The Creation of Lanval: Chagford Filmmaking Group
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All behind-the-scenes photographs by Brian Skilton
A decade ago, I was on one of Terri Windling’s wonderful blog sites (it might have been the marvelous old e-zine, Journal of Mythic Arts) and saw a series of absolutely beautiful photos from a dream-like film featuring faeries, a handsome prince, and breathtaking visuals. The film was Lanval, created by the Chagford Filmmaking Group. Chagford is a beautiful small village in Dartmoor known among magically-minded people for being the home territory of fairy artists Brian and Wendy Froud, author, artist and editor Terri Windling, artists Tom Hirons and Rima Staines, artists Marja Lee Kruÿt, Virginia, and Alan Lee, and many more incredibly imaginative dream makers.
Recently, I found out that the film I’ve been curious to see for so long will soon (August 1st) be available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime. I asked the lovely and talented mind behind the Chagford Filmmaking Group, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry (who is also a phenomenal professional harpist) to answer a few questions about how this visual feast came to be.
Can you tell us about the Chagford Filmmaking Group? How did it get started? What has been your role in the group and the productions?
Chagford Filmmaking Group began as a bit of fun in the school holidays! My kids and their friends were hanging out in the kitchen complaining that there was nothing to do in the school holidays. In a wild flash of craziness, I said “Let's make a movie.” So we did!
Chagford is a hotbed of fairytale artists, writers, and creatives, so making a fairytale film was the natural choice. We're all obsessed with folklore in this community – there must be something in the water! That school holiday project resulted in Woodwose, an adaptation of a Grimm's fairytale. It was a classic example of the good sister / bad sister trope.
The tale tells of a cruel mother who sends her stepdaughter into the woods to look for strawberries in the middle of winter. The girl meets three woodwose (folkloric wild men of the woods) and she shares her meagre crust of bread with them. When she returns home, a coin falls out of her mouth for every word she speaks. Of course her stepsister is wildly jealous and sets off to find the woodwose herself, but when she returns - having refused to share her food - slugs fall out of her mouth. It’s disgusting! In the original tale, it's not slugs but toads. Obviously, live toads are impractical for zero-budget home movies, so we had a giggle making slugs out of coloured sugar paste; the sugar slugs were then intercut in the movie with real slugs, and looked totally convincing. The living slugs were kindly foraged by the local post-mistress. The film was a real community effort.
I hired a trendy arthouse cinema in the cathedral city of Exeter for the premiere. It was bonkers to do that, but the kids had put so much effort into the project, and I really wanted to create an opportunity for them to see themselves on the big screen in a swanky cinema. I thought there would be just the kids and their parents, but word spread and an amazing bunch of enthusiastic people turned up. This was in the days before FaceBook! Of course, the film was ragged round the edges, but it had been created from the heart and the imagination. The audience loved it! When I heard everyone laughing and enjoying themselves, I was filled with such a happiness. I just knew I had accidentally stumbled upon my soul work: making fairytale films.
And from such humble beginnings our story starts.... Chagford Filmmaking Group was established as a non-profit voluntary organization with a mission to preserve British folklore and fairytales through film.
Why the tale of Lanval? What was the story behind choosing this story for your film?
Sir Lanval happened through a string of improbable and magical coincidences. My co-producer, Claudine Glot, is the creative director of the Centre for the Arthurian Imagination in Brittany, North West France. She happened to be visiting Chagford at the same time as we were premiering our fourth film, Cherry of Zennor, a Cornish fairytale. Claudine came to the premiere, and it sparked an idea in her heart. She had long held a dream of bringing the visionary artists of Brittany and Chagford together.
The year before Claudine’s visit to Chagford, I’d visited my dear friend and co-writer Ari Berk, Professor of Myth and Folklore at Central Michigan University. On this trip, I’d found a book of the lais of Marie de France in a secondhand bookshop. Lais are medieval lyric tales, and Marie de France was a woman writer of the late 12th Century. We know so little about her, but she must have been an acute observer of human behaviour. I’d never read anything of Marie’s before, but I devoured the lais on the plane home, and was blown away by their imagery and enchantment. Coincidentally, about the same time, a friend gave me an exquisite antique book, Romance and Legend of Chivalry, which contained a re-telling of the Sir Lanval story. Perhaps this story wanted to be told, for when Claudine and I were wondering which Arthurian tale to produce into a film, that book ‘happened’ to be lying around. I suggested Lanval, and Claudine immediately agreed with me - she already knew and loved the story. Interestingly, C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia books, called Lanval the finest story in all of medieval literature.
Roll on a couple of years, and the European Union stepped in and offered us a grant for the lion’s share of the funding. Once that was in place, the UK Film Council miraculously came up with the remainder of the money, Hurrah! The Shared Legends Project was born. We produced an exhibition, a film, and a book. Friendships were forged between the artists that remain strong a decade later. Sadly, such a joyous shared project funded by public money could never happen in today’s world: Britain has left the European Union and the UK Film Council is no more.
I recognize Wistman’s Wood in the trailer. What other beautiful Chagfordian locations were used in the movie?
Wistman’s Wood is a mystical pocket of ancient woodland in the heart of Dartmoor, but we couldn’t film there for practical reasons. The dreamlike location we used instead lies only a couple of miles outside Chagford, and is little known, so there was no chance of tourists wandering into shot. The roots of old oaks entwining around massive granite boulders are truly otherworldly. The film is bookended with two fairies talking in an Autumnal wood. On the shoot it was raining all day, but then suddenly, in the evening, the sun came out and bathed the wood in golden light. We all worked like crazy to seize the moment, and the light really creates a sense of an otherworld outside of time. Six months later we returned to the same spot to find a Maytime woodland bursting with bluebells.
