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tv production
ALL THE
Focusing on the funny peculiar world of estate agents in ITV’s new series Sold
M oving house is supposed to be one of the most
stressful events of your life, so it’s curious that no-one has set a series in that world... until now. Touchpaper
Television’s new six part ITV comedy- drama series Sold takes us into the strange universe of the estate agent.
Up there with politicians and jour- nalists on the scale of public trust, the antics of this profession and the con- siderable potential their work has for both drama and comedy seem ripe.
“Most people we’ve spoken to within our industry have said ‘why did- n’t we think of that?’” explains produc- er Philip Trethowan, “which is reassur- ing. Hopefully it’s got an immediate appeal because everyone’s got experi- ence of that world. Property is such a national obsession in the UK, hopefully we’ll capitalise on that as well.”
Aside from the usual office poli- tics and rivalries, most notably between highflying Matt (Kris Marshall) and good guy Danny (Bryan Dick) the stories give audiences an insight into the minds of clients who are seeking their dream home. In many instances, these scenes are expressed visually.
“One device we have shows Danny as a master of intuition,” Trethowan continues. “It plays on the notion that when buyers go into a property they fantasise about their potential life there and that’s how they make their deci- sion, whether or not they might be interested in making an offer.
“So when Danny first goes into a property with a new client, as they gaze around the place and start to imagine themselves there he has the insight to see that. Most of those have a degree of either in camera or post production special effects.
“For example, in episode one, he goes into the kitchen and says to the woman that he’s with, ‘don’t tell me, you’re already imagining the top of the range fridge and the retro toaster’. As he’s saying this, all these items are appearing in the kitchen. For that we
shot plates on the day, and it was all put together in Flame.”
Director of Photography David Luther lit the first block of three, after which his operator Ian Adrian took over. Directing duties were shared over the series by Cilla Ware and Barnaby Southcombe, and the whole production was shot on Fujicolor Super F-64D for all the exteriors, the ETERNA 250D for day interiors and the ETERNA 500T for night interiors.
“I was amazed how well the 250D held the over exposures,” says Luther, who also shot the feature Grow Your Own released last year. “Sometimes it was up to six stops over, but there was still definition in there.”
Working with Cilla Ware, he had particular visual cues in mind for the show.
“We liked some of the techniques Michel Gondry used in his pop pro- mos,” he explains. “We used some of his crash zooms to hide a cut which looks like the end of the zoom shot, but is in fact the beginning of another crash zoom in or out. We also used a lot of foreground wipes to connect scenes, sometimes colour co-ordinat- ed wipes, which can be also vertical or linked to a crash zoom.
“Ian Adrian operated for me, so he was able to make notes how I approached different locations. It was mostly the case of interior day with 18Ks as the key light behind windows. Inside, we used mostly Kinos or Octadomes to extend the key light, and I continually used sfx filters and antique suedes or blue grey filters.”
Another stylistic choice that seems characteristic of the visual flair of the show was the introduction of the properties that the characters would be visiting.
“Rather than using conventional establishing shots,” Trethowan explains, “we use property specs that come to life. An actor will walk into it as it were and then you zoom into the picture full frame and off you go with your drama.
“We really wanted the whole thing to be bold, colourful, fun and ener-
getic and that really dictates the look of it. It’s certainly more colourful than your average British drama; it’s a bit larger than life and a bit of a departure from a lot of British comedy-drama, which is very good but never feels particularly heightened.”
‘Location, location, location’ is the estate agents’ mantra so it would have been a bit of a cop-out to shoot the whole thing in a studio. But the quality sought by shooting on film had to be matched working on... what’s the word again?
“We made the decision to go 100% location,” Trethowan confirms. “The only set you would have built for this show would have been the office of Colubrine Estate Agents. The problem with that is that if you built the office and the big window you’d have to build the street outside, and that’s something you can only do on a movie budget, really.
“The window in an estate agents is such an iconic thing; that’s where the properties are advertised, that’s where the customers first see the properties when they enter the shop. We felt it was really important to have that communication between the inte- rior and the exterior. That being the case we decided to go 100% location.”
In the end the ‘office’ was found in a disused pub in Battersea that had the big windows the production required. But this brought its own set of problems.
“We shot there for nearly three weeks,” recalls Luther. “Unfortunately it was south facing and had continuous windows on one side, so we constantly had to move our lights so as not to be in shot, especially in the reverses.”
In the end all the effort, all the stress seems to have paid off, with the series now on air. And if it occupies that strange netherworld of comedy- drama Trethowan contends that it can be strong in the expression of both those elements without losing the potency of either.
“We wanted it to be very bold real- ly, so that when it is dramatic it’s unapologetically dramatic, and equally
when you’ve got the opportunity for a good gag equally you just go for it. It’s a comedy-drama in the sense that some- times it will make you laugh and some- times it will move you.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Sold, currently airing on ITV, was originated on 16mm Super F-64D 8622, ETERNA 250D 8663, and ETERNA 500T 8673
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