in the arm for scotland’s production community.

Hamish Walker of the Glasgow film office (Gfo) says the decision by the fast 6 production team to base part of its filming in the city is a vindication of the decision to set up the Gfo in 1997. “the Gfo was set up to help position the city as a production hub. since then, the economic impact for the city as a result of film, tV and commercials production has been over £200m ($309m).”

some £23.1m of that total came in 2012

as Glasgow hosted high-profile productions such as World War Z (2013), Cloud atlas (2012) and fast 6. so how did the latter relationship come about? “Early last year, the location team on fast 6 was putting out feelers for remote locations that might be suitable for stunts and crashes involving fast cars,” Walker says. “as part of that process they came to scotland. While they were up here they spoke to us about whether we had any city locations that might double up as a modern business district. so we sent them some images.”

after that initial contact everything went quiet for a few months. “But then they came back to us with a list of questions about what might be possible in terms of the production

Shooting FaSt 6 on the streets of GlasGow at niGht

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lead times. so we spoke to various agencies such as the police and the traffic manage-ment authorities. once they had given their go ahead, we were able to meet up with the key personnel from fast 6 and start arrang-ing for them to film here.”

Walker believes Glasgow’s case was helped by the fact that it had previously shut down the centre of Glasgow for World War Z. “i think if you can show previous productions that have gone smoothly it helps in conversa-tions with new clients,” he says.

filming took place around Broomielaw, Cadogan street and Wellington street from august 25 to september 16, 2012. Because it was at night, some local newspapers ran stories in which local residents expressed fears that they wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the noise. But Walker says the disruption was minimal. “We made sure everyone knew in advance what was taking place, and we didn’t get much negative feedback. We have a lot of experience now in keeping businesses and the public aware of what is going on.”

Glasgow handled the second unit on fast 6. While this meant it didn’t get to host the movie’s stars, it was still an important boost in terms of work generated locally. “the production team brought in some of their own specialist talent,” Walker says, “but it was still an important employment opportu-nity. it was also welcomed at a political level, because this kind of production creates a positive perception of the city.”

While the production’s main requirement

in terms of look was a modern business district with wide roads, Glasgow was also able to offer a useful vacant lot near the heart of the city: “We found a site [on Broomielaw] which could be used as a production base,” he says. it was also big enough for the production team to build a glass and chrome bank front for some of the stunts.

it’s too early to say whether fast 6 can do better than fast 5. But there’s certainly a lot of confidence at universal studios that the franchise is gaining momentum. adam fogelson, chairman of universal, believes fast 5 was a game-changer, transforming a pure car culture series into an action franchise that has more in common with the italian Job (1969/2003) and the french Connection (1971).

that confidence explains why universal has backed fast & furious 6 with a big budget and already set a 2014 release date for fast & furious 7. and there’s even talk of stories being scripted for movies 8 and 9. if that’s the case, it’s just possible Vin Diesel and his team will be back to rip up more roads across the uK. •

neal moritz LoCations aVaiLaBLe

onLy in LonDon pLay an inteGraL part

of our story, anD We’re GratefuL to the City’s

peopLe for WeLCominG the proDuCtion”

Fast & Furious Factoids the producers of the fast franchise have

proved very adept at finding locations that offer tax incentives and high levels of production support. in the case of fast 6, some of the film was shot in tenerife on the canary islands, including an ambitious sequence where a motorway bridge is blown to pieces. Previous films in the franchise have shot in Japan and Puerto Rico, the latter doubling up for Brazil. Key action sequences on fast 5 also shot in the Mojave Desert in california.

around 400 vehicles were used in the filming of fast & furious 6 — many of which were pulverised. in one scene involving a tank, as many as 100 vehicles were trashed, although most started life as rust buckets, not new vehicles. a lot of cars are sourced and built in the US, but the UK connection on fast 6 meant that there was a nice cameo role for a fleet of seven classic ford escorts, sourced from classified ads and car enthusiasts. around 80 stunt drivers were involved in the film, including renowned British rally driver Mark Higgins.

Some of the film was shot 25 miles outside london at Surrey-based longcross Studios, a former tank factory and test track that has previously been used for blockbuster theatricals including as clash of the titans (2010), War Horse (2011), John carter (2012) and Skyfall (2012).

With its strong emphasis on car culture, the fast franchise has been a great brand integration opportunity for companies connected with the automotive sector. the Dodge charger has been a key part of the story since the start. other brands to appear in fast 5 included Honda, VW, Kenwood (car audio), ae Performance (car component design) and fox Racing Shox.

the basing of Hollywood productions in the UK leads to some unexpected beneficiar-ies. one of these is Shropshire-based fabweld Steel Products, which was commissioned to make steel manhole covers for a scene in fast & furious 6.

it’s not just British studios, locations and stunt teams that have benefited from fast 6. the villain in this latest installment of the franchise is luke evans, a Welsh actor who got his first movie break in 2010. film london also provided fast 6 with suggestions for crew, which led to a location scout being hired.

Vin diesel and Michelle RodRiguez in Fast 6, ©univeRsal studios

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BEAUTIFUL & THE

THE UK IS FAMOUS FOR ITS CASTLES, STATELY HOMES, CITY MANSIONS, ICONIC CLIFFS, HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS, AN-CIENT MONUMENTS, MEDIEVAL MONASTERIES, VICTORIAN JAILS AND TOWNS THAT TIME FORGOT. AND THEY ALL MAKE GREAT FILM SETS. JOANNA STEPHENS REPORTS

FEATURE

“WE HAVE roughly 250 properties we o� er as locations,” Harvey Edging-ton, broadcast and media manager for the National Trust (NT), says. The guardian of the nation’s cultural, historic and environmental treasures has been hosting shoots — “anything from stills to Spielberg” — since 1920, when a silent movie version of Don Giovanni was fi lmed at Ashridge Estate, and paid for in guineas.

