To say this year has been a bit different is probably an understatement. With weddings grinding to a halt however it’s been a great opportunity to branch out a little with videography in order to keep my skills behind a camera nice and sharp, in order to do this, I needed to venture outside of Hampshire over to Hertfordshire, just outside of London.
Over the summer, I’ve been working with online storyteller (who just so happens to be my sister) ‘Lauren and the Storybox’. After filming both a trailer for her youtube channel and her facebook page, our third outing together took us to Stevenage based, Tudor stately home, ‘Knebworth House’. Host of some huge rock concerts over the years as well as being used as location shooting for major motion pictures such as ‘The King’s Speech’ and ‘Paddington 2’, Knebworth asked us to film a series of short films for families to tell the history on the house and surrounding grounds.
So for two minutes every day for a week, you can see Lauren, the Time travelling explorer, making her way through the house and grounds learning why various parts of the house are there, ranging right back from the Anglo-Saxon era to modern day.
Filming promotional material for a venue of this size was a first for me and with the pedigree of the aforementioned film crews who had already shot there, the pressure was on. We started our day inside, working against the clock before the house began their daily public tours. Working our way through from the Tudor Banqueting Hall right through to the Victorian Library. As a quick word of warning, if you ever find yourself in said library, make sure to remember where the door is once shut, as they’re all built to look like bookshelves!
Fortunately, Knebworth has some gorgeous large windows which meant that we had plenty of natural light and so didn’t need to add too much in the way of artificial lighting. The big concern whilst filming inside was being careful not to knock or damage any of the extremely old, priceless interior, which was not easy, as to anyone who knows me will be aware that being clumsy is one of my greatest skills…
Luckily the house survived three hours of me, relatively unscathed, and the footage didn’t look too bad either. The afternoon brought a whole host of new challenges filming on the grounds. Filming at the top of the watchtower, traversing the winding staircase with camera on gimbal as well as later on making sure that the children’s climbing area passed as an actual Anglo-Saxon fort.
After a long 12-hour shoot, whilst reflecting on the sofa tucking into a Chinese, we all decided that we will look to take on more of these projects in the future whenever opportunity arises. If you’re interested to see the films and travel back in time with Lauren for yourself, head on over to Knebworth's social media pages (linked below).
Also, don’t forget to go and check out all the other amazing storytelling work that Lauren and Ian do over on her website.
The Watchman's Tower Time Travel Adventure
Lauren and the Storybox
https://www.laurenandthestorybox.co.uk