National Trust and Filming - Case
Studies
What is the National Trust
• A charity whose constitution is governed
by a act of Parliament.
• 250 historical buildings, 600 miles of
coast and 500,000 acres of countryside
• Almost 4 million members.
• Covers the whole of the UK except
Scotland.
Variety is the spice of life
Why Filming ?
• Fees
• Visitors
• Economic generation
NT authors links
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24 Cheyne Row, London
Thomas Carlyle
Chartwell, Kent
Winston Churchill
Nether Stowey, Somerset
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Hughenden Manor, Bucks Benjamin Disraeli
Hardy's Cottage, Dorset
Thomas Hardy
Max Gate, Dorset
Thomas Hardy
Lamb House, Sussex
Henry James
Malham Tarn, Yorks Charles Kingsley
Bateman's, Sussex Rudyard Kipling
Wimpole Hall, Cambs
Rudyard Kipling
Pride
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Otherwise known as Ohh Mr Darcy! (Lyme Park and
Lacock village)
Pride and Prejudice case study
• The house was closed to the public for
six weeks in September of 2004 to allow
filming to take place at the front of the
house and in four of the show rooms. It
was an intrusive shoot, with 200 extras
on site for much of this time for a ball
room scene plus 100 crew members
and a huge unit base parked up in the
grounds.
Pride and Prejudice case study
• NT were keen to maximise the opportunity
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for publicity
House Manager appears on the DVD talking
about the property and the shoot.
An exhibition was opened at the house on the
film’s release as Working Title had agreed in
the film’s contract that they would supply
costumes and other items for this purpose.
This exhibition was promoted in the local and
national press
The P & P effect
• 76% increase in visitors.
• Restaurant takes £10k in one weekend.
• 2006 went on to be a very successful year with 77,770 visits. In
2002, 2003 and 2004 visitor numbers had never moved above
the 48,000 mark.
• 2009 saw 80,884 visitors.
The Duchess
The Duchess
• 4 properties involved but only one
marketed.
• Competition with Chatsworth home of
the real Duchess.
• Film released in Sept almost the end of
the season
The Duchess Effect
• 2007 figures showed 16% rise
• 2009 on back of costume exhibition a
new record of 139,009 visitors.
• Most of the visitors domestic.
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility
• BBC drama using Ham House.
• As a London location difficult to
calculate the reason for the visit.
• Ham also appeared in other TV and
films so hard to say which show
provoked the visit.
Sense and Sensibility
• This BBC drama was shot at Ham in 2007
and was shown on BBC1 from the 1st
January 2008 for 3 weeks. The exterior of the
house was visible. A link was placed from the
Sense and Sensibility microsite on the BBC
website to Ham’s page on the National Trust
website. Visitor figures in January, February
and March of 2008 were 107% higher than
those of the same months in 2007.
Other Boleyn Girl
Other Boleyn Girl
• Visit Kent web site – a collaboration of
film company, locations, tourism, screen
agency and hotels aimed at the short
stay market.
• 100, 000 OBG movie maps.
• 11,000 website visits.
• 4000 competition entrants
Other Boleyn Girl
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500 people surveyed
42% visited Kent due to film.
48% stayed over night
21% extended visit due to campaign
98% would revisit Kent
Value of stays £744,000
Alice in Wonderland
The only live location in the film
Alice in wonderland follow up
• Article in NT magazine with Depp on
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cover and quotes from Burton.
Press Junket for DVD release at house.
DVD extras.
Website
Themed garden for 2010
The Alice effect - 23k to 86k in 12 months
Alice in Wonderland
• 50% said that they were visiting
because of the fact that Antony House
was used as a location for Alice in
Wonderland.
• 50% said that they had children
accompanying them who were
interested in the Alice connection.
Sell your own stories
The Mill
• Based on true history, this four-part
drama depicts the lives of the Greg
family and their workers at Quarry Bank
Mill, Cheshire, during the turbulent year
of 1833
The Mill
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Shot at the actual mill location for days
Fee
Credit
Website
Fact or Fiction website.
Twitter – the Mill
• Welcome! I’m Quarry Bank Mill, the real star
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of Channel 4 drama The Mill…
Follow me @TheMillSpeaks, and I’ll tell you
all about a rich history that inspired the
programme, and show you some fantastic
archive, video and pictures.
New tweets appear at the top. Use the menu
to find material specific to each episode.
THE MILL – Fact or Fiction
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WARNING - this article contains spoilers
William Greg and paternity
In the script, the father of Susannah Catteral's baby is William Greg, Samuel’s youngest son.
