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building sites, or covered in a different type of dust from their historic detec- tive work in the basements that held ancient archive documents in local libraries all over the country. As the tiny editorial team contin-
ued their work to set up and start fi lming the series over a period of more than 12 months, the next task was fi nding a presenter. Both we and the BBC were delighted to discover that Caroline Quentin had a deep personal interest in restoration work. She had been involved in ambitious restoration projects herself in several of the properties in which she had lived in recent years, trying to create her perfect family home. It made her ideal for the series. The end result, almost two years
after the series was commissioned, has turned out to be everything I could have hoped for: an of-the- moment and fast-moving series following the varied fortunes of the building projects. The work of the Restoration Home team has been a fi tting tribute to the efforts of each of the home-owners who overcame trials and tribulations and risked years of effort, and sometimes millions of pounds, to save buildings that otherwise could have been lost to the nation forever.
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Clockwise from bottom left: Paul and Laura outside St Thomas A Beckett church; presenter Caroline Quentin; fi lming at Bank Hall; kitchen of St Thomas A Becket; interior shot, St Thomas A Becket
RESTORATION HOME TEAM BUILDING
Joff Wilson Series producer
It’s 2.30pm and we’ve got about three hours of light left to
shoot several sequences with the owners of a 16th century house that is in a perilous state. The camera- man is strapped into his Steadicam, the contributors have been briefed, but the soundman’s not happy. Someone is hooting a car horn in the street. Several minutes go by and the noise hasn’t abated, so the AP is dis- patched to fi nd out who on earth is causing the racket. It turns out that in the rush to get shooting again after lunch, a production member (me) has locked the presenter in the hire car.
Luckily, Caroline Quentin is not
only a good sport; she also knows how hard our little team has worked to make Restoration Home. The beauty, strength and challenge
of the series has been juggling the many different elements within each programme. We use lighting, tracking shots and visual effects to breathe life into evidence buried in the archives. Meanwhile, our investigations into the DNA of the buildings are done with a constantly moving camera. We also challenged ourselves by
shooting on multiple cameras. Media from self-shooting (Sony EX3 with a Nanofl ash, pictured), full crew (Pana- sonic AJ-HPX-3700) and reconstruc- tions (Canon 5D Mark II) was trans- coded to a common format for editing. Making six one-hour factual
programmes with just two full-time staff had almost as many ups and downs as restoring a Georgian man- sion. But I feel we have created pro- grammes that encompass engaging historical stories and a gripping present-day restoration narrative. Hopefully the team agree… if not, I’ll lock them in the car too.
1 July 2011 | Broadcast | 33
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