Thursday, 12 September 2019

BBC Docudrama The Herald of Free Enterprise


Working as a freelancer at the BBC’s Factual and Documentaries Department in White City, I produced this storyboard for a documentary dramatising the catastrophic events of the Zeebrugge Ferry disaster in 1987.

This was an ambitious project for a documentary which combined interviews with the survivors, CGI effects shots and filmed dramatic re-creations of the moment of the disaster.

The excerpt below is from my favourite scene which captures the moment the Herald of Free Enterprise began to capsize.  I found it a challenge to portray the energy and horror of the scene, using the likenesses of the interviewed survivors who were recalling their experiences.

It was also a challenge mentally to orientate the environments 45 degrees so that a glass wall would become the floor.

With so much going on in the shot, it was difficult to keep focused on the main point of action (the main characters) without getting lost within the chaos of the whole scene.

I also needed to recreate the darkness within the vessel as the lighting went off, leaving only dark voids with slithers of light to define the character’s features.  This led to a very atmospheric storyboard. 


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