Outlander Droughtlander
Having just watched the final episode of Outlander Season 4, Man of Worth, I am reminded of our own Outlander experience, here at River Edge Lodges.
Our lodges featured in Episode 3. In the scene filmed outside the lodge, the goat pen was visible in the back ground which made me laugh. No sign of the goats though. I wonder how the film crew paid them off!
For the month that the crew were here, the goats were very popular and very well fed. I wonder if food was involved during the actual filming. Imagine Archie and Tim baaaa’ing like mad during filming, as they do when they spot any people.
OUTLANDER ANECDOTES
How it Happened:
In Autumn 2017, Beverley from the Outlander film locations team asked if she could come and look at our lodges to see if they may be suitable for their purposes.
I had read all the books by Diana Gabledon years ago after my Dutch friends introduced me to Cross Stich, the very first book in the Outlander series. As I was reading the books, I was always struck by how well the story would translate to the screen. And I wasn’t wrong was I? All those opportunities for atmospheric shots of the Scottish landscape … and with a bit of history thrown in.
Various meetings followed with the film location team and the location managers. One day when I was minding my own business, lots of sleek black vehicles appeared on site, and lots of people emerged people turned up wearing black puffa jackets and black shades. I thought I was in a scene from Men in Black. They spent hours looking inside the lodges and outside the lodges.
Preparation:
We were presented with a document several pages long of what the team wanted to do to the lodges, inside and out. The attention to detail was impressive, including covering the kitchen units with period tiles and painting the walls, replacing curtains and blinds, covering up light switches etc etc. I still have that long list somewhere
Two of the lodges were called the ‘Hero’ lodges. One of the lodges was used to film outside and to be the Green Room for the actors. The other lodge was used for filming outside and then later, inside.
Other lodges were used for some of the crew, catering, female changing and male changing.
Outlander took over the park for the month of November and into December.
The Art Department arrived first to do their thing. Then the company ‘Propped Up’ arrived with vans with all the props. By this time 24 hour security was employed to monitor everyone coming into the park, to keep the set top secret. The team got to work with painting the inside and outside of the lodges, taking our furniture out and putting their furniture in.
Tim, the locations manager lived pretty much on-site in one of the lodges, overseeing everything. My husband, John is a builder (carpenter by trade) and he was involved in fixing up lights and other jobs around the site. Again I was amazed at the attention to the tiniest detail, for example a certain type of outside light that was around in the 1960’s was sourced and several of them brought in to dot around the park.
Filming Part 1:
On the day of filming, a huge truck arrived, bearing the mammoth light that was to be used to light the set. This was a 16 tonne scissor lift with a light on top. There was a large generator outside our office which had to be far enough away not to be heard when filming. There was also road traffic control on the bridge into our village. Traffic lights were set up on either side of the bridge so that the traffic could be stopped at intervals when shooting was taking place, to avoid noise and light interference.
Things all started to hot up as large numbers of other vehicles and film crew appeared. My daughter, Alannah was studying for exams and every so often she’d have to go out for a walk along the river to clear her head. I went with her sometimes. On this day, it was late afternoon starting to get dark and we wandered down our usual route by the river which would take us past the hero lodges (oops!). There was a fair crowd gathered there who must had had a heads up about the filming (not from me!). We couldn’t see much so we went under the bridge and up onto the road to see the traffic control working well (although people had no idea why the traffic was being stopped!). As we got up on top of the bridge looking down at the lodges we suddenly noticed the humungous scissor lift with a very bright light on top. It looked like aliens had landed. Many of the villagers were looking and pointing and wondering what the big light was all about. However, the best kept secret in Bridge of Earn had worked as by the time people were aware that Outlander was filming, it was all over.
As Alannah and I wandered back home the security guy at the gates jumped out (again) and asked us who we were and what was our business there. We explained that we lived here and he reluctantly let us past. I thought he was going to ask for a strip search! We managed to get through the huddle of media folk and made it back home unscathed.
The Actual Filming:
Tim came up to the office for a chat. The crew were taking a break and he asked if I would like to come up and watch the filming when it re-started. Would I? Is the Pope Catholic? I grabbed Alannah from her neuroscience studies and Tim met us outside. He guided us amongst all the vehicles and wires and cables and crew. We all had to stop dead still after a signal from someone with a walkie-talkie. All traffic had stopped again and nobody moved a muscle until the signal to stand down again. Traffic moved and we were able to continue across the park towards the cameras.
It was a cold night and we were well wrapped up. We walked past some of the actors who were waiting to be called. They were stamping their feet trying to keep warm. Alannah asked me who they were. I replied that they were probably extras. They waved and said hello and we continued following Tim until we were right behind the cameras. We mingled with the crew and Tim showed us which camera to look into to see exactly what was being filmed.
There was another call for silence and the camera rolled. Who should come walking up to OUR lodge towards the cameras, but Roger and Bree! Not extras then – only Richard Rankin and Sophie Skelton. They were so close to us that I could easily have reached out and touched them. They chatted a bit, gazing into each others eyes and then … they kissed. Alannah and I turned to each other in a silent ‘OH!’ before turning our attention back to the filming. They did this several times over and it was filmed from different angles, before moving on to the next bit. Note: the kissing bit was cut from the actual episode.
Day of filming 2:
The scenes inside the lodge took place within a ‘closed set’. The whole lodge had a huge tent over it to simulate night time. There was a minimal crew and not so many vehicles and people milling around. Filming lasted all day, again taking shot after shot from different angles. Poor Sophie and Richard must have been shattered. I wonder how many takes and re-takes there were of the slapping scene.
And then it was all over and it took another few weeks to restore the park and the lodges. And it all seemed to have been a dream. Except that I found a Call Sheet in our grounds from the filming at Ballathie Woods, near Perth. This is where scenes of the arrival at Frasers Ridge are filmed and all the dialogue too!! This is where Jamie, Claire, Ian and Rollo come across the first Cherokee warriors .
Season 4 Episode 3 (The False Bride)
There was huge excitement as we settled down to watch the episode with our lodges, nearly a year later. It was meant to be a motel in North Carolina in 1970. I couldn’t wait to see how the inside would look on film. We’d seen little snippets in the trailers to whet the appetite.
It turned out to be my favourite episode (no bias here folks).