Fascinated filmmaker seeks specific location...

[sbrewster]

Hey everyone, I’ve been having a look through the site with great interest. I’m a filmmaker and I’m looking for a location to shoot in for a day in Feb. I'm sure that you get plenty of people asking this kind of thing, so apologies if it feels like an intrusion. I'm an independent filmmaker making this film on my own money — you can look me up (I also work as a freelance illustrator): Sam Brewster. The film I want to make is for a comp called straight 8. I made a film for the competition last year for it and it was one of the winners, so this would be my follow up. It's a 3 minute film all shot on one roll of 8mm film, in order (the final film is the same as what you shoot in order on the roll).

The story I want to make is set in the final days of a fictional war, and I'm looking for somewhere that could look like an abandoned administrate building or similar next to an active railway, preferably somewhere rural. For the practicalities of the film, the abandoned building needs to be next to a working railway line that has freight trains using it (to use the continuous sound of a train passing by). It’s a pretty specific location and I thought you guys might be able to help out.

Happy to travel to anywhere in the UK, though closer to London so it can be a day trip is preferable...

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance
Sam

 

[Sam Haltin]

Well Sam, where do I start. As for an adminitrative building I would suggest a building of a derelict airfield or a bunker. There's hundreds up an down the country, all you have to do is do a search on this forum. As for a live railway line I would suggest that you go to a live railway line (wearing Hi-Vis vests) and record the sounds of a real freight train passing by and then edit it as a background sound for your movie. With reference to a movie called "The French Lieutenants Woman" when the actor is talking to Meryl Streep and in the background you can hear a locomotive and wagons being shunted.

 

[night crawler]

Funny my son is an Illustrator he has a BA in it he found his inspiration buy looking locally for his ideas. You need to look on Googel for what you want how else do the bog film makers do it because I never see them asking on here

 

[Hayman]

Hey everyone, I’ve been having a look through the site with great interest. I’m a filmmaker and I’m looking for a location to shoot in for a day in Feb. I'm sure that you get plenty of people asking this kind of thing, so apologies if it feels like an intrusion. I'm an independent filmmaker making this film on my own money — you can look me up (I also work as a freelance illustrator): Sam Brewster. The film I want to make is for a comp called straight 8. I made a film for the competition last year for it and it was one of the winners, so this would be my follow up. It's a 3 minute film all shot on one roll of 8mm film, in order (the final film is the same as what you shoot in order on the roll).

The story I want to make is set in the final days of a fictional war, and I'm looking for somewhere that could look like an abandoned administrate building or similar next to an active railway, preferably somewhere rural. For the practicalities of the film, the abandoned building needs to be next to a working railway line that has freight trains using it (to use the continuous sound of a train passing by). It’s a pretty specific location and I thought you guys might be able to help out.

Happy to travel to anywhere in the UK, though closer to London so it can be a day trip is preferable...

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance
Sam

An interesting idea. Since you say it will be a 3 minute film shot on one roll, I take it you will be using a Super 8 camera. Am I right? Back in the 1950s and 1960s - in the days before Super 8 - I was shooting Standard 8 films of railways in the UK and abroad. And silent, of course. They are now on DVD. As for wanting the sound of a freight train passing, how would that be differenr from a passenger train? A slower speed perhaps, and taking longer to pass. Since almost all of Network Rail is now continuous welded rail, there is no longer the clickety-clack of days gone by. You will get that on heritage lines such as the Severn Valley Railway, the Swanage Railway and the West Somerset Railway. But they seldom run freight trains. Why not dub the train sound? Or play the sound of a train passing while you shoot? Or would that be cheating? Good luck.

 

[gtwibell]

Didcot Railway Centre maybe? Heritage/tourist centre right next to several busy working rail lines.

 

[night crawler]

Didcot Railway Centre maybe? Heritage/tourist centre right next to several busy working rail lines.

Nothing derelict about that place and they would want paying for the use, your better ff looking along the Cholsey to Wallingford Railway at least there are some old building along it

 

[TeeJF]

The ELR runs steam trains past an old mill in Summerseat (Lancashire) on weekends but I have half an idea the mill is at least partially demolished now since the floods a few years back. Worth looking on Google Maps?