Category: Personal

An extra for War Horse!

FilmOpinionPersonalUncategorized
War Horse Theatrical Poster
War Horse Theatrical Poster

Just for a bit of fun, I took a week’s work as an extra for War Horse, when it was shooting in Castle Coombe, just down the road.  If ever there was evidence of the mood of the set being set by the director, this was it.  A dozen horses, couple of hundred extras, changeable weather – Spirlberg was up against it, but was always calm and cheerful.  This rubbed off on the whole crew, making for a surprisingly calm set considering a quick tally suggests the shoot was costing in the region of £250k/day!

Yes cold, yes tiring, yes slow, but great to see the master at work first hand.  Some production notes –

  • 60kW of lighting – 3@18kW, 1@6kW means you can even out the changeable sun/cloud pretty well.  And 18kW/head means you can dry out pretty sharpish if you get damp.
  • Equestrian Make-up is a real job I’d never considered
  • Spielberg/Kaminski create visual depth in scenes by throwing plenty of extras into the background of shots, but also always using smoke/haze in shots to interact with the lights.  This is something often missing in British productions (with less money, admittedly), lighting in depth.  A bit of haze wafted around shows off what lighting the DoP has set, and adds such depth to a scene.
  • Kaminski almost exclusively used multi-length lenses, not primes.  A good zoom lens makes for fast setups whilst presenting enough light to the sensor.

HMS Belfast – Lisbon Maru Reunion

EventPersonalProductionUncategorizedVideo

The Lisbon Maru was a WWII PoW ship under a false flag, holed by the allies, and the prisoners locked in and left to drown.  Some escaped to the mainland for later recapture, but hundreds died.  There were many stories of heroic rescues.  In 2008 we invited the remaining survivors on board the HMS Belfast for a talk, meal, and to tell their tales on video for posterity.