The lake where Lanval first encounters the fairy maidens is Fernworthy Reservoir - a haven of wildlife with fascinating Bronze Age hut circles and submerged clapper bridges. Once, there was a flourishing hamlet here; it was engulfed when the valley was flooded, and its remains can still be seen during a drought when the water levels drop. It felt magical and secret when the fairies spoke their beautiful line, “Yes, this lake is Arthur's now, but many people have lived here before. What you see above the Lake is now yours, but what lies beneath the lake and hidden in the deep places of the forest remain our own country.”
Queen Guinevere’s orchard is a traditional old orchard in the grounds of Cotehele House, an unspoilt Tudor mansion. Various scenes were also shot in Burrator Reservoir on the western edge of Dartmoor. I really wanted to infuse the whole film with a sense of the magic of nature, an animism if you like, conveying nature as alive with Spirit, an evocation of air, water, and woodland.
Working for Enchanted Living, I’m already familiar with Ian Hencher, who has appeared as a model in several issues. Can you tell us about how you “found” him for the role of Lanval? What about the other actors in the production?
Ian is such a sweet soul and he was totally committed to the eponymous role of Lanval. We were so lucky to find him. It seems unthinkable now, but it almost didn’t happen - we had already cast another actor! Three weeks before the shoot, we brought the principal actors together for a weekend workshop to develop their characters. At this weekend, we discovered that the actor who was due to play Lanval had zero chemistry with the Otherwordly Queen. In fact he looked as if he was about to vomit when he had to kiss her! OMG! It was a hard decision to recast him because his acting alongside King Arthur was excellent. Nevertheless, we had made a mistake, and he accepted our decision with admirable grace. What a great guy.
Eeek! We were suddenly catapulted into a mad scramble to arrange another set of auditions on top of planning all the zillions of other things involved in organizing a feature film. Ian Hencher ‘happened’ to see the call-out for this second set of auditions. He cancelled a trip to Paris (losing all his ticket money) to attend our audition. Talk about keen! We liked him straightaway and gave him the part. He was very young, fresh out of drama school, and during the shoot it was delightful to watch him blossom into the role and embrace the ethos of the Chagford Filmmaking Group family. A decade on, Ian says, “This fantasy indie film shaped my creativity and was truly a portal into another realm, a realm I will never forget.”
Maxine Dubois [Queen Guinevere] had volunteered for Chagford Filmmaking Group the year before, and wowed us all with her commitment and professionalism. She was the natural choice for Guinevere. Three other actors were chosen via auditions, and all the others were locals and friends. The French extras were all friends of the Centre of the Arthurian Imagination.
In behind-the-scenes photos, it’s clear that this production involved the creative work of many of Chagford’s finest artists and creatives. Can you tell us about a few highlights of this process, and the props and wardrobe created for the production? Who was involved? And what were some of the most challenging and/or memorable pieces made?
The remarkable Tolkein artist Alan Lee designed the pavilion in which Lanval encounters Tryamour, the Otherworldly Queen. Alan is a neighbour and friend who won an Oscar for being a concept artist on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has produced concept sketches for almost all our films, and we are so lucky to have his support. How we relished the description of the richness of the pavilion written eight hundred years ago:
Above the tent was set an eagle of gold, so rich and precious, that none might count the cost. The cords and fringes thereof were of silken thread, and the lances which bore aloft the pavilion were of refined gold. No King on earth might have so sweet a shelter, not though he gave in fee the value of his realm.
Alan’s designs were then brought to life by a committed team of local volunteers. The eagle and the harpist atop the pavilion were both sculpted by fairy artist Armorel Hamilton. She and her friend James Ewing also created a magical assortment of fairy food for the enchanting fairy banquet scene. Alan’s daughter, artist Virginia Lee (who also worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy) sculpted Guinevere’s seal which was used in the movie to send the fatal letter to Lanval.
One of the most memorable pieces created especially for the film was the astonishing headdress worn by Tryamour. It was designed and made by Kelly Martinez and is truly fit for a Queen of Faerie.
Artists Brian and Wendy Froud generously offered feedback on many aspects of the project. In addition, Brian painted a picture especially for the accompanying exhibition and Wendy made two beautiful dolls, representing the two queens of the story - Guinevere and Tryamour. Chagford writer, artist, and folklorist Terri Windling contributed one of her beautiful fairytale collages to the exhibition. It was Terri who introduced me to Claudine all those years ago for which I will always be grateful.
Exhibition poster. Thanks to Fae Magazine archives for this image
Exhibition poster. Thanks to Fae Magazine archives for this image
Might lightning strike twice, and we get some sort of “sequel” to Lanval?
The Sir Lanval story is complete in and of itself, so there can be no sequel. However, we are currently in post-production of our ninth film Tam Lin, and meanwhile I’m enjoying reading lots of Celtic myth trying to decide from such a rich resource which story to adapt for Chagford Filmmaking Group’s tenth movie.
After finishing the Lanval shoot, I wrote an essay to be included in the accompanying book. I think perhaps it’s a good way to end this interview because it sums up the philosophy behind all that we do.
Thank you so much Grace for inviting me to contribute to your lovely blog.
“Yesterday we successfully completed the film-shoot on a shoestring budget in just fifteen days. The experience of working so intensely and living existentially has forged friendships that will last a lifetime. The generosity and commitment of so many volunteers working harmoniously together despite long hours, lack of sleep and no money is overwhelming. It is a testament to the hunger for creativity that is integral to our humanity. Creativity revives lives deadened by routine. Being creative heals the human spirit. It is the fire that feeds our lives.”
