After daytime shooting took place for SPECTRE on Monday on the River Thames, and also on the same day in the evening in the Notting Hill area (see the JBIFC’s earlier reports), Tuesday December 16 saw 007 return to the waterways in London for some sequences on a canal at Camden Lock, which is located towards the north of the central London area.

Fresh from overseeing the previous day’s filming on the River Thames at Vauxhall, director Sam Mendes was on hand again to oversee the daytime shooting at Camden, which once more involved Bond star Daniel Craig and MI6 Chief-of-Staff actor Rory Kinnear.

A large section of the canal at Camden Lock (known locally as the Regents Canal) was closed off for the day as Craig and Kinnear filmed on the waterway, standing in the front section of the same speedboat used on Monday, in a sequence where their boat went across the water at West Yard and then travelled under an arched bridge, taking them under a large building on the canal-side. Both actors wore dark overcoats over suits, with Bond in dark gloves.

A large back-screen was in place to help reflect light and a large floodlight had been suspended from a crane on the opposite bank of the canal. Both actors were again in high spirits between takes, and also shared jokes and comments with director Sam Mendes, who spent part of the day in his own boat close by, overseeing the action. Mendes also watched the takes carefully at one point on small monitor screens.

The back-screen, various platforms and lights had been put in place a few days previously by crew members, some of them wearing distinctive SPECTRE stunt-crew jackets. Some elaborate scaffolding had also been constructed to accomodate some of the platforms overlooking the water on the canal-side.

Quite a few onlookers gathered in the Camden Lock area at times during the course of the day, eager to catch a glimpse of the action, and at one point Craig waved at the public and also gave a less pleasant sign to some of the more zealous zoom-lensed photographers!

The Camden Lock area of London, with its famous large market area and numerous restaurants, is very popular with visiting tourists and Tuesday, despite being a chilly and quite overcast day at times, saw considerable numbers of shoppers in the area, many of them looking for last-minute Christmas presents on the stalls at the market. The closed-off section of the canal inevitably caused a lot of curiosity at times from members of the public.

One enterprising stallholder on the market even decided at one point to try and cash in on the day’s temporary ‘007 fever’ and began selling a few Bond-related souvenirs on his stall, much to the bemusement of some shoppers and also to some members of the film crew, who happened to be taking a quick break. From a view to a till, as you might say.

 

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