The Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) is the largest organization of Location Managers and Location Scouts in the motion picture, television, commercial and print production industries. Their membership plays a vital role in the creativ
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38 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2022 Lawrence also scouted a county north of Essex because it also had some beautiful estuaries. "I was just drawn back to Essex and those estuaries. They had a different feel about them. They were more rugged. They were more raw," she says. "There was something that had this elemental sort of pull that is very much a character of the story—the fear, the superstition, the fact that the weather and tide are driving everything. You can imagine how the villagers would have that fear looking out at that sea." Essex seemed to call to the filmmakers both instinctually and emotionally. "Essex Blackwater was the heart of our locations and the landscape, seascape and skies really delivered," says Lawrence." While the village of Aldwinter is fictional, the estuary against which it's set is very real. Maldon sea salt, for which the area is well known, comes from the Blackwater Estuary. "It links into the main North Sea. It's a tidal estuary," explains Russell Dawes, the Senior Specialist for Communications, Marketing and Engagement at Maldon District Council, a small, rural, local authority in Essex. "The Blackwater is predominantly surrounded by marshland, so there are salt flats. It's a very atmospheric, very spooky, interesting, intriguing part of the country." Folklore of a flying serpent, or dragon, stalking an inland Essex village date back to the mid-17th century. "I think the landscape inspired the story, and the myth of the Essex serpent is a real myth," says Barnard. "And that's what inspired Sarah Perry to write the novel. That's why it felt really important that we shoot it in and around the Blackwater Estuary." The current state of fear mongering around the world is not lost within the arc of The Essex Serpent. In many ways, it's comparable to The Crucible and its allegory for McCarthyism. In fact, upon arriving in Essex in episode one, Cora's friend observes that they have arrived in "witch-burning country." MAPPING THE VILLAGE "We found some amazing black-and-white photos of what Essex villages used to look like, and, sadly, there's just so little of that left. It was tormenting us slightly to look through all these old photos and just wish that there was a village still like that with these barges that had hay on them, or whatever they were trading in," says Lawrence. "We picked the best bits and tried to tie them together." Normington and her team drew maps of Aldwinter's imagined geography. "There's some very clever filming," Lawrence adds. "There were a lot of conversations about, 'Well, if Cora's come from that direction, and she's supposed to have just come from the church, or she's come from the harbor, how do we make it all look connected? There were three main hubs off the coast of Essex that we spent big chunks of time at. Then sort of four or five smaller locations that we did for two or three days." The town of Maldon was host to a few key locations, including its quayside, where historic Thames sailing barges were moored for a scene at a bustling Essex harbor. One hundred extras, many of them locals, were required. Pubs, bed & breakfasts, and other businesses along the waterfront that were closed due to the pandemic were hired as green rooms and dressing rooms. "It was a real spirit of pulling together in a time when COVID was so horrendous," says Dawes. Not only was Dawes helpful within the town of Maldon, but he also assisted with locations in the wider countryside. "He really did help me so much, sort of introducing me to people," says Lawrence. "Very much a can-do attitude. He welcomed our filming. He acknowledged what filming does for an area." Even with the virus still very much distressing people's daily lives, Lawrence found most everyone in Essex to be welcoming. She says, "There were one or two people who were very polite and didn't want filming, but generally almost all of our stuff in Essex was