Posted on 15 December 2011
Getting in on the action, last week saw 80 Media, Film and Drama students from Farnham Sixth Form College invited to the film set for forthcoming motion picture Snow White and the Huntsman.
The film, based on the popular fairy tale written by the Grimm brothers, stars Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Charlize Theron, Nick Frost, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, and many more familiar names from stage and screen. It has a budget of $180,000,000 and will be released next summer.
The scene shooting at Frensham Little Pond involved a night-time attack upon a fishing village by the evil Queen’s soldiers. A full-scale village was constructed, including huts, boats and pontoons. Using special effects, the film crew were able to set this village aflame at the push of a button, extinguishing the fire in between takes. Bill Darby, Locations Manager for Universal Pictures, gave the students a guided tour of the film set, the make-up and wardrobe departments, the trailers and base camp of the crew and the film set itself. As their course involves filming similar productions, albeit on a massively smaller scale, this was a valuable experience of seeing a professional unit in action.
Students were also able to see some of the film being shot, meeting numerous professionals, including Kristen Stewart’s stunt double, the crew responsible for the special effects and pyrotechnics and the locations officers for the National Trust.
Student Hannah Banning said: “It was a brilliant, once in a lifetime experience to visit the set of a massive Hollywood film. The films we make at Farnham College are obviously much smaller, but it was great to see how many similarities there were and I can definitely see myself following a career in this in the future”.
Head of Media and Film Lawrie Winn said “At Farnham College, we really try to move the learning outside of the classroom wherever possible. There really is no way to quantify how much of a positive effect these experiences have on our students but many have commented on the impact this has had on their future plans. We would like to thank all the cast and crew – particularly Bill Darby – for this wonderful, unique opportunity”. Media students at Farnham College have recently been involved in numerous events including the Surrey Youth Fair, filming music festivals and debates, a visit to a radio broadcast, trips to the BFI Southbank and being a major part of WorldSkills 2011, a huge event in Excel London attracting 250,000 visitors over 4 days.
Bill Darby and his team gave up an incredible amount of their time in order to make the experience possible, including talking to the students and offering information and advice. The crew of Snow White and the Huntsman could not have been more accommodating – even lending their own minibus to shuttle the students around the grand set.
