The Making Of || Downton Abbey Special Features Season 4

well it's a great pleasure to see everybody again obviously and I feel that this year there's a kind of a peace to the proceedings which you can only earn after four years of working with a group of people I mean every year feels like a fresh start and it seems to it seems to get better the scripts just continue to be as good if not better every time obviously the bar raises each time and the audience is not only stayed with us but it's grown so the expectations are high for the fourth series there's something about everything that feels like it's functioning really smoothly this year and you don't have so much anxiety about every decision because you've had that anxiety once before so it's not as bad going through it the fourth time being on the third series as I was last year and starting the fourth series as I am this year there's a completely unquenchable thirst to make the show better right across the board Oh for heaven's sake why does everyone keep nagging and nagging my husband is dead can't you understand what that means we quite deliberately made a six-month time jump because we didn't really want to do funerals and sobbing and the intensity of grief because we'd rather played that with Sybil we obviously had to pay tribute to that because I think there was an expectation that we would but we didn't want to spend the whole series with the family in mourning series for begins with the shocking sense of Matthew's memory being extremely fresh in the minds of the grieving family it's almost like Downton is kind of frozen in time it's like this fairy tale like this spell that's been cast the place is shut down it's a sort of miss havisham feel to the place so the lighting is very coldly the atmosphere is Durer this extraordinary emotional bleakness that there is was at least potentially mirrored by the fact that the series starts in winter and that's a lovely thing because it's just simply taking advantage of the season that the show starts shooting in in this time we see everyone would still be wearing black in the house in full morning what's that nothing Caroline McCall our costume designer has me in a black dress that's high neck with a sash around the waist and it really is an echo of the wedding dress it's really about those details that make the show special I think everybody knew in a room even with strangers that that person had lost someone recently in the whole of the country must have been wearing those colours straight after the war but you see Carson I'd almost forgotten I had either energy or kindness in me the hemlines are coming up slightly over these years and the we s lines are dropping so different fabrics coming in so we've got more net where these sort of silk jersey that's come in the cut of the white tie and black tie at this time is just so gorgeous I've had the most incredible suit made for me I mean it's n it's beautiful and it fits and I love wearing it I think any man today would want to to wear that leg well that was a nice surprise I must say my old Steve's been full of nice surprises I can't tell you how pleased I am that I came really and I'm pleased too the volume of clothes required for the second block of filming it has been insane for every dinner part say every character wears a different dress so trying to get those all together has been a bit of a mission there are makeup artists that you work with and they really are artists there's something it's like watching a painter I just think of Downton Abbey as like movements of like because we created so many waves you want all the ways to be married in together so it creates beautiful painting everything is very soft in this period and flawless only to enhance your beauty so that's the way we're going there's a different sort of look for Edith when she's in London like she's broken away The Criterion there is the big dress which is it was a big deal and it got nicknamed Edith very the costume I wanted it to be totally unlike anything that anybody else had ever worn it was designed around a piece of beading original beading that I find in Paris and then we built the dress around that very risque there's a big slit up one half of the leg I thought I'd make a bit of an effort glad you did this series in Downton we've been taking trips to London more I think and and that's exciting because you do see the world around Downton it's felt like being in another show points on these London locations the headache comes for our location department in London and the budget takes a whack because it's so expensive to pop up on the screen you've got two actors but behind it it's the trucks it's the hair the makeup at costume the supporting artists so you have to sort of facilitate hundreds of people [Music] the ladies club has written in scriptures Judy Monte it was a very factors Annabel's of the sixties or seventies so it's a very fashionable Mayfair night out we were looking for somewhere really kind of chic somewhere really kind of sexy we have to find somewhere that looked exotic I mean and the sava Club in London it's got a beautiful ballroom which is French so we decided that we'll give it the exotic feel