But it’s not all manor houses and period costumes, Edgington says: “We also have cellars and industrial areas and workhouses. And then there’s 600 miles of heritage coastline, including the White Cli� s of Dover and the Giant’s Causeway, and 500,000 square acres of land, which makes us the nation’s biggest farmer.”

In other words, if you want to bring history to life, the NT is not a bad starting point. “We have around three crews a day out on National Trust land,” Edgington says. Among the NT’s recent clients are the feature fi lms Les Miserables (2012, Ashridge), Anna Karenina (2012, Ham House) and Snow White And The Huntsman (2012, Frensham Ponds), and Stephen Poliako� ’s cinematic TV series Dancing On The Edge (2013, Upton House and Fenton House).

Edgington says “small and delicate” properties tend not to be suited to the rough and tumble of large fi lm crews, and the humping and bumping that inevitably accompanies big pieces of equipment being manoeuvred into small spaces. Lighting can also be a challenge, he adds, citing Anna Karenina, which was mostly shot indoors by candlelight. This required a hot-work per-mit, special double-wick, non-drip candles, meticulous fl oor and candlestick protection, countless fi re extinguishers and, because smoke alarms had to be switched o� , crew members on fi re duty in every room.

“The other thing about candles,” Edgington says, “is that for continuity reasons, they have to be snu� ed out every time they say ‘cut’ which, if you’ve got a lot of candles, can add two or three hours to the day.”

“If you look at what the National Trust has done, working very closely with us as a partner, and the way in which they’ve opened up their historic homes and gardens not just for period dramas — the Pride And Prejudices of this world — but also for Alice In Wonderland (2010), they’ve adapted to successfully accommodate fi lming,” Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission and Film London, says. “We’ve worked with them and with the historic royal palaces to develop new ways of working so that

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Glencoe & dalness

This location was most recently used in Sam

Mendes’ James Bond blockbuster

Skyfall. © National Trust

for Scotland

there’s no way a film or television company is in any sense damaging the heritage or preventing the public having access to those national treasures or those wonderful buildings. But we are making them available in a way that just wasn’t done before because we’ve been able to explain the limita-tions of conservation, lighting etc. to the filmmakers and the filmmakers have worked with us on the solutions. So some of the things that have been done around the country, in the historic stately homes and in London, we’ve man-aged to be able to turn round and say ‘Yes’, not ‘No’.”

When it comes to big productions, the choice of location very often comes down to accessibility rather than aesthetics. “they love anything within strik-ing distance of the M25,” edgington says, referring to London’s orbital motorway. So ashridge in hertfordshire, and Osterley Park and ham house on the western fringes of London are statistically the most popular locations in the Nt’s portfolio. Convenience and accessibility certainly played a part in the casting of Boughton house — otherwise known as the english Ver-sailles — for a key role in Working title’s triple-Oscar-winner Les Miserables. Camilla Stephenson, supervising location manager for the film, worked with Creative england in the search for a house that combined a French architec-tural style with proximity to London and grounds substantial and secluded enough to host a major production without the need for elaborate traffic-control or security measures.

Boughton house, the Duke of Buccleuch’s 11,000-acre country estate in Northamptonshire, proved to be the perfect setting. the tudor manor, trans-formed by its Francophile 17th century owner into a French fantasy set in an english idyll, is not just beautiful, but is also stuffed with exquisite paintings, furniture, porcelain, weapons and textiles, including pieces actually created for French royalty. From Stephenson’s viewpoint, it was the perfect family seat for Les Miserables’ hero Marius, and the ideal setting for his wedding to Cosette.

and for a house that, as Stephen Badham, Creative england’s senior pro-duction liaison manager, says, was designed to host elegant 17th century soirees rather than boisterous film crews, Boughton played its first feature-film role superbly. “as always, the production worked closely with conservators and curators to make sure there was as little impact as possible on the fabric of the house,” Badham says. “Unsurprisingly, location-owners can be hesi-tant about bringing a film crew into their homes — with 300 or so people traipsing around, it’s all too easy for floors to get damaged or 100-year-old wallpaper torn…” Creative england is not only well versed in the risks asso-ciated with filming in heritage buildings — and how to avoid them — but it also highlights the rewards that can flow from inviting cameras into your

castle. “a lot of these historic houses are struggling to make ends meet,” Badham says. “a production on the scale of Les Miserables brings in good money in location fees, not to mention the potential tourism benefits if the film turns out to be a hit.”

Spending anything up to £30,000 a day on hotels and catering, a major film project also generates much-needed income for struggling rural economies. “For Creative england, job creation for local people is a vital part of our mission,” Badham says. “But it’s not just a financial thing. it’s a question of morale, too. it raises people’s spirits to see the place where they live on film. So we feel it’s important to help spread the love.”

Some 400 miles to the north, Scott McCombie, prop-erty manager and senior ranger at the National trust for Scotland’s (NtS) glencoe & Dalness property, is con-cerned with preserving and promoting a heritage location of a very different sort. McCombie’s patch includes glencoe and glen etive, two iconic Scottish landscapes wreathed in mists and myths, and stained by one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of Britain. On a wild night in February 1692, 38 MacDonalds were slain by their Campbell guests in the Massacre of glencoe. and that’s not the only blood on the heather: robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped was based on the notori-ous appin Murder of 1745, which also took place near glencoe.

history and fiction aside, the area’s majestic scenery has drawn numerous productions to this 13,000-acre tranche of untamed mountain and moor, described by McCombie as “the wildest place you can get to in Scot-land that’s close to an airport”. it has served as the backdrop for, among others, rob roy (1995), Braveheart (1995), highlander (1986), harry Potter and the Pris-oner Of azkaban (2004), Monty Python and the holy grail (1975), numerous commercials and, most recently, Sam Mendes’ James Bond blockbuster Skyfall (2012).

Climactic scenes for Skyfall starring Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench were shot on NtS land in glencoe — the location of Bond’s childhood home — glen etive and Dalness Lodge, once owned by the family of Bond’s crea-tor, ian Fleming. it was, says anna Preuss, NtS’ filming manager, a pleasure to work with the Bond crew, who were “absolutely blown away” by the landscape and wild-life that made guest appearances during the shoot.

