Bruce Hill: Whatever the Weather

Bruce Hill is a practicing production designer and author of Createascene, a book on everything you need to know about the Art Department. Following his piece last month on how budgets have declined affecting working relationships in production, below he discusses dealing with set design and build in bad weather conditions, the "really cold" season and being resourceful when shooting for a different time of year.

“Remember, whatever weather you have on the recce, it will be guaranteed the exact opposite on your shoot”.

Props to Christmas

Let us spare a thought for all those crews working in the UK over the recent wet and windy Christmas and New Year period. My construction team has been wading in torrential rain trying to get a set together for a supermarket ad with a renowned designer and I do not envy them.

To rub salt into the wound it will probably be lovely weather during the shooting period and no one will appreciate their efforts. Fast drying underwater emulsion paint is still a far away dream. Having been tasked with jobs during this period in the past I know that they bring not only the weather to contend with but most of the prop houses are also closed, together with the trade suppliers for the timber, paint and flooring for the entire Christmas period.

Making a scene

People often wonder why things cost so much in our business but if one considers that many commercials are filmed well in advance of when they are aired it’s sometimes remarkable that they are completed at all, even with a resourceful set designer. I once created an English meadow scene in February for an Easter commercial and just trying to obtain green turf was problematic, let alone blossoming cherry trees and spring flowers. On another occasion a crop circle was required in May and the only suitable crop of wheat was in Tasmania, this for a field built in a studio in Wimbledon!

The lead up to Christmas is always problematic as decorations, and even fake trees, are generally still on route in a huge boat from China in September. I’m often surprised at the amount of commercials shot on location in the UK considering the unpredictable weather and cost of associated insurance (though many companies don’t bother with it). Director Keith English stated the headline quote to this article after one of his many UK commercials, shot in the most unseasonal weather. He now films mainly abroad.

 Coating the cold

We are now entering the ‘really cold’ season post-New Year and no doubt North Face will be gleefully rubbing their hands and enjoying healthy profit margins primarily generated from the film industry professionals. At least those filming on location are, or should be, reasonably prepared for the temperature. However, even the studio shoots suffer, as there is still no economic way of heating a stage in this country (seems they do it abroad a lot better).

This affects the set build possibly more than the shoot by slowing drying times on all the painted surfaces. I once heard a true story from a scenic artist painting a sky scene at H stage Shepperton. The sprayed clouds had frozen, as opposed to dry, on the cyclorama and come pre-light day when the lights were switched on, they melted down the cyc!

Client cool

We either have the noisy stage heaters, if we are lucky, or the portable propane gas heaters which create unhealthy fumes as well as noise. Both of which require turning off during the shoots and often just to make a phone call. This problem will compound more with the use of LED lighting becoming the norm as they run cooler.

Build crews and electricians spend most of their working lives in these inhospitable places and yet we rarely hear them state the standard working conditions minimum of 13 degrees, probably because it’s not illegal to work in colder temperatures, just recommended. Yet come the shoot days, when the clients arrive, there is an almighty rush to the nearest HSS (just after Costa Coffee and before the newspaper shop) to have delivered all the infra-red heaters they stock and surround the client area so they all glow red, a bit like the budget.