Filming Locations: Rachel's Audition for Fangirl Quest

Earlier this month, I took an Aer Lingus flight over to the UK. It was a trip that my mum and I have been planning ever since our return from the Republic of Ireland back in 2011, and starting in January of this year we began setting our plans into motion—booking tickets, hiring a rental, figuring out how Airbnb works, looking into tours, et cetera. I was assigned the task of working out our itinerary, which basically meant that I could load our schedule with places that were used as filming locations in some of my favourite movies and telly shows. Huzzah!

Also, I think that this is a brilliant opportunity to audition for Fangirl Quest: a travel blog site that features "screenframing photos from famous movies" and television series. The people who run it have visited England and Wales multiple times and inspired some of my own travels...so cheers, ladies.

*The photographs below are HD quality, so if you want an enlarged view you can left-click to zoom, right-click and select either 'view image' (Firefox) or 'open image in new tab' (Chrome), then left-click again to zoom even further.

A rough route of our travels over the duration of ten days.

We set out from Cardiff Airport in the Vale of Glamorgan, inside of which lies Barry Island where they shot parts of Submarine and S03 of Being Human. Also nearby is Cardiff itself—favourite filming location for series Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Sherlock. Not really in it for the cities, however, we drove in the opposite direction toward Carmarthenshire (How I Live Now).

Through the Black Mountain pass of Brecon Beacons National Park where they filmed Stardust.

Between our stop at Llanthony Priory and our BnB in Churcham were the Clearwell Caves and Puzzlewood. These incredible places can be seen in Doctor Who episodes "The Satan Pit," "The Time of Angels," and "Flesh and Stone," as well as in the series Merlin and Galavant. Some viewers might also recognize Puzzlewood from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We were on a rather tight schedule, though, and simply crossed the border to get to Gloucestershire.

Gloucester Cathedral features in scenes from the Harry Potter franchise,
including Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Half-Blood Prince.

Recently, The Hollow Crown series filmed some of "The War of the Roses" at the cathedral,
as did Sherlock for "The Abominable Bride."

After popping 'round to Stratford-Upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare's birthplace (in honour of the Bard's recent 400th anniversary), we drove up to Warwickshire to visit Baddesley Clinton—the estate and grounds where the Granada version of Sherlock Holmes filmed "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" back in '86.

It is basically the best episode ever because it involves a treasure hunt,
a super-high Sherlock, and a very uncomfortable Doctor Watson.

Also, Jeremy Brett = pure <3

Back down to the Cotswolds, we spent the night at a BnB near Downton Abbey's Mallerton Hall from S06 (also the Swan Inn where Sybil and Branson stayed to plan their elopement in S03). Had to move swiftly on, though, because the next day we were in Oxford. It is clearly a popular place: Masterpiece Mystery's three series Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and Endeavour have been filmed throughout the city.

Exeter College where (spoiler) Morse topples over onto the green after suffering a fatal heart attack.

The chapel where viewers first see Endeavour, singing in the choir.

Merton Walk, the lane through which Lewis and Hathaway ran after the killer in "Among the Fearful."

At the Buttery café, sitting where Hathaway parked his tookus in two separate episodes of Inspector Lewis.

The entrance to Broad Walk alongside Christ's Church College.
In Harry Potter, many of Hogwarts' interior shots were done here; we got to see
the iconic stairway and walk through the Great Hall that inspired the manufactured set. 

The Bodleian's beautiful Divinity School served as both the Hogwarts infirmary and
the room in which witches & wizards learned to waltz with one another in The Goblet of Fire.

Wrapped up the day by walking through Castle Combe. The village's church—St. Andrew's—displayed a tri-fold poster for Spielberg's Warhorse but ever-so-oddly snubbed Stardust in this regard. <_<

The village of Wall, which gave unto the world(s) Mr. Tristan Thorn.

Bus-toured Bath the following morning. Pictured is the The Royal Crescent
where 'the kiss' scene in Masterpiece's adaptation of Persuasion was shot. :3

We passed through Somerset close by the town of Wells (Hot Fuzz + Doctor Who), and then we were on to Dartmoor National Park!

Hound Tor as seen in "The Hounds of Baskerville" during Sherlock S02.

Out of Dartmoor and into Bodmin—Poldark fans will recognize this atmospheric locale.