Most of the Skyfall scenes were also shot within a couple of metres of the road, McCombie adds, which resulted in minimum disruption to the area’s unique flora and fauna — always the overriding concern when shoot-ing in a heritage environment. “We’re a Special area of Conservation, a Site of Special Scientific interest, part of the glen etive and glen Fyne golden eagle Special Pro-tection area and within the Ben Nevis and glencoe National Scenic area,” he says. “a long list of conditions comes with each of those designations. For filming, the main ones concern not disturbing specific wildlife habi-tats, and not putting anything into the ground that you can’t take out. Basically, film companies have to be able to take everything away without leaving a mark.”

Despite these restrictions, Preuss says NtS is extreme-ly film-friendly and striving to be ever more so. Other recent big-budget films to have made use of the conser-vation charity’s property include Captain america: the First avenger (2011), in which Culross in Fife stood in


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mix of murder, mysticism and medieval warfare, called for a variety of spec-tacular settings, from ancient harbours to pagan temples, from castles to caves, from cli� s to beaches. And all these wonders also had to be within a sensible distance of Belfast. The Causeway Coast was the obvious contender.

Boake spent weeks scouting the area, “driving down any road, however small, with access to the sea”. Certain spots failed to make the cut on practi-cal grounds: “A production like Game Of Thrones is a big travelling circus, with 150 or so crew, 18 biggish trucks, loads of caravans, large marquees and military-spec trackway that, in some cases, has to go down before we arrive. But the great thing about the Causeway Coast is that, although it’s superb, unspoilt territory, most of it is very accessible.”

Another challenge was sourcing a beach on which to fi lm the pivotal scene at the start of the second series in which the seven idols of Westeros are burned. “We knew it was going to be a full-day’s shoot and exceed the tidal cycle, by the time we’d powered up the fi res and got all the special e� ects and crew in place,” Boake says. “So we needed a beach that not only looked amazing but had enough head room so the set wouldn’t get wiped out when the tide came in.”

for a Norwegian town; and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which included aerial shots over the untamed wilderness of the 29,380-hectare Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms National Park.

A short hop over the Irish Sea brings you to the only other region of the UK — Northern Ireland — that can arguably give Scotland a run for its mon-ey in terms of sheer geological magnifi cence. The Causeway Coast and Glens region, the 120-mile stretch of coastline that links the cities of Belfast and Derry/Londonderry, o� ers one natural phenomenon after another: tower-ing cli� s, jagged silhouettes, mile upon mile of golden sand, secret coves, lush green mountains, misty waterfalls... And then, of course, there’s the Giant’s Causeway itself, the World Heritage site consisting of some 40,000 interlocking basalt columns projecting eerily into the Atlantic Ocean. Legend has it that it was the handiwork of the giant Finn McCool, who was attempt-ing to build himself a bridge between Ireland and Scotland. It was partly this other-worldliness that persuaded the makers of HBO’s epic TV series, Game Of Thrones (2011 onwards) — now powering into its fourth season — to opt for the Causeway Coast as the real-life setting for parts of the fantasy world of Westeros. Robert Boake, head of locations for the award-winning series, says the Game Of Thrones’ dense, multilayered plot, with its potent

///

ENGLAND

BURGHLEY HOUSE, LINCOLNSHIRE Burghley has been featured in many high-profi le fi lms in recent years. As one of the largest and grandest houses of the fi rst Elizabethan Age the Tudor manor was built and largely designed by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I between 1555, and 1587, and it is for this reason that historic thriller Elizabeth: The Golden Age shot here. Credits: Pride And Prejudice (2005); The Da Vinci Code (2006); Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

CHARLESTOWN HARBOUR, CORNWALLThe home port of Square Sail’s fl eet of tall ships, the unspoilt, Grade II listed harbour retains much of its Georgian character. The village is part of a World Heritage site. Particles of mica in the surrounding sea give it a distinctive turquoise-blue colour. Credits: Saving Private Ryan (1998); Ladies In Lavender (2004); Alice In Wonderland (2010); Mariah Mundi And The Midas Box (2013)

HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTFORDSHIREThis unrivalled example of Jacobean architecture is set in a 1,000-acre estate. Features include a private chapel, a grand hall with minstrel gallery, a library, a long hall with a black-and-white marble fl oor and magnifi cent staterooms.Credits: Shakespeare In Love (1998); Batman Begins (2005); Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007); Hot Fuzz (2007); Sherlock Holmes (2009)

HIGHCLERE CASTLE, WEST BERKSHIREHighclere Castle is one of England’s most beautiful Victorian Castles set in 1,000 acres of spectacular parkland. The Carnarvon family has lived at Highclere since 1679, and the current Castle stands on the site of an earlier house, which in turn was built on the foundations of the medieval palace owned by the Bishops of Winchester for some 800 years. Julian Fellowes had Highclere Castle in mind as he wrote Downton Abbey. Credits: TV series Downton Abbey (2010 onwards)

KENWOOD HOUSE, LONDONEven though it’s in north London, Kenwood House looks like a stately home in a country setting. Which means that fi lm crews based in the capital use it regularly. Situated next to one of the most popular open spaces in the capital, Hampstead Heath, the house is famous for its picnic concerts held during the summer. The neoclassical mansion and its estate of 112 acres were given to the nation in 1928 by the fi rst Earl of Iveagh — Edward Cecil Guinness, who was the head of the Guinness brewing family. Credits: Mansfi eld Park (1999); Notting Hill (1999); Venus (2006)

LACOCK, WILTSHIRENational Trust-run Lacock village was built on the wealth generated by the wool trade. It has over 200 listed buildings, including a medieval abbey, a tithe barn, 15th century pubs, and houses built in various styles from wood, golden Cotswold stone and brick. Credits: Harry Potter (The Philosopher’s Stone, 2001, and Chamber Of Secrets, 2002); Pride And Prejudice (2005); TV series Cranford (2007)

