Talking Movies

Today I co-chaired the launch of a new working group to bring Kent heritage film locations together to discuss best practices and introduce guest industry experts to present at each meeting.

Today’s expert was my SFX friend Matt who uncovered the mystery behind the magic of special effects demonstrating some heritage friendly methods.

The photo is the Tarred Yarn Store at Chatham Dockyard with haze effect. It softens the image through the camera and makes the scenes appear higher quality. All directors want haze and it can be a problem for heritage sites due to moisture and residue.

The machine Matt introduced is water and glycerin based with a low particulate matter, it is efficient in producing haze quickly with minimal humidity changes through the addition of fans and extraction techniques.

The day was a success and the group agreed to make our meetings a regular thing. Looking forward to interesting discussions, networking and hopefully more work projects as a result. Watch this space.

A bit of trivia this room was recently used for an Ed Sheeran music video, it was also featured in Bridgerton Series 1 as a boxing club and in many episodes of Call the Midwife. It’s been filmed as a workhouse several times including Les Miserables and Downton Abbey.

The building was used as a store for the ‘tarred yarn’ from the Ropery and until earlier this year the adjacent room was still used for that purpose. It has recently been revamped into the Call the Midwife Tour exhibition.