2002: Premiere Bond - LNN for ITV1

Premiere Bond - On Location in London

Context

James Bond movies are made by Eon Productions for the studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. With Die Another Day, MGM entrusted distribution and publicity of a James Bond movie to Twentieth Century Fox for the first time. The occasion of the twentieth Bond film, released in 007's fortieth anniversary year, would always have demanded a special premiere. No doubt eager to impress, Fox marketing executives chose the grand setting of the Royal Albert Hall, rather than the Odeon, Leicester Square. It would be a star-studded event.

Inspired by the Icelandic lair of Gustav Graves, the villain in Die Another Day, the premiere centred on transforming the Royal Albert Hall into an ice palace. Kensington Gore, the street running past the front of the building, would be closed to traffic in order to accommodate a massive length of red carpet and a raised seating area for spectators. Stars and production team from the movie would be invited, naturally, along with an impressive roster of guests associated with the 19 previous Bond films.

The Event

Dozens of companies and individuals contributed to the premiere, organised and co-ordinated by Andy Peat and Caroline Lockyer-Nibbs. Andy's company took care of producing the actual event, while Caroline's supervised the celebrity booking and after-show party.

Andy secured permission to close Kensington Gore several months in advance, from the Metropolitan Police and Westminster Council. The street would be shut off for twelve hours, from noon to midnight. With that agreement in place, a truly lavish event could be planned. However, a BBC choral event in the Royal Albert Hall on the night before the premiere meant that nobody could make a start on transforming the venue until 7am on the day itself.

Among the companies providing their facilities were Blitz Video (video screens), Bell Theatre Services (video projection), Britannia Row (event audio), Blackfriars (set design), Summit Steel (rigging), Fulcrum (supplying mains power), Le Maitre (pyrotechnic effects), while Gallowglass provided an event crew.

These companies had five hours to set everything in position, before the media and public could be admitted to witness the arrival of the stars. For example, 30 specialist riggers hung 54 giant icicles off the front of the building, using a crane and three "cherry picker" platforms. The icicles were hand-cut from 7 metre sheets of tri-wall polycarbonate, imported from Germany.

Another team of lighting technicians rigged over 150 high-powered spotlights to illuminate the premiere, using 3 massive, truck-mounted 360kva generators and hundreds of metres of electrical cable. Over 400 square metres of red carpet were unravelled, more red carpet than ever seen at an Oscars ceremony.

The movie began at 8pm, and the police opened Kensington Gore to traffic again at midnight. That left just four hours in which all this paraphernalia had to be de-rigged. For the locals in Kensington, the Bond premiere was just a passing memory by Tuesday morning!

Filming the Premiere

Fox arranged for the premiere to be attended by dozens of press photographers and at least 70 TV crews from all over the world. As the official TV crew for the event, ours was the only one to be given access to all areas. We covered the premiere not only for ITV1's Premiere Bond programme, but also as a live CCTV programme, for VIPs inside the hall and members of the public to watch on giant video screens.

We were on site from 7am with our scanner truck, and our team were present from 11am for meetings and walk-throughs, and to film the transformation of the building. We achieved this with a crew of approximately forty staff from London News Network, using two vision mixers and six cameras. Four cameras were based outside the Royal Albert Hall, as shown on the plan below.

Simon Hardy Graham was placed on the red carpet, using a wireless camera mounted on his own steadicam unit. He was able to walk alongside stars like Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and Roger Moore (below left) as they arrived, catching them as they waved to the crowds and signed autographs. A second camera was mounted on a jib at the end of the red carpet, to offer a wide variety of high-level shots (below right). This was provided and operated by the Picture Canning facilities company.

Charlie Harvey was given a fixed position in the press pen outside the main door, offering shots of stars as they turned the corner on the carpet and approached the main door. It was Charlie's camera that covered the Queen's arrival (below left). Meanwhile, Dominic Farrell's camera was fixed at a position just inside the main entrance. His was the first TV camera that stars would meet on walking through the doors. I stood there with Julia Bradbury to vox-pop everyone of interest, and our interviews formed the bulk of material used on the giant video screens and in the ITV1 programme.

When the Queen arrived at 7.35pm, she was presented to the key production team and stars of the movie in a first floor chamber known as the General Scott Room. Sam Berrido and Kevin O'Mahony were our camera operators based there, one fixed and the other roving, and cross-shooting to offer two angles of the Royal line-up. Sam's camera covered the Queen's meeting with the cast, and was one of two cameras to be on "Royal Rota", providing free footage of the Queen to news companies. The BBC was also given a Royal Rota camera position in the General Scott Room.

It was Kevin who picked up shots of Her Majesty meeting the three senior Bonds, hanging on Roger Moore's every word (below left), while Sam caught this priceless image of Madonna entering the chamber and sticking her tongue out. It did not seem appropriate to include this dignified sequence in the transmitted programme!

In addition to our six cameras, we had one last angle on the proceedings, courtesy of a DV camcorder, which we fixed to a lamp-post behind our jib on Kensington Gore. The footage was processed to give a time-lapse sequence, condensing five hours into 19 seconds as work on the building took place.