MANCHESTER TOWN HALLRegarded as one of the fi nest interpretations of Gothic revival architecture in the world, the Victorian Grade I-listed building is richly decorated with mosaic fl oors, murals and statues. Hammerbeam ceilings, vaulted corridors and pointed Gothic windows add to the distinctly medieval atmosphere. Credits: Sherlock Holmes (2009); The Iron Lady (2011)

MARBLE HILL HOUSE, LONDONMarble Hill House is a Palladian villa set in over 60 acres of riverside parkland. It is the last complete survivor of the elegant villas and gardens which bordered the River Thames between Richmond and Hampton Court in the 18th century. Marble Hill was built for Henrietta Howard, mistress of King George II when he was Prince of Wales. The house and gardens were intended as an Arcadian retreat from crowded 18th-century London. Its grand interiors have been restored and recreated and include a collection of early Georgian paintings.Credits: Nanny McPhee Returns (2010)

MENTMORE TOWERS, BUCKINGHAMSHIREMentmore Towers is a 19th century English country house in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. The house was designed by Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes in the 19th century revival of late 16th/early 17th century Elizabethan and Jacobean styles called Jacobethan, for the banker and collector of fi ne art, Baron Mayer de Rothschild as a country home, display case for his collection of fi ne art and as an assertion of status.Credits: Batman Begins (2005)

YORK MINSTER, YORKSHIREA stunning example of medieval Gothic architecture, York Minster’s highlights include beautifully preserved external stonework, magnifi cent stained glass — including the famous Rose Window, dating from around 1500 — breathtaking interiors and elaborate tombs.Credits: Elizabeth (1998); The Da Vinci Code (2006); TV series Crusoe (2008)

WEST WYCOMBE PARK, BUCKINGHAMSHIREMadonna’s debut as a director for W.E. was shot at West Wycombe Park. The fi lm tells the story of King Edward VIII and his love for Wallis Simpson. West Wycombe Park is a country house near the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, built between 1740 and 1800. It was conceived as a pleasure palace for the 18th-century libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet. The house is a long rectangle with four façades that are columned and pedimented. Credits: Labyrinth (1986); W.E. (2011); X-Men: First Class (2011)

HERITAGE BUILDINGS AROUND THE UK THAT ARE REGULARLY USED FOR FILMING


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in recent years, St Donat’s has hosted several productions, including tV series Merlin (2008 onwards) and Doctor Who (2005 onwards), Mr Nice (2010), ironclad (2011), and most recently, the BBC/Starz historical fantasy tV series Da Vinci’s Demons (2013), which recounts the ‘untold’ story of Leonardo da Vinci’s turbulent youth in renaissance Florence. Welsh-speak-ing location/studio manager gareth Skelding is a St Donat’s fan: “it offers a lot of different looks and periods — rose gardens, beaches, a church, a harry Potteresque dining hall — you can go to St Donat’s and shoot four different locations in one day. it’s also well placed for transport, Welsh crews are great and atlantic College is incredibly welcoming and film-friendly. i’m always going to them with weird requests.”

One of Skelding’s big asks was to bring giraffes and zebras into the din-ing hall for an episode of Da Vinci’s Demons. another concerned the Vampires Of Venice episode of Doctor Who, when he asked atlantic College whether they would mind if he blew up their castle.

“they didn’t flinch,” he reports. “they knew it would all be simulated and very safe, and that we would leave everything in better condition than we found it. When you’re working around heritage buildings, you just don’t take any chances.” •

the solution came in the form of Downhill Strand, on a rocky outcrop above which stands Mussenden temple, a classical folly built in 1785 as a summer library. the resultant scene, Boake says, has wow factor in spades. “But if you give the visual-effects guys something superb to start with, it makes their job of making magic easier,” he says.

Magic, fairytale and fantasy are clearly something of a Celtic speciality — and the Welsh are no exception. the ancient country of Wales has more than its fair share of heritage buildings and landscapes, from coal mines to cathedrals. But if Wales has one clear USP, it is military architecture: concen-tric, square, moated, crenellated, restored, ruined, 10th century Norman, 18th century gothic revival — with over 400 of them, the Welsh are, in short, kings of the castle. St Donat’s Castle, which stands guard over the Bristol Channel, is a classic example. the medieval building with its landscaped tudor gardens — now home to UWC atlantic College — was owned for 440 years by the Stradling family. From the mid-18th century, it passed through a succession of owners, including the US newspaper magnate William ran-dolph hearst. guests to St Donat’s have included Sir Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Clark gable and george Bernard Shaw, who is quoted as saying: “this is what god would have built if he had had the money.”

SCOTLAND

Craigievar Castle, aberdeen and grampianSurrounded by landscaped parkland, this fairytale castle is a fine example of Scottish Baronial architecture. Presided over by a great tower, completed in 1626, Craigievar’s USPs include original plaster ceilings, Jacobean woodwork and a Scottish glen garden. Credits: The Last Of The Blond Bombshells (2000)

Culzean Castle, ayrshire and arranCulzean Castle can date its history back to a medieval tower house built in the 1400s. today, its dramatic cliff-top setting, robert adam architecture, 242-ha grounds encompassing lush woodland, landscape gardens and rugged coastline, make it one of Scotland’s foremost historic attractions. Credits: The Wicker Man (1973)

Kintail and West affriCOne of the last areas of wilderness in Scotland, this rugged, remote estate in the West highlands offers some of the most dramatic scenery in the country. Features include the Five Sisters mountains, Britain’s second highest waterfall and the National Nature reserve glen affric, said to be the most beautiful of all Scotland’s glens.Credits: Sky TV commercial; Walking Through History With Tony Robinson (working title)

preston mill, edinburgh and the lothianshidden away in rural east Linton is the architectural oddity Preston Mill, with its conical roof and red pantiled buildings. east Lothian’s last working mill is said to have been designed in the Dutch style to appease a former laird’s wife, who was homesick for her native holland. Credits: This September (2010)

the royal burgh of Culross, angus & fifethe picturesque royal Burgh on the north shore of the Firth of Forth is a complete community preserved in a 16th and 17th century time warp. highlights include the Palace — a merchant’s house that dates from 1597 and is noted for its painted walls and ceilings. Credits: The Little Vampire (2000); TV series The 39 Steps (2008); Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

