Common British Filming Locations: Introduction
Most films made in the UK are based at one of the main studios either in, or just outside, London. For this reason, most of the people involved in film-making also live within commuting distance of the studios and London, in the South-East of England.
Shooting a film on location can be expensive. Having to transport actors, crew, and equipment; Having to put people up in local hotels; Arranging for the availability of film-related services, which might be hard to come by on location; The costs all add up. Clearly it makes more sense to find locations as close to the studio as possible - that way, the crew can find their own way to the location because they all live close by, and all the equipment and services the filmmakers need are close to hand.
This is exactly what happens. Films set in other parts of the UK, or even the world, are often at least partly shot near London.
There are many factors which determine whether a location is suitable for filming: such as how much parking there is nearby, whether the location can be closed to the public, whether the location can stand in for more than one place (ie. You get two locations for the price of one), whether the owners have previous experience of film work, and so on. This means that there are fewer suitable locations than you might think - especially since quite a lot of British films are set in the past, and so can't be filmed in locations with modern street furniture.
And so, there are some locations which crop up again and again.
Now I'm not talking about things like Big Ben, and The London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. Obviously they all crop up in loads of movies, but it's quite clear that they've been filmed at the actual building itself. No, I'm talking about the kind of locations which rarely play themselves, maybe standing in for a Russian prison in one film, followed by an American university in the next.
These are the unsung heroes of the location world, and in this series I hope to introduce you to some of the most frequently-seen, but generally unknown, movie locations in the UK. Once you know them, you'll see them crop up frequently. Plus, by visiting them, you can visit the locations of many movies all in one go!