We had been asked by Rachael Goldstraw, Senior Marketing Manager at Beaulieu Enterprises Ltd to produce an instructional video on how to enter and safely navigate the Beaulieu River. The film was commissioned by Beaulieu as they own the river and marina and have done for almost 500 years.
On a beautiful crisp November morning, we went to Buckler’s Hard Yacht Harbour where we met Tom Cunliffe, author and life-long sailor. Tom would be our host and instructor on the video, sharing his decades of knowledge and experience of the river as only someone who calls the Beaulieu River home can do.
A month before the day of the shoot we had met with Tom, Rachael and Wendy Stowe, Harbour Master at Buckler’s Hard Yacht Harbour, to discuss and plan the shoot in detail. With the vast amount of knowledge in the room, we were quickly able to pinpoint the best way to get all the material needed in order to make an engaging and relevant instructional safety video.
We had a two camera crew and began filming Tom’s introduction to the video on the dock, before heading onto his beautiful boat, Constance. She is a fibreglass yacht of Mason 44 design which he has owned since 2011. While still moored we filmed Tom explaining how to use charts and maps to plot the correct course down the river to the sea. We filmed using two cameras from different angles so we would have maximum choice of footage to use during editing.
Once this was completed, we sailed down to the mouth of the river to meet up with Paul Deakin and Steve Morgan, two of the wonderful team at Buckler’s Hard Yacht Marina who were waiting for us on a RIB. One camera remained on Constance filming Tom giving a running commentary on how to correctly navigate into the river from the sea. The other camera joined Paul and Steve in the RIB to get some shots of Tom and Constance navigating the entrance to the river.
The camera was then transferred from the RIB back onto Constance. As we continued in towards the harbour we were able to capture Tom’s running commentary of how he was navigating from multiple angles as well as capture the wonderful views of the river and river banks. This provided us with multiple cutaway shots that we could use during editing.
Despite being quite blustery out in the Solent, the natural haven of the Beaulieu River made sure we weren’t too cold by the end of the day!
To see the video, click here.