WALES

Caerphilly Castle, CaerphillyBegun in 1268, this immense castle is one of the great medieval fortresses of Western europe and, in the UK, second only to Windsor Castle in size. Famous for its leaning tower and great hall, it is remarkable for its formidable defences, including the large-scale use of water and concentric rings of stone. Credits: Restoration (1995); TV series Young Dracula (2006); Doctor Who (2005); and Merlin (2008)

Castell CoCh, south glamorganCompleted in 1891, this magical castle is set in woodland just five miles outside Cardiff. a romantic fantasy conceived by the eccentric genius William Burges for the Marquis of Bute, the castle features a working portcullis and drawbridge, a dry moat, a cobbled courtyard and sumptuous interiors. Credits: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982); TV series The Worst Witch (1998); and Da Vinci’s Demons (2013)

gWili steam railWay, south Walesthis restored 3.5-mile stretch of standard-gauge preserved railway runs from Bronwydd along a section of the former Carmarthen to aberystwyth railway. Originally opened in 1860, the heritage railway was closed for passenger traffic in 1965.Credits: The Edge Of Love (2008); Heidi (2005); Carrie’s War (2004)

tredegar house, south WalesSet in a 90-acre park, tredegar house is one of the most significant late 17th century houses in the UK. the earliest surviving parts of the restoration gem date back to the early 1500s. Features include staterooms, a great hall, the gilt room, intriguing servants’ quarters and a landscaped lake. Credits: TV series Sherlock (2010-), Upstairs Downstairs (2010-), Doctor Who (2005-) and Torchwood (2006-)

tretoWer Court, poWysFor over 900 years, tretower Court has been altered, adjusted and adapted by a succession of rich and influential owners. Magnificent 15th century timberwork still survives, along with later Classical-style windows dating from the 1630s. a 15th century garden has also been recreated. Credits: Restoration (1995); The Libertine (2004); TV series Sarah-Jane Adventures (2007-2011)

NORTHERN IRELAND ballyWalter parK, Co doWnthis imposing stately home, still privately owned by the Mulholland family, was transformed from an original georgian house into a Victorian italianate palazzo by architect Sir Charles Lanyon. Features include a conservatory, billiard room and extensive pleasure grounds. Credits: Divorcing Jack (1998); Christopher And His Kind (2011); Hitler On Trial (2012); The Wipers Times (2013)

Crom Castle, Co fermanaghSet in rolling parkland fringing an archipelago of wooded islands, Crom has been the seat of the earls of erne for 350 years. it enjoys an unrivalled location in the heart of Northern ireland’s lake district. Credits: TV series Blandings (2013)

Crumlin road gaol, belfastthe only remaining Victorian-era prison in Northern ireland dates back to 1845. Until 1901, executions were carried out in public view at the gaol, which finally closed its doors in 1996. the Crumlin road Courthouse, now derelict, stands opposite the gaol. the two buildings are connected by a tunnel, which was used to transport prisoners. Credits: Breakfast On Pluto (2005); Starred Up (2014)

dunluCe Castle, Co antrimthis dramatic ruined castle, parts of which date back to the 14th century, is located on a headland off the North antrim coast. it is wreathed in ghostly legends. in 1639, the kitchen collapsed into the sea during a banquet, taking most of the servants with it. their ghostly screams can still be heard on stormy nights as they plunge forever to their doom. Credits: Your Highness (2011)

HERITAgE buILDINgS AROuND THE uK THAT ARE REguLARLy uSED fOR fILmINg


The Saffery Champness Film and Television Unit encompasses unrivalled expertise in the film and television industries. We advise both individuals and businesses across the whole of the sector, helping to maximise the potential of their ideas.

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Focusing on the detail, so you can make the bigger picture


THE STORY of The Wipers Times has been on the mind of the fi lm’s writer, Ian Hislop, for some 10 years. Himself the editor of a satirical newspaper, the UK’s bi-weekly Private Eye, Hislop had already told the story in a documentary for BBC Radio 4, but he was keen to see it on the screen. He and co-writer Nick Newman originally approached Oscar-winning producer of Shakespeare In Love (1998), David Parfi tt, around fi ve years ago.

“I said, ‘Well … mud, trenches, I’m not really interested actually …’ and they went away. I was not very encouraging,” Parfi tt says. “But luckily they came back to me last year and said: ‘Well you’ve done Parade’s End (2012) now, so what was all that about mud and trenches not being very interesting?’”

The fi ve-part television drama adapted from Ford Madox Ford’s WWI tetralogy (see Location UK 2012) had whetted Parfi tt’s appetite and he was ready for more.

The Wipers Times follows the story of Fred Roberts — or Captain Roberts — a British mining engineer who had been working the diamond mines in South Africa before returning to Britain at the start of the First World War to volunteer. He joined the Royal Pioneer Corps and was soon on his way to Ypres. While there he and his fellow servicemen discovered a printing press and decided to start a newspaper. The Wipers Times was published regularly from 1915 until just after the end of the war.

