Where was 1917 filmed? Guide to all the Filming Locations
Posted by Ra Moon
We are not only wondering where 1917 was filmed, but we should also go behind the scenes to answer how the 2020 Golden Globe winner movie was filmed.
The action, happening in real-time, seems to have been filmed at a single location, in an immersive one continuous shot.
In fact, principal photography lasted about 65 days and the filming locations are many miles away from each other, all around the United Kingdom.
The action, happening in real-time, seems to have been filmed at a single location, in an immersive one continuous shot.
In fact, principal photography lasted about 65 days and the filming locations are many miles away from each other, all around the United Kingdom.
Film director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall), decided to paste takes up to nine minutes long to tell the story of two young men who are sent on a suicide mission into enemy territory during the First World War.
They'll try to stop an attack and save a British battalion from a German army ambush.
To make you feel that you are in the trenches with these characters, the camera never ever comes away from them during the nearly two hours running time of the film, so spectators can understand how hard it was.
Maintaining the continuity of the scenes across the movie is a perfectly well-executed cinematic illusion. Where are the cuts? Production designer Dennis Gassner declared that the whole idea was not to get caught.
Birdman director Alexander Iñárritu chose to obscure the frame to hide edits. The method used in 1917 is far more complex than this, involving lots of planning and rehearsing.
The movie was shot in story order, so the filmmakers had to exactly match the previous sequence to the inch and to the second.
How was 1917 filmed?
The First World War started literally with horses and carriages and ended with tanks. It can be argued that it is when modern warfare begins.
Fortune reported that trenches were built at the RAF Bovingdon Airfield in Hemel Hempstead (Hertfordshire), the same town used in the After Life series doubling as Tambury.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures - Map
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures - Map
A disused quarry in Oxfordshire served as an additional filming location. According to local media Surrey Live, a large film set was built at Hankley Common near Farnham (Surrey).
A lot of filming took place in the Salisbury Plain near Netheravon.
The French Farmhouse was built there and taken down at the end of the shoot. The producers completely depended on the natural light and the weather.
They had to film in clouds to get the continuity from scene to scene. When the sun was shining, the team was rehearsing with the eyes up in the sky.
The pictured sequence was filmed in the Govan graving docks on the banks of the Clyde River in Glasgow, Scotland.
Image Universal Pictures - Map
The French bombed town of Ecoust was built on a set from scratch for the film.
Director of photography Roger Deakins revealed that the camera had to be in sync with what the actor was doing: 'Sometimes you have a camera carried by an operator hooked onto a wire, that then steps onto a small jeep which carries him another 400 yards. Then he steps off it again and goes around the corner'.
The 1917 river scene was filmed in the Low Force waterfall in Teesdale valley near Barnard Castle in County Durham.
This section of the movie was shot using a drone. If you are a fan of long-take scenes, the 2002 film Russian Ark is a real one-shot movie that takes place in real-time in the Hermitage Museum.
Alfonso Cuarón's 2006 movie Children of Men includes several long, amazing single-take scenes.
The trench scenes were also filmed in the Salisbury Plain. Filming took place along the A345 Salisbury Road, in the old Avon Camp military base, just a few miles from Stonehenge.
1917 almost doesn't take place in a series of interiors, but endless exteriors.
No location ever repeats, so the cast and crew were constantly moving through different landscapes. Some shots required around 500 background extras.
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures - Map
The main cast is led by George MacKay as William Schofield (Captain Fantastic, Ophelia) and Dean-Charles Chapman as Tom Blake (Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones, Into the Badlands).
The supporting cast includes veteran actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, Sherlock), Mark Strong (Shazam, Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag), and Richard Madden (GoT's Robb Stark).
Can you help to improve this article about the shooting locations of 1917?
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To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
NOTICE: If you’re using this information on your website, please credit and link to this page as a source.
*****
Ra Moon
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Like this movie and appreciated the work involved greatly. I watched the DVD on my 28 inch computer mtr then reran it after resetting the screen to B&W. WOW, just like Victory At Sea and other B&W WW1 and WW2 films! Great job guys!
ReplyDeletebill Berit in the Keys
The picture you said was 1917 is in fact the lower half of the mountain in The kingsman being built.
ReplyDelete1917 was never filmed in Hankley
Very good film
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