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Cablecam, chain saws & Charles II

Spending a Full Day in the Royal Oak!

Recently I was called from a Jacobean oasis in the centre of Spaghetti Junction, where cavaliers proudly sported shining helmets and men in tights shot prematurely into the air. With the sounds of cars in the fast lanes behind him, Tony Chance presented me with a challenge to find a great oak and film a sweeping scene from his storyboard sketch.

Story Board by Tony Chance, the Escape of King Charles II

Story Board, the Escape of King Charles II

Testing and development of the Cable Cam

We couldn’t use the original as that had been pillaged by those thieving branches to sell on EBay so I looked closer to home. This oak tree would form an integral part of my good mate Tony Chances trailer for his new factual comedy about the escape of the king, more precisely, the revered but dim Charles the 2nd.

As the phone crackled and the wind bellowed, I spotted the perfect location from the comfort of my own home, an ancient Oak that nestled in my own garden that would be ideal for the shoot.

Behind the scenes of the escape of King Charles II

Owning the tree and the garden surrounding it was obviously a huge bonus, as now I needed no permission to let my creative juices flow!

We cleared the calendar for the rest of the day as we began to construct contraptions to enable a manual pulley system that would glide with the right momentum. We realised that even the actor playing the part of King Charlie would have trouble escaping this intricate Oak, so we called upon our very own pin up – Will the tree surgeon.

We figured that if he could confidently hold a chainsaw next to his own crown jewels while naked for a calendar shoot, he must be pretty good at chopping down trees.

Will the tree surgeon

From Little Acorns, Huge Oak Trees Grow

In a flash (pardon the pun), Will trimmed the branches while maintaining the historical shape of the tree, a point many forget when filming. Bare, broken twigs and clean sharp cut branches would have spoiled the entire scene, as those under Charles II’s reign didn’t care much for aesthetic appearance!

With branches cleared, Will stayed put as he’d made the perfect resting spot to be our right hand man, keeping the cable taught from the tree as we secured it with a Quad bike at the other end.

With a set of ladders, looking more Jacob’s Ladder than Jacobean maintaining the torsion across the line, we were almost ready to go, yet the wind threatened to give us a rather swaying shot, much like a seagull on Guinness would film.

From early morning until late afternoon we perfected the pulley, beginning with the manual before moving to a remote version so we could start from the incredible height of the fully grown tree and slowly reveal the inhabitants within before spying on the predator’s way down below. We must admit this vantage point would have been ideal for Charles for spying on the odd buxom wench too!

Checking film

We’re proud of the finished version; we’re also impressed with Nick Smith’s uncanny ability to incorporate sounds of the era and Tony Chance’s inspiration that allowed us to conquer a challenge the Royal way.

Check out the results in this trailer and see if you can figure out how King Charles II managed to escape from this Royal Oak – we have no idea, as poor Will is still up there with just the sounds of the birds for company!