There is no evidence for this, but Robert Greg did inexplicably pay for the cost of Susannah Catteral’s
confinement in 1842. We will never know why.
Elsewhere, there undoubtedly were relationships between masters, their children and mill workers as they
lived in close proximity.
Hannah Greg and slavery
In the script Hannah takes the stage in an emancipation meeting in Manchester attended by Mary Prince.
Hannah may have wanted to speak out on this issue, but there is no evidence that she ever did, as to do so
would have been an unacceptable public rebuke to her husband, who inherited slave plantations in
Dominica.
In reality, Hannah had died in 1828, some years before the growing emancipation movement had drawn out
comparisons with the working and living conditions for mill children.
Background
The Mill illustrates a crucial moment in British history, when militant reformers forced government to act to
provide controls on children’s working hours and conditions.
Some historical events referred to in The Mill took place and involved Quarry Bank personalities; others did
not. For the purposes of dramatic license, some timescales have been compressed.
THE MILL – free publicity
• It received blanket previews in all of the nationals,
and there were six reviews in The Times, Guardian,
Daily Mail, Independent, Daily Telegraph and Metro.
It got five stars in Mail on Sunday, Event magazine
(Daily Mail), and Daily Star Sunday, and four stars in
Daily Express and Daily Mail. It was Pick of the Week
in Independent (Radar), Critic's Choice in Sunday
Times, Choice in Observer New Review and Sunday
Mirror, Pick of the Day in The Times Saturday
Review, Mail on Sunday, Guardian and The Sun, and
What to Watch in the Daily Telegraph.
THE MILL – phew, good reviews!
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"…this new four-part series is enthralling… This immersive presentation of history is utterly
convincing, and with uniformly excellent performances and an emotionally engaging script,
here is proof positive that period dramas can be educational without being arid and boring."
Mail on Sunday.
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"…this four-part drama is powerful and engaging." Sunday Telegraph
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"Well scripted, beautifully lit and dressed. Recommended." Observer New Review
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"…this entirely credible depiction of the past is also utterly enthralling drama…" Event
Magazine (Mail on Sunday)
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"A compelling opener that's impeccably acted throughout - this series won't be pretty, but it's
going to be very, very good." The Sun
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"…there's real spark to these characters." Daily Telegraph
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"…this four-part, fact-based drama…proves compelling." Daily Mail
The Mill – viewing figures
• 3.8 million for episode 1
• Ch4’s biggest launch in 3 years. A 12%
share and double CH4 average for that
slot. Given it was against Countryfile
(5.5 million) and Top Gear (2 million).
• Second series?
Results
• A 25% increase in visitors after 1st episode.
• 60% after 3rd episode - 6079 visitors
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compared to 3731 last year.
All these extra visitors have spent money with
us and we’ve done really well with
membership sales.
Website hits grows from 800 per day to over
5000
Movie Maps
Movie maps
• 20,000 Copies. Gone in 3 weeks.
• Digital version most popular page on NT
website.
Universal 100th Anniversary map
Costume Drama Movie Map
evaluation
• 40,000 copies.
• Press Coverage
• Autumn/winter NT magazine 2012 (circulation
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1.8m)
The Sun, 9 September 2012 (circulation
2.4m)
Daily Telegraph 15 September 2012
(circulation 560,398)
Period Ideas, November issue 2012
(circulation 38k)
Costume Drama Movie Map
evaluation
• E-Marketing support
• Volume sent ‘Movie Map’ article: 329,203
• Volume that clicked-through on ‘Movie Map’
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link: 553 (0.17% of total).
Social media support
Facebook posts reaching 71, 592
Twitter tweets reaching 120, 120 (101, 378
(NT feed) 11, 217 (NT Mag feed), 7, 525 (NT
press office feed))
Costume Drama Movie Map
evaluation
• Digital Media support – homepage
• Homepage story visible to 221,093 homepage views
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(OTS), 124,564 unique visitors during that time (story
on homepage for 1 ½ week)
Digital media support- /movie map page
Page views 9,733 (entire period 8 Sept- 15 Oct)
Unique visitors 6,614 (entire period 8 Sept- 15 Oct)
Number of downloads 487 (entire period 8 Sept- 15
Oct)
Costume Drama Movie Map
evaluation
• 6,000 visits to the film page and just
under 500 downloads.
