Dom at DVD.Fever.co.uk puts it simply: “I’m already calling Adolescence as the TV series of the year. The acting, writing and directing are all spellbinding stuff, and the more I watch this, the more I’m thinking it’s just so f****** insanely damn good!”
We were delighted last year when WARP Films chose Production Park for this mind blowingly ambitious shoot. The one-shot crime drama stars Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, Bodies), Ashley Walters (Top Boy), Erin Doherty (The Crown) and an extraordinary Owen Cooper.
Produced by Sheffield based Warp Films (Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Little Birds and The Virtues), Matriarch Productions and Plan B for Netflix – Adolescence tells the story of a family’s trauma when a thirteen-year-old is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl.
We have eight multipurpose studios of varying sizes to suit productions of any scale, and the team took over our Studio 005 for the six month build. The huge and complex set featured two internal settings and an extension outside (see pictures).
One of the many stand outs of the series, which hardened industry writers mention time and again, is the single-take camerawork. The Guardian writes: “The first few minutes of Netflix’s new drama Adolescence are among the most incredible you will ever see… As heavy as Adolescence is, it also stretches the capacity of what can be achieved with a single take. One sequence in the second episode, which I won’t spoil, is so technically audacious it made me gasp.”
Director Philip Barantini describes the show’s opening sequence: “When the episode starts, my cinematographer Matt is holding the camera,” he explains. “As we’re filming the actors in the car, the camera’s being attached to a crane. The car drives off, and the crane follows. While this is happening, Matt has gone in another car, driven ahead and jumped out so he can take the camera into the house. When we come back out of the house, the other camera operator Lee is sat in the custody van. Matt would pass Lee the camera, so now Lee’s got the camera while Matt drives ahead to the police station, so he’s ready to take the camera when we go inside.”
Production Park’s External Affairs Director Jim Farmery said: “The intricacy of Warp’s incredible build and the technical daring of what they’ve achieved was only possible within our world class studio spaces. It’s brilliant to know they drew on all the support services we can offer from our campus-based model too.”
The nature of the narrative meant locations had to be nearby and hyper local – step up Studio Manager Sam Wilkinson. “Warp needed a suitable shop counter type area for filming, so we were able to introduce them to a choice of units on a neighbouring industrial Estate,” said Sam.
But it wasn’t just on locations that our teams got involved. We’re closely embedded in our local community here in Wakefield and are always looking at ways to show the opportunities careers in the creative sector can offer.
We arranged for Warp Films to partner with our friends at ScreenSkills, who set up a free outreach evening for local talent so they could hear about opportunities to work in TV and get tips on how to get their foot on the TV ladder.
Mark Herbert is joint CEO at Warp Films: “The series posed a major challenge for us with the one-shot element so we needed a studio space that could match our technical needs but also provide a home for the crew and actors during the whole process,” he said. “We loved working at Production Park and it was a great space to build our sets, and the day to day working atmosphere was fantastic, I will certainly film there again. And its mad it's in an old mining community not too far from where I grew up and just up the road from Warp Films Films HQ in Sheffield.”
Mark’s comment prompts Jim to reflect on the variety that Yorkshire offers: “We are situated in a region with such an extraordinary diversity of filming locations and landscapes. We are lucky that Production Park has strong roots here and great connections too. We share a campus with the UK HQ of international staging company TAIT, as well as catering and production bases that add up to a cast iron set of leads that we can draw on to get the best deals for our clients.”
It’s not the first time that Yorkshire will have played a starring role in a hit TV drama – think Happy Valley, Last Tango or Gentleman Jack just for starters.
What remains to be seen is how a series that packs the emotional punch of Adolescence with almost universal praise – might start to get the region firmly on the radars of film and TV makers close to home as well as on the global stage.
If you want to work with us or find out more about Production Park or The Mill studios please either give us a call on (00 44) 01977 659 850 or email Studios@ProductionPark.co.uk and we’ll get back to you.
Photo credits:
Photos courtesy of Netflix