This is obviously a blog centered around the silver screen, but I am also a PC gamer and a huge point-and-click adventure game nerd fan. Real-world locations in and around Polperro & Looe influenced games by Shadow Tor Studios and Darkling Room, including Barrow Hill and The Lost Crown series.

The Pendruffle Wood near Duloe.

The Parish Church of St. Cuby's, AKA ‘Northfield Church’.

Poor ol' Nic Gurney has lost his hands.

Just down the street and across the lane is the Duloe Stone Circle
which acted as inspiration for the in-game Barrow. (Yes, that's me. Hullo!)

Took winding, hedgerow'd roads over to Causeland train station, Polvean Wood, Stocks Lane, and Windsor Wood, all of which are locations used by game designer Jonathan Boakes in his Cornwall-based creations.

In real life, Stocks Lane joins Causeland and Duloe, but in-game
it is ‘Raven Lane’ that goes between Northfield Junction (at Sedgemarsh Station) and the Ager House.

Harbour Cottage, The Bear, and The Lighthouse Café.
(Actually just Studio Cottage, an old warehouse, and the House on the Props Café, respectively.)

The gruesome Net Hut/Loft and haunted 'Saxton Caverns'/'Grindle's Maw'.
(Really the 'Willy Wilcox Cave', named after the ghost of a—yup, you guessed it—notorious pirate).

St. Tallanus doubles as the spooky 'Ulcombe Church'.

Even though most of the pictures I am sharing are exterior shots, the gutty-works were just as pretty.

The nationally-protected Kilminorth Wood, home to a certain radio station: 15.3, BHR!

The iconic banjo pier (Martello Tower), offering a view of Looe's beach and the ocean (Saxton shore), and the rocks off of Hannafore Beach (the maze-like Pinnacles).

An oddly familiar antique shop...

A few other productions based on the peninsula are telly series Doc Martin, Wycliffe, and The Coroner as well as the 1979 feature film Dracula. The latter was filmed at various coastal locations including nearby St. Austell, Mevagissey, and Tintagel. For more info. about those places, check out my previous post.

Anywho, on our way over to Exmouth we passed through Plymouth where Tim Burton shot a portion of Alice in Wonderland at an estate known as Antony House. We then finally arrived at Agatha Christie's holiday home: Greenway.

The location for "Dead Man's Folly"—an episode in the final season of Agatha Christie's Poirot.

2016 marks the one hundred-year anniversary of Poirot's debut. Fancy that!

The Battery and the Boathouse (cookie for the comic reference).

We were quite near where the Agatha Christie's Marple episode "Endless Night" was filmed in Sidmouth, "Towards Zero" & "Sleeping Murder" in Salcombe, as well as scenes from Joan Hickson's "Nemesis" around Devon. Along the same coast lies West Bay where S01-02 of Broadchurch took place. Slightly more inland are a few of the buildings seen in Far from the Madding Crowd. Sadly, we did not have time to visit any of these locations. :'( Time to head home...

Having driven all the way back to Wales for our return flight out of Cardiff Airport, we passed near Caerwent where they filmed a few scenes around the Hydra base in Captain America: The First Avenger. Also of note is nearby Caerphilly Castle which was used as a stock image for Valencia (Princess Isabella’s home) in S01 of Galavant.

Fforest Fawr and the Three Bears Cave, AKA Dewer's Hollow in "The Hounds of Baskerville."
This clearly isn't actually in Dartmoor. It really was creepy as sin, though.
Also used as a location in Merlin's "The Drawing of the Dark."

Last stop: Dunraven Bay in Southerndown, known as 'Bad Wolf Bay' to fans of Doctor Who.
Seen in eps. "Doomsday" & "Journey's End." i cri evryteim.

Thanks for traveling with us...though apologies for this post's slightly disjointed tone. ^^; It has been a busy couple of weeks since our return and, seeing as how June is nearly over, I had to cobble together something for the blog. Hope you enjoyed the pics regardless.