Costume Drama Movie Map =
visitors
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Stourhead 23,864 (LY 22,568)
Lacock 10,293 (LY 8,286)
Knole 11,548 (LY 8, 081)
Ham House 7,991 (LY 7,578)
Petworth 10,428 (LY 10,122)
Costume Drama Movie Map =
visitors
• Total increase in visitors in one month
• 7489
Don’t underestimate factual TV
To the Manor Reborn
To Manor Reborn
• 531 visitors on 1st weekend before show
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aired. 4000 visitors in first month.
Overwhelmingly positive response from
visitors. Reopens 2012 for 6 day week.
Show averaged 3.87m (15.1%) over the 9pm
hour.
Based on cost of terrestrial TV advertising at
£70,000 per minute (off peak) exposure for
Trust in documentaries alone worth in excess
of £100 million a year
Don’t underestimate Farne
Islands
• the RDF series be on ITV,
• the BBC will start running their “Great British Year” series on October
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2nd the “Spring” episode features the Farnes heavily.
Autumnwatch are also planning to use our puffin burrow cam footage in
October and local news almost always feature newborn Farnes seal
pups during that month.
End of October: 'Robson Green's Northumberland'; a national series
looking at Robson's Northumberland (he spent two days, one night on
here)
St.Cuthburt's Life (working title) by Tony Robinson; featuring
Inner Farne and interview with DS
As for visitor figures, we are about to break our 'all time' record as we
currently stand on 50,632 (record is 52,000) which adds to our 'all time'
membership record we have broken this year with a current total of 923
memberships.
Big Spring Clean
Big spring clean results - 2011
• Petworth – 23,000 extra
visitors
• £85k in extra revenue
Public reaction
• This series could be seen as straightforward
propaganda for the National Trust, but I thoroughly
enjoyed watching it, and now have a far better
understanding of what they do behind the scenes
with our national treasures. It also helped me to
understand the organisation's motives a little better
(they aim for honest 'conservation', rather than
artificial 'restoration'). It also gave an opportunity for
the back-room workers, who spend hours labouring
away to preserve our heritage, a chance to shine in
the spotlight for a little while.
8/10
Hidcote - a garden for all
seasons (BBC)
Hidcote – a repeat
• The programme was repeated on 1
September and for that month alone
payers were up by 83.6%, members up
by 78.9% and others up by 79.5% on
budget. This gave us an overall visitor
performance of +79.9% on
budget! Total visitor budget for
September was 16,009 but we actually
achieved a total of 28,807 visitors.
Seen around the world.
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SALES OF BRITISH TV SHOWS AROUND THE WORLD IN 2012 ROSE 4% TO £1.2BN,
BOOSTED BY PROGRAMMES INCLUDING DOWNTON ABBEY AND SHERLOCK.
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THE US REMAINS THE MOST LUCRATIVE MARKET FOR BRITISH SHOWS, UP 11%
TO £475 MILLION IN 2012.
FIGURES FROM TRADE ASSOCIATION PACT STATED
• OTHER DRAMAS WHICH BOOSTED EXPORTS WERE PARADE'S END, MIDSOMER
MURDERS AND COME DINE WITH ME.
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SALES TO CHINA ROCKETED UP 90% TO £12M, WHILE EXPORTS TO INDIA WENT
UP 42%.
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EXPORTS TO SOUTH EAST ASIA ARE UP 26% BUT AUSTRALASIA IS THE UK'S
SECOND-BIGGEST MARKET WITH SALES OF £103M IN 2012.
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SCANDINAVIA SPENT £63M ON UK CONTENT IN 2012 - A 2% INCREASE.
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SALES TO LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES ARE UP BY 24% AND THE BRAZILIAN
MARKET HAS GROWN BY 21%.
RISKS
RISKS
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Conservation issues.
Time scale - Yesterday and tomorrow.
Staffing and costs.
Credits.
Blink and you will miss us - the jigsaw
effect.
• Surviving the edit.
Do we want to do this?
• Closing down – Can we do that ?
• Reputation - fly on the wall or spy on the
wall?
• Image - crime, security, satire and good
taste.
• H & S - regulation - kids, guns, animals
and nudity.
LEARN YOUR LESSON AND SHARE YOUR
KNOWLEDGE
Filming: Recce Checklist for all drama filming
Property:
Hughenden Manor
Film Title:
Desperate Romantics
Film Company:
BBC Drama (to be broadcast
on BBC2)
21 April only
Dates & Times:
House &
grounds
public opening
times,
if applicable:
Closed to public. Regional
staff elsewhere in house and
car parks.
Crew size:
40
© National Trust
It’s got a recipe for success
Combine ingredients:
• Planning
• Risk Assessment
• Protection
• Supervision
• Communication
• Team Work
• Positive Attitude
© Stuart White Photography