Charlie Productions : How To Shoot On The Underground

Getting permission...

Femi Houghton in our unfinished short film 'Five Minutes'. Things may have changed considerably since we made Russell Square, but at that time it really wasn't as complicated a procedure as people constantly imagined it to be...

Getting permission to shoot on the underground was a blissful experience back in the year 2000 (funny how when you write 2000 on its own it just looks wrong. But maybe it's just Jarvis making me do it). Obviously a certain event of worldwide prominence has quite possibly changed a lot of the procedures, but back then it came down to a phone call to LU head office. Ben got through to the PR department, spoke to the magnificent Kate Blow, sent her the script and got a letter of permission.

And with that, we were through to the other side of the security door. Two kids with a camcorder, a cast and crew of four. We've both always been huge fans of the underground, Russell obviously being testament to that, and so we were rather excited not only to have friendly staff assisting us by keeping the general public in or out of the shot as required, but also guiding us round parts of the station not normally accessible, including platforms now closed and gathering dust. It's all par for the course for a film crew, not that we really knew that at the time, indeed, one of the reasons this seemed quite so magical to us was the cost:

£0.00

London Underground - or Kate Blow - had the rather sensible approach to film crews which went - if you want to close stations, if you want control of your environs, if you want lighting, grip, all the trappings that normally go into making a film, well, then that can be arranged and will cost a fairly decent chunk of money, especially to two youngsters barely out of their teens. They even have a closed station with its own train that they have exclusively for film work, if you want to pay for it. However, if you are indeed two youngsters barely out of your teens who are quite willing, indeed keen, to use no lighting, no tripods, minimal crew and who actually want reality going on all around as they shoot a love letter to the underground with the smallest amount of fuss, well, then that could be free.

They did of course study the script and advise us that we couldn't have beggars in the film (they don't exist on the underground, apparently), nor graffiti (same), or rubbish (indeed), but apart from that we were go - or at least, we were halfway there. For we now had a letter of permission from LU head office, which we then had to take to each Duty Station Manager to ask them if we could shoot our little film in their bustling station.

Some looked at us disdainfully, read the letter, searched for a reason to say no and then relented. Some had barely read the letter before offering us a walkie-talkie, identity badges and someone to escort us round and keep the flow of the general public exactly how we'd want it. We made sure to go to each station and ask some time in advance, which sometimes led to problems when the DSM we'd asked had given permission, only for us to find that they weren't actually going to be on duty when we arrived with camera and crew - for instance on one occasion when Ben had a nightmarish hour in Finsbury Park at around 2am when it looked like we wouldn't get to shoot after hours, after all. However, it only amounted to a couple of times where we had to rethink our locations - and both times it was to the benefit of the film rather than the detriment. Overall the LU staff were friendly and really really helpful to us, helping to make the entire making of Russell Square a magical experience for us.

Charlie Productions believe passionately in doing things and always trying to stop in time for tea.

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