Filming at zebra or pelecan crossings are challenging. The main reason they are there is that there is no sufficient point to cross on a road. I have has personally this brief before on After Life Series 3 – we had to find one in a specific town – in this case Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. There are not many crossings that were not busy and art department did not want to “dress on in”.
We ended up using the zebra crossing outside of the National Film & Television School between Old & New Beaconsfield during the weekday (after morning rush hour and before the schools came out). Along this road of course there were two schools and a nursery across from our filmset. We dressed one of their signs. For this to be safe for cast and crew we were allowed to control the roads (in this location it was a 5/6 way Stop & Hold for a maximum of 2-5 minutes).
The scence also involved the throwing of a castus into the back windscreen which meant the opposibility of suger glass in the road. Props standby were on hand to clear this up as fast as they could after each take. The most important thing about all of this was checking if we could actually hold the traffic for any lenght of time. This involved speaking to Buckinghamshire Council and also other stakeholders with as much notice as possible.
View the scene here (please note it does contain swearing).
If you need help with Traffic Management or finding that perfect controllable zebra crossing then please do get in contact with us.
Oliver Laurenson-Gore – Location Manager & Scout
Tel: 020 4524 6399
Email: [email protected]