They've been filming 'Gentleman Jack' down at Salts Mill for three days. I must have been down half a dozen times and not seen anything and then I got lucky and saw some action. It was, of course, all roped off so sightseers couldn't get close but with my zoom lens I did rather better than I'd hoped, catching a sequence with Gentleman Jack (Suranne Jones) striding along the 'street' that they've created in the middle of the mill.
I know from watching other films being made (Saltaire being quite a magnet for period dramas, inevitably) that there is an awful lot of set building and then an awful lot of people just standing around, apparently not doing much - and then you get a short burst of frantic action!
The rest of my photos are just the 'standing around' bits:
They go to enormous lengths to add atmosphere - real geese and a sheepdog (goosedog?) as well as a horse and carriage.
But mostly it's just lots of huge vans and lots and lots of cables!
For those who don't know, 'Gentleman Jack' is a BBC drama series, now filming the second series. Written by Yorkshire writer Sally Wainwright, it tells the true story of Anne Lister (1791-1840), a remarkable woman who inherited Shibden Hall in Halifax and, unusually for the times, lived there openly as a lesbian. She kept detailed, encrypted diaries from which much about her life is known. See HERE and HERE for posts I wrote when they were making the first series in Halifax.
It's hard to imagine the amount of work that goes into a few seconds of screen time, particularly those scene-setting shots. I imagine that the actual dialogue is much less problematic. They used to have geese-herding demonstrations at one of the agricultural shows around here - great fun!
ReplyDeleteI have heard of the series but haven't watched it.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun...a lot of activity for those short snaps...I always enjoy trying to figure out how many angles of video/film are taken for each conversation...which with close-ups shows each person talking or listening. It's perhaps a Virgo thing.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is available over here yet. I love Suranne Jones - have seen so many of her shows since she left Coronation Street.
ReplyDeleteNeat photos.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I am not familiar with this series in the U.S., but how exciting to have been able to catch a bit of the characters in costume and at a place you have previously shown in your posts.
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