“They used various presses in various places, the publication changing its title as the army moved from place to place — and it’s a brilliant read even now. You can buy the collected editions and it really is fantastically funny and very modern actually,” says Parfi tt, who is also chair of Film London. “The frontline troops would move up to the front, say, for a few days, a week, or maybe slightly longer and then move back for a couple of weeks to clean up, get themselves back in shape, and get ready for the next onslaught. And the Pioneer Corps would move along behind troops or sometimes

LIFE ON LOCATION THE WIPERS TIMES TELLS THE STORY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL PIONEER CORPS WHO SET UP A SATIRICAL NEWSPAPER WHILE POSTED IN THE BELGIAN CITY OF YPRES DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR — AND FOR BELGIUM, READ NORTHERN IRELAND. JULIAN NEWBY MET PRODUCER DAVID PARFITT

WE HAPPY FEW

BEN CHAPLIN AS CAPTAIN ROBERTS IN THE WIPERS TIMES. PHOTO: HELEN SLOAN, © TRADEMARK PRODUCTIONS LIMITED 2013

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which was shot in the Northern ireland capital Belfast. Trenches were dug on the estate’s grounds in ploughed fields which, during February, were not yet in use. “We were out by march. We just had to fill the trenches in at the end so they could plant their crops.”

Assistance was given to the project by Nis which offers production funding in the form of a recoupable loan, intended to assist in the completion of budgets on productions which are almost fully financed, at least to 65%. The Wipers Times is commissioned and part-funded by BBC2 and is also being distributed theatrically, for which further funding came from Goldcrest Films and Content media.

Nis also helped with crew and other aspects of the production. “We offer all productions which choose to film in Northern ireland a free information service to assist with all aspects of filming here,” moyra Lock, head of marketing at Nis, says. “This includes help with budgeting, securing studio facilities and suggesting other build space, as well as help with crewing up by hosting crew calls on our website.”

Nis also gave a lot of local support in terms of just being around and helping us to contact people,” parfitt says. “And they gave us a location manager for a couple of days when we were doing the recce. The crew we worked with there was fantastic. We ended up crewing entirely locally.”

The Wipers Times is directed by Andy de Emmony. Ben Chaplin stars as Captain roberts. michael palin plays General mitford, a supporter of the paper who recognises its worth to morale, with Ben Daniels playing his deputy, Lieutenant-Colonel Howfield. The role of Winston Churchill is played by paul Kennedy. •

THE WAR AT WIPERStHe fiRSt British soldiers to arrive in Ypres were the men of the iV corps under General Rawlinson, on october 14, 1914. they made contact with french troops of 87th territorial Division who were already there. the task was to defend the town and to block the route for the German army through Ypres to the ports on the french and Belgian coast. Most records suggest that the local people of Ypres carried on with their lives very much as usual. Soldiers in the British army quickly turned the french name of Ypres into a much easier word to pronounce. they called it “Wipers”. the British army remained in Wipers for four years from october 1914 to the end of the war in november 1918.

in front, digging or repairing trenches and eventually becoming part of the fight as it all got a little more desperate.” in their down time, they would put the paper together. “And it was all old-fashioned metal typesetting, on beautiful printing presses.”

While some in the High Command saw it as something of a seditious publication — the satire often targeted at them — it was decided to allow the The Wipers Times to continue. “The smarter among them said ‘No, this is actually great for morale, allowing the troops to take a pop at us.’”

so the natural place to shoot a film about Belgium, is Belgium. “We’re always very keen to get out and about [to film] and obviously i had experience with parade’s End of digging a trench complex which we did in Belgium,” parfitt says. “The other thing that we did there was we found a large chateau and we were able to use all sorts of different parts of the building

as grand rooms for the High Command, and as parts of trench complexes in the undercrofts and cellars of the house. so the idea of basing ourselves in a big house and using hopefully local locations to dig trenches was pretty fresh in my mind.” so parfitt and his team checked out Belgium once again. “And then we talked to Northern ireland screen (Nis) and they said, ‘Well you’re looking to do this in February which is a very good time for us because Game Of Thrones isn’t in town and we have lots of crew, so can we convince you to come here?’ And we were very convinced. We managed to find two major locations that dealt with pretty much everything we needed. We found an old disused linen mill about half an hour outside Belfast at Ballyclare. it’s a very large factory complex with cobbled streets and parts of it are collapsing, so that offered us the bombed-out areas. And because of the state of the place we could do pretty much anything we wanted there.”

The other main location was a stately home in Ballywalter park, a nearby country estate. “That gave us things like the posh interiors for London hotels, space for the High Command, and again cellars to represent the spaces under the battlements of Ypres where they were based. so we did the whole thing between those two places,” parfitt says, with the exception of one-time centre of the British press, Fleet street,

david parfitt i sAiD, ‘WELL … muD,

TrENCHEs, i’m NOT rEALLY iNTErEsTED

ACTuALLY …’ AND THEY WENT AWAY. i WAs NOT

vErY ENCOurAGiNG”

DAvID PARfITT (left) on the set of the Wipers times

///

61-62WIPERS+D+J+Z+BAF.indd 62 13/05/13 14:50

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION FUNDERS

BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE (BFI)21 Stephen StreetLondon W1T 1LN+44 (0)20 7255 1444www.bfi .org.uk

DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT (DCMS)100 Parliament StreetLondon SW1A 2BQ+44 (0)20 7211 [email protected]

UK TRADE & INVESTMENT (UKTI)1 Victoria StreetLondon SW1H 0ET+44 (0)20 7215 5000www.ukti.gov.uk

BRITISH FILM COMMISSIONSPONSORS

FRAMESTORE19-23 Wells StreetLondon W1T 3PQ+44 (0)20 7344 8000www.framestore.com

HARBOTTLE & LEWISHanover House14 Hanover SquareLondon W1S 1HP+44 (0)20 7667 5000www.harbottle.com

PINEWOOD STUDIOS GROUPPinewood StudiosPinewood RoadIver HeathBucks SLO 0NH+44 (0)1753 [email protected]

SAFFERY CHAMPNESSLion HouseRed Lion StreetLondon WC1R 4GB+44 (0)20 7841 4000info@sa� ery.comwww.sa� ery.com

WALT DISNEY3 Queen Caroline StreetLondon W6 9PE+44 (0)20 8222 1000www.disney.co.uk

WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT UK LTD98 Theobald’s RoadLondon WC1X 8WB+44 (0)20 7984 5400www.warnerbros.co.uk

