About

Going beyond the Seawall: The appeal of Essex Saltmarshes for filmmakers is a talk by TV location manager Harriet Lawrence and Jonjo Stickland who owns Marine Dept, including the challenges of shooting the Essex Serpent between the Tides.

The land and seascape where the bestselling novel The Essex Serpent story is set, are raw, elemental, and a character of the story in their own right. It was important to capture this fragile world on film; atmospheric, bleak but ever-shifting beautiful estuary saltmarsh in all its tidal glory and show how strangely bewitching the hinterland was for Cora. Shooting beyond the seawall certainly wasn’t easy, but a careful collaboration between the location team, and Marine Dept made it possible to achieve the creative vision, shooting for more than two months around the estuaries of Essex, while keeping the crew safe. 

Harriet:

Having a deep love of architecture, beaches, churches, and every landscape in between, Harriet Lawrence fell into Location Managing in the early 90’s, accidentally finding a career she loved that suited her inquisitive and organised nature. Despite the early starts, and sometimes miserable weather she is happiest out and about and still after nearly 30 years in the industry thinks being a location manager is (probably) the best job in the world.

Harriet has found the moon on Earth, Scotland inside of the M25, the Maldives in a Heathrow hotel and Wolverhampton in Central Scotland: she has filmed underground, over-ground, on beaches, mountains, prisons and stately homes. And the Essex Marshes in… Essex!

Starting in commercials in the 1990’s Harriet mostly works on Feature Films and High End Drama. Much of 2020/21 , was spent in the tidal muddy estuaries of Essex on an adaptation of The Essex Serpent for Apple TV and last Autumn wrapped on Emerald Fennell’s new film Saltburn which is about to open London Film Festival. She has worked on all sorts of Commercials, TV dramas, feature films, and stills shoots including David Copperfield, Avenue 5, Overlord, Suffragette, Burton and Taylor, Fleming, Parks & Recreation, Henry VIII, all the Outnumbered series, setting up the first series of Downton Abbey and many of Stephen Poliakoff’s films including Dancing on the Edge.

Jonjo:

Jonjo Stickland owns Marine Dept (https://marinedept.co.uk/) - a dynamic Marine company supporting all aspects of filming in, on, under and around water - camera boats, platforms, safety, advice, diving, logistics, picture boats, artist training and more. He has a talented pool of boat crew and skilled divers who work round the world with Film and TV productions. Recent credits include Guy Richie’s new film Ungentlemanly Warfare, Paddington 3, Wonka, Luther, Wednesday, Essex Serpent, Swimmers, No Way Up, My Policeman, The Rig, Rebecca, Marengo, 47M , The Third Day,  Slow Horses, Mission Impossible to name a few.

Jonjo started his career as a dinghy sailing instructor, moving into international yacht racing, whilst diving as a hobby. He stumbled upon film work whilst running a classic yacht on “Mamma Mia” and found a career that brought together all his skills in an exciting, creative industry where no two jobs are ever the same.  

Since then, he’s gone from one film to the next, working through the ranks to marine and diving coordinator. Twelve years after Mama Mia, he formed Marine Dept and since then, has become a leading Marine support company in the industry. Whether it’s ensuring cast and crew safety on water, sourcing picture boats, large scale marine operations or you just want to sink your entire set underwater he, and his team can help make it happen. Jonjo is happiest with an eye on the horizon, wheel in hand, coordinating a huge fleet of picture boats!

                                                                                      

Refreshments are available to purchase. Please note that there is a staircase to reach this venue.