Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316563
London Streets The fi lm wanted to arrive in London with a bang and create a complete contrast with Enola's eccentrically idyllic upbringing in the country. At my very fi rst meeting, I had shown director Harry Bradbeer some photographs of the hectic London traffi c of the period and in particular, the top- heavy, two-story omnibuses that careened around London in the mid-100s. Having decided that we wanted to throw Enola, fresh from the country, between two of these beasts, the challenge became where to stage it. We didn't feel we could build enough real estate to contain the number of horse- drawn vehicles required, so we decided to build a 0-meter facade between the main buildings in the Greenwich Naval College to create the street. The naval college (now a university) has been used in many period fi lms. Seen end to end, it gives a fair impression of a 1th or 19th century London street. In the middle however, there is a 90-meter gap that is open to the river and the towers of Canary Wharf beyond, and this gap was fi lled with a run of shops and facades that could be extended upward with visual eff ects. We could then use this part of our rather grand boulevard to transition to the meaner architecture of Fournier Street in Spittlefi elds, where the exterior boarding house was located. The whole site was initially modeled in SketchUp, and detailed SketchUp models of the facades including the visual eff ects elements were added and used as the basis for concept work and construction documentation. The bad news was that a series of weddings and another fi lm shoot meant that the production only had eight days on site to build and dress the entire set. Construction manager Warren Lever had a "cunning plan" and he built and painted the entire length on a series of Artic fl atbed trailers outside the workshop at Leavesdon Studios. When completed, they were disassembled. The trailers complete with their scaff olding frames were then driven into place, and the scenery clipped back on in a matter of days, giving set decorator Lisa Chugg's team enough time to dress the street. Interior Tree House The smallest set on the fi lm, and probably the cheapest, was also the most "discussed." Everyone C D E F © 2020 LEGENDARY