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Currently offering four stages - three sound and one silent - Bray Studios has achieved an incredible amount in a working history that will be marked by its 50th anniversary next year. And while it may be best known for its association with Hammer Films, the fondly remembered selection of colourful horror films and several high quality dramas, there is more to Bray than just those movies.
ambitious and contrasting historic tales that have called upon the services that Bray can offer.
For the small screen, Bray has been home to pro- jects such as Pie In The Sky, Soldier Soldier, Sex, Chips & Rock ‘n Roll, and a biopic of Diana Dors - who ironically used to live in Bray village - called The Blonde Bombshell, as well as a brand new case for Poirot to work the grey cells on. And by all accounts there are there are many more besides in pre-plan-
BRAY STUDIOS
“We’re proud of our past but we can’t live in it,” Earl continues. “We want to look forward now. Hammer Films still operate and they’re based at Elstree these days, but we did have a Hammer Day here in May. They’re thinking about another one next year, so they come home to Bray to do that - which is nice.”
Filmmakers coming to work in the studios in the future might not recognise the changes that are being drawn up, as the challenges of a fast moving industry are set to be met in a brand new century.
“People could always come in and dry hire edit- ing suites, but now we’ve also got people based on site which we didn’t in the past. We’ve got post pro- duction facilities offered by a company called Sinx Speed, which is a bonus. They’ve just moved into another part of Bray and extended even more. They’re going to build a dubbing theatre here too. So although Sinx Speed are a totally independent com- pany from us it’s just good to have them here,
because if clients want anything done in post pro- duction, these are the guys you can use if you want. To have them on site is a real bonus.”
High profile productions of late have included the glam-rock musical Velvet Goldmine, Emma, The Adventures Of Pinocchio (the seamonster sequence) and Still Crazy . More recently, Bray was the base for The Trench, a gritty First World War drama directed by novelist-screenwriter William Boyd and starring Paul Nicholls and Daniel Craig. Some extraordinary trench sets were carefully constructed for the shoot especially to facilitate flowing camera movement. Then there are the films RKO 281 and Britannic, both
ning stage.
“It’s exciting to see so many different produc-
tions coming in,” Earl adds, no doubt with some con- siderable relief. “We’ve got a production filming here for the BBC called The Wyvern Mystery, which is a programme for the Millennium, and we’ve also got The Turn Of the Screw in here which is another tele- vision production. And they’re filming the new Philadelphia commercial here too.”
The range and versatility provided by studios such as Bray is testament to the talents of an indus- try flushed with renewed confidence. And it’s the more impressive here for the fact that Earl heads a permanent staff of only fifteen employees.
“We like to think people return here because they know they’ll be well looked after,” says Earl. “Hopefully this recent great news about our future means that the good days will be returning back to
The Trench was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
Photos top left to right: a still from Velvet Goldmine; Richard Griffiths in Pie In The Sky; William Boyd’s The Trench;
above left to right: Keely Hawes as the younger Diana Dors in The Blonde Bombshell; stills from Soldier Soldier, Emma and Still Crazy.
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