I hope you don't mind my ambushing you like this it was Muammar Anant Rosamond who ambushed me it's absolutely breathtaking and I remember seeing Donal space he was like wow this is it we added a stage and lighting and a backdrop to it and gave it a bit of Busby Berkeley but not quite it's quite a tight turn round but worth it because I think it's somewhere that give a lot of screen value and and was different from a lot of things we've seen them up to now it was one of my favorite sets I think it really had definitely had the wow factor Highclere as a location presents such a unique opportunity to achieve production values of such a high standard there are just simply a reproducible by doing any other way than really shooting in a real English aristocratic house there isn't one stone of it that is manifesting humility it's completely a statement of grandeur we all have mixed feelings about the dining room at the beautiful dining room it gets very hot and we feel those long long scenes in their dining room scenes have a particular terror for directors and the reason for that is to do with the grammar of films there are multiple eye lines because you have let's say for the sake of argument eight people around the table and they all were looking at different people at different times they can look glorious on screen but they are arduous to film because the yeah you do it the same thing over and over again as you're getting the coverage on each person between every take you have to reset the food reset the wineglasses reset the decanters reset the candles reset the flowers it's just a laborious process what one dreads is for example Laura saying you know that line don't you think I should be saying that confidentially to whoever it is rather than across the table I think I should be sitting over here and then there's the sound of director tearing up shooting plan and you suddenly have to try and work out a new way of who's looking at whom without taking three weeks to film the scene quite honestly the moment when the director realizes that there's no easy way of covering the scene properly so that it edits together smoothly is a lonely moment for a director that is the moment where you have to work it out for yourself if I measured out the dinner scenes it's about 14 years of my life I've seen that table I do it with consummate professionalism of course of a smile in my eye I'm so pleased you like it Osprey armour is one of my favorites did you read that on the menu I didn't need to I've made quite a study of claret she's going to be much less uphill than I thought I read an email that came through my agency was started in America and it said Downton Abbey an injury and I thought what's that got to do with me and I'd put my glasses on I said inquiry the most famous opera singer in the world is coming to sing at Downton Abbey so it makes sense for us to cast one of the most famous opera singers in the world we met in London just to have a quick meeting and I think they decided they wanted me to do it which was extremely nice and they said what I like to do and I said well what would I say anyway of course it was absolutely yes and and what a thrill to be able to be involved in such an amazing series kerry is like many high-profile people around the world a fan of the shows which so we find out and so was i I believe delighted to have been asked [Music] Dame Nellie are saying sauce my mother taught me many many times that was one of her great songs it was the only song that I should choose [Music] when we arrived this morning we all came in and watched the rehearsal it was really nice the whole cast and crew everyone listening to her I was on set an hour and a half early for those who know me that never happens she's got the most beautiful voice is like spine tingly and so like pure scene big burly members of the crew like Bobby the grip in tears it's quite a sight to behold this is all happening live so we have live audience a live singer at a live piano accompaniment which should give us a very good feeling of immediacy about the whole thing's back in 1922 and this is actually supposed to be happening I think that these this would have sounded absolutely as wonderful as we hope that it will in the final result today [Music] there is really life imitates art to all the crew everybody was gathered round awestruck and it was a privilege and she's a great day [Music] is such an amazing feeling to you know at this stage of my life to be invited in such a beautiful series with such wonderful people and I'm very thrilled just to be that that Envy part in somewhere in it [Applause]

Channel: GleePotter8468

Views: 468,268

Keywords: behind the scene, elizabeth mcgovern, cora crawley, michelle dockery, mary crawley, hugh bonneville, robert crawley, david evans, julian fellowes, liz trubridge, laura carmichael, edith crawley, penelope wilton, isobel crawley, caroline mccall, tom cullen, Anthony Foyle, gillingham, magi vaughan, lily james, rose macclare, mark ellis, donal woods, jim carter, charles carson, dame kiri te kanawa, dame nellie melba, gareth neame

Id: BdCKv0qCgCY

Length: 12min 21sec (741 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018