Farms for filming locations are becoming increasingly popular in the UK. Over half of Farm Locations’ work is now for filming locations, with the other half being for photoshoots. Farms can be hired in the production of TV commercials, TV dramas, documentaries, TV entertainment programmes, Music videos, Short film and Feature film.
The search for farms for filming locations in the UK is on the rise, with tax benefits and cost efficiencies a key contributor. Farm Locations is building a super portfolio of farms which are all film-friendly and here are a few examples of the farms which have been hired as film locations.
The Grand Tour – Amazon Prime
Hare Farm and Great Knights Farm in East Sussex have been hired as the locations for filming two separate episodes of The Grand Tour. On the first occasion, for The Grand Tour Series 2 filming, the entire farm was hired for 10 days, and a full stunt course across fields, ditches and through farmyards was set up for Jeremy Clarkson to use. At its peak, over 70 crew were on site. On the second occasion in the Series 3 filming of The Grand Tour, Richard Hammond instigated a boat stunt on a lake – Chump Productions had spent weeks seeking the perfect lake – it needed to have steep sides leading in to it. Hare Farm delivered.
The Liar – ITV
Tom Farm provided a specific location for the filming of ITV’s The Liar. The location manager had approached Farm Locations with a brief to find an old, hunting lodge in the woods. I spread the word to my farming connections, and on a timely visit to a new farm in North Kent, the farmer showed me his secret gamekeeper’s base in the woods. Tom Farm proved to offer the ideal hunting lodge.
Belsen documentary – BBC
The BBC’s re-enactment of a wartime Belsen scenes was partly set at a railway station and on the railway lines. Quarrenden Farm offered the ideal filming location, with a disused historic railway running through the farm, as well as the old station being adjacent to the land. The farmer worked in partnership with the station owners to help ensure the director could recreate a very special scene.
Gangs of London – Sky Drama
Gangs of London is a 10-part series following current day rival gangs. Across 25 days in November/December 2018, a remote but accessible field on the Chalk Farm Estate in Kent became home to a huge traveller campsite with full blown set design, pyrotechnics and night-time filming in knees-deep of mud.
Music Videos
A fabulous range of artists have chosen a farm location to create their music promotional videos. A couple examples include the Aurora music video filming where a river scene was filmed at Austin Farm and a lake, woods and fields scenes at Chalk Farm Estate. Moat Farm was the filming location for Heartblake where a barn, boat and pond, chickens and woodland were all used in the music video.
EE – TV commercial
A full-blown music festival scene was created at the top of a hill at Great Knights Farm for one of the Kevin Bacon ads for EE, promoting the extent to which EE’s 4G can travel. The EE TV commercial was filmed in February, when many a field might be too sodden. Great Knights’ higher ground coped with 150 cast and crew, large articulated dining cars and vehicles, all based in the fields. The film-friendly farmer was on hire throughout the day for any towing needs.
Elvie breast pumps – Launch video
An unprecedented brief where dairy cows were needed to feature in a “music video” being created for the launch of a new innovation in breast pumps was solved at the filming location on Badlesmere Court Farm. Rather than hire cows in to a studio in London, the kinder way was chosen, that being to create a studio set at the cows’ home on a dairy farm in Kent. The Elvie pump launch campaign achieved great media coverage and a Cannes award in 2019.
Autotrader – Car tests
Old House Farm provided the course for the filming of Autotrader’s SUVs to be road tested alongside each other. Plenty of private tracks and farmyard areas were used.