PRODUCTION. HAPPY VALLEY
MODERN SOLUTIONS To pull off what would normally be a highly complex scene in a short timeframe, the crew turned to LED volume shooting. Compared to a location shoot, this considerably reduced the number of necessary moving parts
camerawork should disappear and not override the storytelling.” With that in mind, Perry explains how he had to embrace some new technology that he hadn’t used before while trying to stay true to the realistic setting. “The sequence starts on a normal road, and then the car goes off-road and down a hill for what turns out to be a complicated nightmare of a scene to shoot,” he states. “Reading the script, you’d say, ‘That’s fantastic!’ But then you think, ‘Oh, how are we going to shoot that one?’” Perry and the director, Fergus O’Brien, reached a conclusion: “3D volume seemed like the way to go.” The main challenge? Maintaining the series’ visual style. “It’s not a glossy-looking show,” points out Perry. “It has its own gritty aesthetic. It’s not flash, is based in reality and recognisably grim.” He continues: “The Yorkshire landscape is kind of a character in its own right and has to be explored, but you can’t be too self-conscious about it. I was using the LED volume to overcome a practical problem of not being able to shoot a complicated scene in a real location. It was interesting – it was the first time I had used it. I’d seen that portable LED volumes could be built at scale near your filming location, and with the help of Chris Cox at MBS, we did just that.” “Yorkshire’s landscape is kind of a character in its own right and has to be explored, but you can’t be too self-conscious about it”
76. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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