As the title says , it’s been an interesting week. A little while ago I was contacted by a film company enquiring if I could assist with shooting scenes in miniature for the battle of Omdurman. After some too-ing and froing on the practicalities it came to fruition this last week. There were of course some compromises to be made as this was 1898 , not earlier in the Sudan . The artistic intention was to show the real mass of the native forces against the might of Victorian firepower and its ultimate effects .
Omdurman was a very on sided battle with around 50 British dead , versus 12,000 of the Kalifas forces . It was real imposition of European ways into Africa .
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| The camp and Zariba |
We used around 20kg of two types of sand to ensure all the bases were properly concealed, plus we mixed in two blends of green scatter and bit of clump foliage to break things up. We were using 1/2 & 1 inch brushes to ensure the sand was spread around and blended in and cleared off the figures ... mindi am still finding sand in things!
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| The mass advances toward the Zariba |
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| The Cameron’s man the Zariba |
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| Cavalry advances |
I had previously added in some specifics for 1898 , particularly the maxim guns , and a powerful steamer .
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| The first full set up . |
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| The cavalry charge |
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| The gunboat brings its firepower to bear . |
And now some behind the scenes shots
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| Studios des Paris - we were in studio 7 . The studio was set up by Luc Besson , yes him of Leon.. |
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| The cavern that was studio 7 .. ready for the crew to set up. lighting and camera |
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| Myself , MartinC and JamesM setting up under the lights .. |
Due to issues with camera wobble we had to change the set up to a lower table .. that kept us busy..
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| The blue screens are to provide background for post CGI processing to add back ground later. The camera was set up. |
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| Camera set for aerial shots |
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| Benjamin steers the camera - Rolling... |
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| Action! |
We had to rearrange and reset as the director and cinematographer asked for things to be moved, filled out etc .We also had some license to set up and call out any issues we saw.
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| Setting up scenes . |
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| Damn.. I think corporal Jones needs moving a 1/4 of an inch.... myself and Martin dealing with fine details |
Overall it was a great experience and a real behind the scenes look at the craft and graft required to make the stuff we see on our screens .
My thanks must go to James (his post is
here ) and Martin without who’s help and friendship this would not have been possible ... cheers guys .
We don’t know when it will air , likely to be years - it may never get off the cutting room floor .. - but hopefully it will .