*All of the photographs featured in this post are my own. Please do not duplicate, repost, or use them in any way without my explicit permission. Thank you. 📸

Filming Locations via Google Earth: Dracula (1979)

While this film's scriptwriters took some liberties when translating Bram Stoker's original novel to the silver screen (mostly to do with a few of the characters' names/their relationship to one another), this is easily one of my favourite interpretations. Frank Langella's portrayal of The Prince of Darkness is equal parts sophisticated-suave and terrifyingly bloody, and whenever I think of his eternal bride Mina (dubbed "Lucy" in this version) I instantly picture Kate Nelligan's elegant innocence. The direction, musical score, acting, sets, and costuming are all superb but, rather than focus on any of that, I wanted to try something different and look at the actual, geographical locations where Dracula was filmed. To do so, I used Google Earth to get aerial screenshots of the locations listed on IMDB. This is made doubly interesting—at least to me—because I am visiting parts of the UK next month and will be somewhat near where the movie came into creation all those decades ago.

Filmed entirely in Cornwall, England, UK.

Doom and gloom.

Abandoned Botallack Tin Mines at sea level in Penwith, St. Just.

Where Mina stumbles upon Dracula after his initial journey on the Demeter.

Crinnis Beach along Carlyon Bay, St. Austell.

The shipwreck of the Demeter.

What used to be King Arthur's Castle Hotel (now known as Camelot Castle) in Tintagel.

The mental hospital/Seward family home.

St Michael's Mount, Marazion.

Used as the exterior of Carfax Abbey (Dracula's castle).

Mevagissey Bay, Mevagissey.

The village through which Dracula and Lucy race to board their getaway ship.

For more information:

• Dracula on IMDB

Animation Techniques: The Mascot

Polish writer/director/cinematographer Wladyslaw Starewicz was a master of puppetry and stop-motion animation. Even following his immigration from the Russian Empire to France as a white émigré in 1920, Starewicz continued to make many short films featuring bizarre-turned-beloved characters including everything from insects and taxidermied animals to cutlery and bits of rubbish. Both his imagination and his storytelling abilities rivaled that of Walt Disney, and it is argued that his articulation techniques have surpassed those of anyone else's before or since. Oddly, however, Starewicz is not very well-known. I myself only happened across a couple of his creations during a concert held by The Hot Club of San Francisco wherein they featured Cinema Vivant. The gypsy jazz band provided musical accompaniment to several black & white silent films, two of which—The Revenge of a Kinematograph Cameraman and The Mascot—were created by the genius himself. The latter became so popular back in the day that it was turned into a series with the lead, Fétiche (known as "Duffy" in English-speaking countries), starring in four more short films following the original's release in 1933.

The Mascot's story centers around an ill child and her destitute mother, the latter of whom makes ends meet by manufacturing toys. One of these playthings—Duffy the stuffed dog—comes to life and, at the child's behest, goes on a journey to find an orange. The other dolls made by the mother come to life as well and, when they are in transit to a market the following day, they break out of their crate and escape to wander the streets of Paris. Duffy remains behind and eventually arrives at a shop where he is sold as a decoration for a car's back windshield. It is from this vantage that the dog spots his creator, makes a break for it, and tries to follow her home.

He becomes lost along the way, of course. While avoiding city traffic and the shuffling feet of passerby, Duffy finds himself in a street market where, lo and behold, a ripe orange drops from a nearby stand. Mission accomplished! Or not, for the night is dark and full of terrors. When the sun goes down, who else should come to town but...Satan and his demon posse? Sure. They're all roaming free and having a helluva party, and that is very bad news for poor lil' Duffy, unfortunately.

All the city's trash join in the devil's festivities, and it turns out that Duffy's ol' pals have already found their way to the most happenin' sector of the city. While he fends off the fiends who try to steal his orange, the other toys experience a night of drunken revelry and become...not as friendly as they once were. Dawn couldn't arrive soon enough, but when it finally does so do the police. They aid in Duffy's escape. He makes it home, gives the child the orange, and lives happily ever after.

As can be seen in the above gifs, Starewicz employed some extraordinary approaches to capture his subjects' movements. One of these was to maneuver the puppets during the film's exposure so as to create a blurred effect. This allowed each gesture to appear natural and, in some instances, almost like CGI. He also adopted rear-screen projection reminiscent of today's chroma key compositing, i.e., green screen. At the HCoSF concert, I remember one of the members telling the audience that while everyone could try to figure out the mechanics of the piece, he suggested just watching and "believing in the magic" Starewicz had summoned. My eyes were glued to the screen as the picture played, and the effects truly were enchanting.

For more information:

• The Mascot on IMDB
• Click here to watch The Mascot in its entirety