DOUBLE NEGATIVE VISUAL EFFECTS160 Great Portland StreetLondon W1W 5QA+44 (0)20 7268 [email protected]

MPC127 Wardour StreetLondon W1F 0NL+44 (0)20 7434 [email protected]

WORKING TITLE FILMS26 Aybrook StreetLondon W1U 4AN+44 (0)20 7307 3000www.workingtitlefi lms.com

ELSTREE STUDIOSShenley RoadBorehamwoodHertfordshire WD6 1JG+44 (0)20 8953 [email protected]

BRITISH FILM COMMISSION NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

CHAIR OF THE BRITISH FILM COMMISSION ADVISORY BOARD:IAIN SMITHBritish Film CommissionSuite 6.1056 The Tea BuildingShoreditch High StreetLondon E1 6JJ+44 (0)20 7613 [email protected] lmcommission.org.uk

BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE (BFI)21 Stephen StreetLondon W1T 1LN+44 (0)20 7255 1444www.bfi .org.uk

BRITISH SCREEN ADVISORY COUNCIL (BSAC)73 Berwick StreetLondon W1F 8TE+44 (0)20 7287 1111www.bsac.uk.com

CREATIVE ENGLAND1st Floor College House32-36 College GreenBristol BS1 5SP+44 (0)20 8324 [email protected]

CREATIVE SCOTLANDWaverley Gate2-4 Waterloo PlaceEdinburgh EH1 3EG+44 (0)845 603 [email protected]

CREATIVE SKILLSETFocus Point21 Caledonian RoadLondon N1 9GB+44 (0)20 7713 [email protected]

DIRECTORS UK3rd & 4th Floor8-10 Dryden StreetLondon WC2E 9NA+44 (0)20 7240 [email protected]

DOUBLE NEGATIVE VISUAL EFFECTS160 Great Portland StreetLondon W1W 5QA+44 (0)20 7268 [email protected]

FEDERATION OF ENTERTAINMENT UNIONS (FEU)+44 (0)7914 [email protected]

FILM LONDONSuite 6.10The Tea Building56 Shoreditch High StreetLondon E1 6JJ+44 (0)20 7613 7676info@fi lmlondon.org.ukwww.fi lmlondon.org.uk

FRAMESTORE19-23 Wells StreetLondon W1T 3PQ+44 (0)20 7344 8000www.framestore.com

HARBOTTLE & LEWISHanover House14 Hanover SquareLondon W1S 1HP+44 (0)20 7667 5000www.harbottle.com

MAYOR OF LONDONGreater London AuthorityCity HallThe Queen’s WalkLondon SE1 2AA+44 (0)20 7983 4000www.london.gov.uk

NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN3rd Floor Alfred House21 Alfred StreetBelfast BT2 8EDNorthern Ireland+44 (0)28 9023 2444info@northernirelandscreen.co.ukwww.northernirelandscreen.co.uk


PRODUCERS’ ASSOCIATION OF CINEMA & TELEVISION (PACT)3rd FloorFitzrovia House153-157 Cleveland StreetLondon W1T 6QW+44 (0)20 7380 8230www.pact.co.uk

PRODUCTION GUILD OF GREAT BRITAINRoom 329Main Admin BuildingPinewood StudiosPinewood RoadIver HeathBucks SLO 0NH+44 (0)1753 [email protected]

SAFFERY CHAMPNESSLion HouseRed Lion StreetLondon WC1R 4GB+44 (0)20 7841 4000info@sa� ery.comwww.sa� ery.com

UK SCREEN ASSOCIATION47 Beak StreetLondon W1F 9SE+44 (0)20 7734 6060angela@ukscreenassociation.co.ukwww.ukscreenassociation.co.uk

UK TRADE & INVESTMENT (UKTI)1 Victoria StreetLondon SW1H 0ET+44 (0)20 7215 5000www.ukti.gov.uk

WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT UK LTD98 Theobald’s RoadLondon WC1X 8WB+44 (0)20 7984 5400www.warnerbros.co.uk

WELSH GOVERNMENT ASSEMBLYCathays ParkCardi� CF10 3NQ+44 (0)1443 [email protected]

UK FILMING AGENCIES

CREATIVE ENGLAND1st Floor College House32-36 College GreenBristol BS1 5SP+44 (0)20 8324 [email protected]

FILM LONDONSuite 6.10The Tea Building56 Shoreditch High StreetLondon E1 6JJ+44 (0)20 7613 7676info@fi lmlondon.org.ukwww.fi lmlondon.org.uk

NORTHERN FILM AND MEDIABALTIC CentreSouth Shore RoadGateshead NE8 3BA+44 (0)191 440 [email protected] www.northernmedia.org

NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN3rd Floor Alfred House21 Alfred StreetBelfastBT2 8EDNorthern Ireland+44 (0)28 9023 2444info@northernirelandscreen.co.ukwww.northernirelandscreen.co.uk

CREATIVE SCOTLANDWaverley Gate2-4 Waterloo PlaceEdinburgh EH1 3EG+44 (0)845 603 [email protected]

FILM AGENCY FOR WALESSuite 7, 33-35 West Bute StCardi� CF10 5LH+44 (0)29 2046 7480enquiries@fi lmagencywales.comwww.fi lmagencywales.com

WALES SCREEN COMMISSIONWelsh GovernmentCreative Sector1st Floor NorthQED Treforest Ind. EstPontypridd CF37 5YR+44 (0)300 061 5634enquiry@walesscreencommission.co.ukwww.walesscreencommission.com

SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

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63-64 AD INDEX+Z+BAF+z.indd 63 14/05/13 14:58

LONDON FILMING PARTNERSHIP CLUB MEMBERS - GOLD MEMBER

THE DORCHESTER COLLECTIONThe DorchesterPark LaneLondon W1K 1QA45 Park LaneLondon, W1K 1PN+44 (0)20 7319 7166 www.thedorchester.com

ELSTREE STUDIOSShenley RoadBorehamwoodHertfordshire WD6 1JG+44 (0)20 8953 [email protected]

THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF INNER TEMPLECrown O� ce RowLondon EC4Y 7HL+44 (0)20 7797 8250www.innertemple.org.uk

THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF MIDDLE TEMPLEThe Treasury O� ceAshley BuildingMiddle Temple LaneLondon EC4Y 9BT+44 (0)20 7427 [email protected]

LIVETTS LAUNCHESEagle Wharf53 Lafone StreetLondon SE1 2LX+44 (0)20 7378 [email protected]

THE LONDON LEGACY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONLevel 101 Stratford PlaceMontfi chet RoadLondon E20 1EJ+44 (0)20 3288 [email protected]

THE NATIONAL TRUSTCentral O� ceHeelisKemble DriveSwindon SN2 2NA+44 (0)1793 [email protected]

NVIZIBLE8/9 Carlisle StreetLondon W1D 3BP+44 (0)20 3167 [email protected]

ONSIGHTShepperton Studios (camera rental & edit rental)Studios RoadMiddlesex TW17 OQD14-15 Berners Street (Lab & Post)London W1T 3LJ+44 (0)20 7637 [email protected]

SALT FILMThe Old Bra Factory18a Acton LaneLondon NW10 8ts+44 (0)20 7637 7885info@saltfi lm.comwww.saltfi lm.com

UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLANDFreemason’s Hall60 Great Queen StreetLondon WC2B 5AZ+44 (0)20 7831 9811www.ugle.org.uk

UNIVERSITY OF LONDONSenate HouseMalet StreetLondon WC1E 7HU+44 (0)20 7862 8000www.london.ac.uk

LONDON FILMING PARTNERSHIP CLUB MEMBERS - SILVER MEMBER

CENTROID3DShepperton StudiosStudios RoadMiddlesex TW17 0QD+44 (0)1932 592 [email protected]

KUDOS FILM & TV12-14 Amwell StreetLondon EC1R 1UQ+44 (0)20 7812 3270info@kudosfi lmandtv.comwww.kudosproductions.co.uk

THE LANGHAM LONDON1C Portland PalceWestminsterLondon W1B 1JA+44 (0)20 7636 1000

MY FIRST JOB IN FILMwww.myfi rstjobinfi lm.co.uk


ROYAL MUSEUMS GREENWICHNational Maritime MuseumGreenwichLondon SE10 9NF+44 (0)20 8858 4422www.rmg.co.uk

SOMERSET HOUSESomerset HouseLondon WC2R 1LA+44 (0)20 7845 [email protected]

WEMBLEY CITY ESTATESEstate Management3rd Floor, York HouseEmpire WayWembley HA9 0PA+44 (0)20 7478 9390www.wembley.co.uk

WIMBLEDON STUDIOS1 Deer Park RoadLondon SW19 3TL+44 (0)20 3468 [email protected]

ADVERTISERSINDEX

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DV

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64

3 MILLS STUDIOS 44BENTWATERS PARKS 41BRITISH FILM COMMISSION INSIDE FRONT COVERCENTROID MOTION CAPTURE 16CREATIVE SKILLSET 22DORCHESTER HOTEL INSIDE BACK COVERELSTREE FILM STUDIOS 3FILM LONDON 5FLYING PICTURES 48FREEMASONS’ HALL 54GLASGOW FILM OFFICE 50HARBOTTLE AND LEWIS 10KENT FILM OFFICE 48LOCATION WORKS 41MOVING PICTURE COMPANY 16NORTHERN IRELAND SCREEN OUTSIDE BACK COVERPINEWOOD STUDIOS GROUP 42SAFFREY CHAMPNESS 60THE BOTTLE YARD 44THE THIRD FLOOR LONDON INC 18VIRGIN ATLANTIC 10WALES SCREEN COMMISSION 24WARNER BROS. STUDIOS LEAVESDEN 1

63-64 AD INDEX+Z+BAF+z.indd 64 14/05/13 14:59

LONDON I +44 20 7629 8888 I DORCHESTERCOLLECTION.COm

LIVE thE SUITE LIFE

TIMELESS ELEGANCE. LUXURIOUS LIVING.SUMPTUOUS FABRICS. SPECTACULAR VIEWS.EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE. A NEW LOOK UNVEILED.THE DORCHESTER AND PARK SUITES. THE DORCHESTER.

ICONIC HOTELS IN ICONIC PLACES

TDL0513_British film commission_240x330.indd 1 13/05/2013 15:41FICHIER PUB uk.indd 3 14/05/13 09:59

NORTHERN IRELAND: THE POTENTIAL IS BREATHTAKING

“A cinematic texture was essential … all hail Northern Ireland, the new New Zealand” Ian nathan, EmpIrE magazInE

“Rural, mist-shrouded spots that have seen Belfast and its surrounding area become a favoured location” ShortlISt

Stunning locations from beautiful coastlines to idyllic villages; mountains, glens and loughs

Urban landscapes and bustling cities with a diverse mix of architectural styles

Titanic Studios in Belfast with a total of 106,000 sq ft of space

The Linen Mill studios, 77,000 sq ft in a 32-acre rural setting

A professional and flexible crew base

Cost benefits and production funding

Tax breaks now available across feature film and high-end television drama

www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk

NI Screen LocationUK ad Apr13.indd 1 16/04/2013 08:34FICHIER PUB uk.indd 4 13/05/13 15:21

www.britishfilmcommission.org.ukTwitter: @FilmInUK_BFC

The British Film Commission is the national agency responsible for maximising and supporting the production of international feature film and television in the UK. We offer :

Guidance on the UK’s lucrative film and television tax reliefs•

Highly knowledgeable and experienced teams based in the UK and US•

Free bespoke production support•

Expertise throughout the UK via a network of industry partners•

Assistance with sourcing key crew, talent, facilities, studios and locations•

FIrsT For world-Class FIlm and TelevIsIon prodUCTIon

The British Film Commission is supported by


location uk 2013

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