Major Project Production Unit - Location Recce: Leeds Castle

Although I have found another location that would work for our film, I am not recieving proper confirmation from them and the trail is running cold. I have my doubts that this location will be available for us to film. I decided just to be on the safe side to put out several emails to places that could work. One of those emails was to Leeds castle as I feel it still fits in with the grandness and the over elaborate theme of money and wealth. Although not modern which is what I first imagined, a castle would still portray the same message that I am trying to achieve. This is some of the form that I sent below:

From this email I received a reply from a woman named Gemma who deals with the film production side of the castle. You can see this email below: 

After a few more emails, Gemma agreed to let us come up and have a look so that myself and Andreya could look at the location and get an idea of if it would work for our film. We took pictures in each room so that we could reflect on if it would be suitable. You can see a few of the pictures we took: 

Chapel: 

Hallway Window:

Wooden Staircase:

Top Wooden Staircase:

Yellow Room Bedroom: 

Green Dining Room:

Corridor:

Main Staircase:

Drawing Room: 

Desk Drawing Room:

Library: 

Main Dining Room: 

Exterior: 

Once we had a look around the castle, we both had a big conversation about if the castle would really suit the film. Although its a great location, I felt that the rooms were almost too old and would not really fit in with the type of style we are going for. When looking at the costume we have got, I feel it just would not tie in well and the overall feel was that it just didn't deliver in the way that we wanted it to. 

We next had a look around the castle grounds. This for me was a complete turn around from the castle. It had lots of lush green spaces and plenty of areas that I feel would work really well. You can have a look at a few images below: 

This was good to see that this could be of some use to us. We finally went to the maze that the castle has in the grounds and this for us was the highlight of the recce. I feel the maze could really add to the film being able to shoot in the actual maze but also from the raised platform delivering versatility in different shots. I feel it would work with the story well too adding a maze, the sense of being in something so beautiful but complex, confined and trapped really could work well. 

Overall I feel that If we are going to use this location, It will be more for the exterior and the gardens/ maze as this is what I feel would add to the film really effectively. I will continue to look for more interior spaces in the mean time but will keep in contact with Leeds Castle about using these places.