LA Media was delighted to be asked back for the fourth time to produce the Glasgow King's Theatre Pantomime television advert for their latest production of 'Sleeping Beauty. We always love making this advert and it is a real highlight of our production calendar. This year they have an all-star cast of celebrities to take on the colourful mantels of these beloved childhood characters

.LA Media filming 'Sleeping Beauty' promo

Image by LA Media 'Filming outside the King's Theatre'

 

Sleeping Beauty is starring the legendary Scottish actress Elaine C Smith as The Fairy, joined by comedian and panto star Johnny Mac who joins her as Sleeping Beauty’s hapless sidekick Muddles, and Juliet Cadzow (River City, Balamory) and Paul-James Corrigan (River City, Gary Tank Commander) as the wicked fairy, Carabosse, and her put-upon son Slimeball.

Filming Sleeping Beauty promo

Image by LA Media 'On stage filming Elaine C Smith' 

 

The theme of this advert was ' The Return of Elaine C Smith' to the King's Theatre Glasgow. We had to shoot everything without revealing Elaine until the very last shot. This meant using creative angles and subtle hints, such as her character's wand, to allude to who was returning!

Filming 'Sleeping Beauty' promo

Image by LA Media 'The team posing for a quick selfie

 

The mysterious fairy was to arrive at the theatre and rescue the cursed Sleeping Beauty from her eternal slumber on the stairs of the theatre! Luckily for everyone, Elaine came and with a wave of her wand set things right and it was a happy ending for cast, crew, and production!

Filming 'Sleeping Beauty' promo

Image by LA Media 'Filming on stage at the King's Theatre Glasgow'

 

Client: Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG)
Production: LA Media
Camera: Shu Lorimer
Sound: Bob Mac Dougal
Runner: Andrew Glenn

 

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LA Media was thrilled to be asked once again by MTP, one of Scotland's leading commercial production companies, to come out and do some exciting drone filming. We were asked to film the aerials for a new action-adventure promotion for bottled water brand Highland Spring.

This involved us flying two drones simultaneously in the air. One drone was to be chasing a fearless stuntman over lumpy and treacherous terrain while the other drone was busy catching the train in motion as it crossed the famous and historical Glenfinnan viaduct at the same time. No small feat!

We also worked with the London agency’s visual effects people to achieve a shot from above where the stuntman leaped from a great height onto a green screen inflatable landing area.

This shot would eventually composite to make it look as if the stuntman had jumped onto the moving train we had filmed earlier. Milk Tray Man eat yer heart out!

This shoot was all about timing. We had a narrow window of weather, train availability, and non-gusting winds in which to achieve a series of complex shots.

Drone screen grab from Highland Spring Ad

Image by LA Media  'Drone Filming at Glenfinnan Via Duct'

The Challenges: Two Drones One Train!

On this shoot, the challenges were that we had to fly two drones in the same airspace at the same time without the pilot having a line of sight to each other. So we could see the drones but the two pilots couldn’t see each other. You see how that was a problem. We just had to be extra careful and put more control measures in place.

Getting to the location where they wanted us to fly from was no picnic either. We started on a road below the viaduct and climbed a meandering rough path (over water at times) to reach a sort of base camp.

From this base camp, we went on further up the hills to various locations traveling over bumpy, muddy, boggy-ridden terrain. It was no fun believe us.

At one point Justin vanished up to his knees in a sinking cold bog and had to be rescued by his fellow team members, no easy task! We could have used a few Sherpas and donkeys.

However, the production company we worked with was truly amazing. They did the bulk of the carrying and were helpful in keeping us going. The rain was persistent, the wind was billowing and the train was on a schedule with narrow windows of one hour time for its availability.

Drone screen grab from Highland Spring Ad in Glenfinnan

Image by LA Media 'Drone Filming at Glenfinnan' 

Get that Drone a Sweater!

You may not know this about drone batteries but they don’t like the cold and it was freezing. This meant shorter flight times and more battery changes, which ultimately meant more stress for everyone! Oh, the glamour of show biz!

Despite the weather, the location, and the batteries having a hissy fit we nailed the shots and the production were delighted with the final product.

Fourth Time's the Charm!

So before we rocked up on location three other drone companies had tried and failed (melted their drones) by attempting to fly through the steam of the train! It was -as they say - Scorchio!

Armed with this knowledge of previous attempts we selected our flight path very carefully through the steam. However, it was still a hair-raising experience but luckily our drone survived.

Drone screen grab from Highland Spring Ad Glenfinnan Steam Train

Image by LA Media 'Drone Filming at Glenfinnan Via Duct'

 

It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride...

Owing to the terrain we couldn’t land the Inspire 1 on the ground. The Vulcan Raven was OK because it had its own landing platform wherever it went. But with the Inspire 1, we resorted to hand launch and hand recovery.

Here’s a handy tip, when recovering by hand make sure you don’t cover up the landing sensors which lower the landing gears. If you do happen to do this you run the risk of having your finger crushed by the landing gear winding mechanism.

Justin found this little handy tip out the hard way and nearly lost his thumb in the process.

Credits

Client: Highland Spring

Agency: Whitespace

Production: MTP

Director: James Brown

Creative: Neil Walker

Drone Pilot: Peter Maughan

Gimbal operators: Justin Adams / Iain White

Location: Glenfinnan Viaduct

Big Star: The Steam Train

 

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Visit our website lamedia.co.uk and if you have any questions, e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a call on 0131 622 0220

Here are some behind-the-scenes pictures of a recent shoot at The Cook School Scotland panto for the King’s Theatre Glasgow. The theme of this shoot was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs meets the Great British Bake Off. It’s a pie-off between Hector the Henchman, the Wicked Queen, and Muddles: with Snow White and Prince Lorenzo as the judges. Justin, our director, enjoyed an unexpected drama school reunion with two of the panto’s stars: Juliet Cadzow as the Wicked Queen & Gregor Ficher as Hector the Henchman. You may know these two from Balamory and Rab C. Nesbit. Lots of pies and puns were had all around: this was a fast-paced but enjoyable shoot.

If you want to see the bravest panto o’ them ‘aw you can buy tickets online

http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/snow-white/kings-theatre/#overview_tab

 

Visit our website lamedia.co.uk and if you have any questions, e-mail us at [email protected] or give us a call on 0131 622 0220