2022 was a very fruitful for filming at the Newham Film Office, managed by The Film Office with productions of all natures choosing to visit the borough for filming. And as we head into the new year, we hope that 2023 follows in those footsteps. We’ve selected some upcoming productions below that features some of Newham’s fantastic locations…
Polite Society
Scheduled to hit theatres in April of this year, ‘Polite Society’ follow martial artist-in-training, Ria Khan who believes she must save her older sister from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, she tries to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists.
The production took to one of the boroughs parks, Keir Hardie Recreation Ground involving use of an electric tracking vehicle to film their protagonist cycling through the park. Keep your eyes peeled for Newham in what looks t0 be a refreshing tale of sisterhood – check out the trailer below!
The Gold
‘The Gold’ is one of the most highly anticipated drama’s of the new year and is based on a true case known as the “Brink’s-Mat robbery”. The series follows six men who steal 3 tonnes of gold worth £26m from the Brink’s-Mat security depot and set about trying to dispose of the bullion whilst DCI Brian Boyce sets up a police task force to investigate.
The production contacted us back in February of last year looking to film at Millennium Mills to film both interior and exterior dialogue scenes. The Mills is an iconic location known by those both in and out of the industry with an impressive list of productions choosing it as a filming location such as ‘ Spiderman: Far From Home’ and ‘ The Batman’. We can’t wait to see what it looks like in ‘The Gold’.
All episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer now and you can watch the trailer below!
The Power
Amazon Prime’s upcoming drama takes us to a world in which women suddenly and strangely develop a special power that allows them to electrocute people at will. ‘The Power’ is an adaptation of the novel by Naomi Alderman of the same name and with a vast fan following, this is a greatly anticipated release with audiences eager to see whether this adaptation can do it justice.
With a presence across the borough back in 2020, filming at various private location for which the Newham Film Office, managed by Film Office facilitated various unit bases and crew parking. The production also set up on Central Park Road in East Ham to film interior scenes inside a private property as well as exterior dialogue scenes on street. Olwyn Hinds, the Film Officer who worked across the production commented “With an 80 strong crew and various complicated elements to the shoot including cranes, footpath closures, traffic management and even tree pollarding! This required liaising with multiple council departments to allow for smooth sailing across the shoot. It is key when filming in a residential area like this to maintain the fine balance between allowing productions to push the boundaries of creativity on their shoot, whilst making sure the impact on local businesses and residents in the area is kept to a minimum in order to keep filming sustainable”.
This area, and areas alike that accommodate filming benefit not only from donations that The Power made for local training and development opportunities, but also from significant ‘local spend’ by productions – through use of cafes, restaurants, hire of properties, accommodation providers, parking and green room hire.
We are also delighted to have placed two students from the University of East London on paid work experience as a part of the locations team marshalling across the 3 shoot days.
Check out the electrifying trailer below!
Great Expectations
This BBC have released a teaser trailer for their adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel ‘Great Expectations’. There have been 12 previous adaptations of ‘Great Expectations’ worldwide across film and television, with this addition looking to bring in large audiences with Olivia Coleman starring as the infamous Miss Haversham.
Back in the summer of 2022 the production took to Millennium Mills & Silvertown Square to film scenes on the water with some of their cast in a rowing boat and a thames barge prop which was moored up at the dry dock.
We can’t wait to see what this classic tale adaptation looks like when it appears on our screens in March of this year and you can watch the teaser trailer below for a slither of what’s in store!