Filmmaking- Location Scout (Summerhill)

Continuing our location scouting, the next location to find was a place where we could film a climbing scene, with a rock or boulder of some sort. My initial location research had places like Brimham Rocks and Twisleton Scar for this shot, but before locations are quite a distance away and would be unnecessary to transport everything that far when they're a locations nearer. A fellow student John Hartill suggested Summerhill Country Park which is located right here in Hartlepool, it contains an area of the park called the Boulder Park with multiple climbing boulders that would be perfect for our shot. I recently went and visited the Boulder Park and take numerous pictures to help understand how it might be best to shoot it.

In the original treatment, the idea was for the woman to make it to the top of what she's climbing and find an engagement ring in a box, having the man propose to her there and then, but some of these boulders are just unrealistic and unsafe to have our actors climb to the top of, we also wouldn't be able to get our equipment up there to film the shot anyway. Since viewing Summerhill I've decided it might be better to have her find the box inside one of the holes/grooves you put your hand in to climb up. This way she can find it immediately and turn around in surprise when he's down on one knee behind her.

The day I visited was quite bright and shows the boulders in a great light, this is how I'd hope the weather will be like for the actually shoot. As you can see the boulders are quite large and are quite isolated away from each other and other objects which is good so we have less to worry about in the surroundings and background.

There is an obvious healthy and safety assessment to be done here to make sure all members and crew are safe around the area, and make sure none of the actors actually attempt to climb, only make it seem like they're about to climb.

On my out of the park, I spoke to someone in the
office about the project were doing and the hope to film at the boulders. He seemed very okay with it and said it shouldn't be a problem as long as we don't film any of the public, he gave me an E-Mail and I offered and agreed to give him a weeks notice for the shoot and have him sign a location release form when we have a specific date for the shoot. So it appears Summerhill is one of our definite places to shoot and which is fantastic due to it being fantastically close and exactly what we want for the film.