00:00Welcome back Focus fans, Alicia Malone here with another episode of Real Destinations where we
00:08take you behind the scenes and on location of our upcoming films. Today we're off on a
00:14Shakespearean road trip inspired by Chloe Zhao's Hamnet. I cannot abide waiting.
00:20Tell me a story. What story would you like? Something that moves you. Set at the crossroads of history
00:36and fiction, Hamnet tells the powerful story of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes
00:40as they fall in love and raise a family in the English countryside. But their idyllic life takes
00:46a turn when the unexpected loss of their son, Hamnet, inspires the creation of one of Shakespeare's
00:51most famous tragedies. Based on Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning novel Hamnet and adapted for the
00:58screen by O'Farrell and Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao, this moving drama stars
01:04a show-stopping cast led by Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskell. William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway,
01:12Agnes in the film, were born and buried here in their hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
01:21As you can see, their Tudor-style houses are still standing and are now popular tourist attractions.
01:26But for Hamnet, the filmmakers felt that Stratford was too modernised for their 16th century setting,
01:32sending them on a country-wide location scout. So, let's hit the road.
01:37Who are you looking for?
01:38William Shakespeare.
01:42According to the Locations team, director Chloe Zhao wasn't only after a picturesque backdrop.
01:48She wanted to find a place with real spirit. And when the team brought her here to the village
01:53of Webley, she knew she had found the one.
01:57Just 90 minutes west of Stratford, Webley's streets aligned with striking black-and-white
02:02timber-framed houses, the signature architecture of Shakespeare's day.
02:06With an incredible canvas already in place, production designer Fiona Crombie and her team
02:11built additional facades, dressed and painted existing storefronts, and covered the roads
02:17in dirt, recreating Henley Street as it might have looked over 400 years ago.
02:22Good day, sir. What brings you to Hewlands?
02:29When it came to finding a home for Hewlands and Yess's family farm, the filmmakers discovered
02:36their ideal match just a few miles outside of Webley, Kumi Farmhouse.
02:41Built in the early 1600s, this Grade II-listed timber-framed house is carefully preserved by the
02:48National Trust.
02:55With its weathered beams, stone-tiled roof and surrounding barns, Kumi offers an authentic
03:01glimpse into rural Elizabethan life, the romantic backdrop for Will and Agnes' fateful meeting.
03:08Welcome to Kumi. Do come in.
03:10Lucy, what was your experience like working with the team from Hamnet?
03:14It was fascinating. Watching Paul Mezcal lean through the window as he spots Jesse Buckley
03:19for the first time. I know that's going to be a really key moment. And to know that I was
03:23literally out of view just as that was happening, that's going to be pretty special.
03:27And quiet in that house.
03:30There have never been so many people on site in a tiny little place like this.
03:35It was wonderful to see how thoughtful and careful they were to this place. Director
03:41Chloe Zhao was so careful about the props they brought in, the way they dressed the set.
03:47Everything they did amped up what was already here. I think that that will absolutely shine
03:52through in the film.
03:53It's not strictly Tudor style.
03:56It's Jacobean, so it's early 1600s.
04:03Timber framing, stone bases, lime plaster, massive fireplaces. We did live very differently
04:12back then.
04:13I was in the field helping Bartholomew.
04:15But at that time, it's the kind of house you dream of.
04:20Despite the abundance of historical homes scattered throughout England, it became clear that in
04:33order to fully realise Chloe's vision, some of the sets needed to be built from scratch,
04:38including the interiors of Shakespeare's Henley Street House.
04:41Your husband was born in his room. He took his first breath there by the window.
04:50Fiona Crombie and her team scouted dozens of period buildings, selecting their favourite
04:55details and assembling them into a seamless set. This level of craft did not go unnoticed
05:01by stars Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskell.
05:04I think it always helps to begin a film and a relationship to the period in a place that
05:08feels period authentic.
05:10Yeah. You could smell the world that she created. The leather that she had was there.
05:15The stones that she laid.
05:17The ground floor was entirely built.
05:19It smelt like Elizabethan wet floor that had been flooded. The minute you stepped into
05:25that house, there was no like, oh, I'm stepping onto a set now. It was a real living place.
05:31I've lost my way.
05:34You need to go to London.
05:36Why London?
05:37Because London is where the whole world gathers.
05:40As Will's playwriting career took him to London, the filmmakers sought a sharp contrast
05:44between the domestic countryside and the bustling city. While many of these scenes were shot on
05:49constructed sets, one practical location helped to illustrate London's gritty texture.
05:55The Charter House, located in the heart of London, feels like a hidden medieval enclave.
06:01With cloisters, courtyards and gardens that have survived centuries of London's turbulent history.
06:13Once an emergency burial ground for victims of the Black Death in 1348, this site later became a monastery and then a Tudor mansion.
06:21In fact, Elizabeth I used the Charter House during preparations for her 1558 coronation, just two years after Agnes' birth.
06:31What do you wish to do Hamlet?
06:33I should be in the theatre.
06:35At the playhouse.
06:37Working with your father.
06:41Of course, we can't talk about William Shakespeare without mentioning the world-famous Globe Theatre.
06:47Although the original theatre burned down in 1613 and its successor was demolished in 1644, this replica has been open since 1997 and stages productions year-round.
07:01Due to the theatre's packed calendar, the production designers opted to build their own replica for the film's moving climax, which depicts the very first performance of Hamlet.
07:11Everyone in town is talking about it.
07:14Do you not wonder what is in it?
07:16With extensive research, the team recreated the theatre with striking accuracy, even borrowing props and set dressing from the real globe.
07:26But for Chloe Zhao and her actors, perhaps the most notable design choice was the hand-painted backdrop.
07:31What Chloe ran with in terms of like the backdrop of the...
07:35Oh my God, that made me cry yesterday.
07:37The one he's like...
07:38Oh, it really...
07:39It's devastating.
07:40It really moved me.
07:41This like tapestry of the woods where they first fell in love.
07:45It like elevates this giant globe to something so personal again.
07:50Yeah.
07:51It's like the globe isn't there to kind of be performatively impressive.
07:54This thing was built for those two characters.
07:56I'm like blown away by Fiona's capacity to translate Chloe's vision.
08:05There is perhaps no writer more famous in the English language than William Shakespeare, but in Hamnet, this larger-than-life figure has been brought down to human size in an incredible story that is equally, if not more so, about his beloved Agnes.
08:19Their romance and the tragedy they endure inspired countless works of art that would withstand the test of time.
08:28This enduring legacy continues to draw visitors to the places where Shakespeare lived and worked, but if you're seeking an untold chapter of his story, don't miss Hamnet.
08:37Only in theatres.
08:38What should I do?
08:39Keep your heart open.
08:40Amazing!
08:41Amazing!
08:42Amazing!
08:43What do you see?
08:44You will live.
08:45I'm Alicia Malone, and I'll see you on the next Real Destination.
09:08You.
09:09I'll see you on the next one.
09:10What can you do?
09:11That's okay.
09:12I'll see you on the next one.
09:13You have a great day.
09:14When you're asking me, where you can move in the next 그럼, or you will show up with a little bit in the next one.
09:17What's your pick?
09:18You can move free or you have a good idea.
09:19You can move like this one.
09:20Which you can move like this one.
09:23I'll see you on the next one.
09:24It's pretty easy.
09:25You can move like this one.
09:26Why can't you choose to vote?
09:27I'll see you on the next one.
09:29There's a way there.
09:30You can move like this.
09:32It's very easy.
09:33We can go and see you on the next one.
Comments