36
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LMGI COMPASS
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Summer 2020
Supervising Location Manager
Tom Howard takes us
behind the scenes
SECRETS OF
THE SECRET
GARDEN
Photo ©2020 Studiocanal S.A.S./Courtesy of Bodnant Gardens. All Rights Reserved.
The timeless charm of the Frances Hodgson Burne story,
The Secret Garden, has enchanted generations of readers
and fi lmmakers alike. I remember it from my childhood and
when Rosie Alison, producer at Heyday Films, asked if I would
be interested in location managing their fi lm, I was in no
doubt, I had to be involved in the remake of this classic story.
We started pre-prep in early January 2018 with a trip to Cornwall to
consider four possible gardens with the producer, director Marc Mun-
den and production designer Grant Montgomery. This was a great ice
breaker as I had not worked with either Marc nor Grant before and a
convivial dinner allowed us to explore the concept of the fi lm.
Marc's version of The Secret Garden was to be different from pre-
vious versions; the setting of the story moved to the mid-1940s, with
the concept of the secret garden reimagined as a magical dimension
