Take the new Film Trail at Blenheim Palace, from Friday 31 July, and discover behind the scenes of your favourite action film. Mission Impossible's latest blockbuster Rogue Nation premiers on the 24 July and is in theatres from Friday 31 July. Visitors can head to Blenheim Palace to see how and where the film was shot and learn all about filming at the Palace.
It wasn't just the Palace that featured in filming, five members of staff played roles in Mission Impossible. However it wasn't always glamorous – one particular shot took 30 takes to get right.
The Lights, Camera, Action Specialist Tour takes place on Mondays and Saturdays. In addition to Rogue Nation there have been many exciting films shot at Blenheim Palace, including Spectre, the next James Bond film, Disney feature Cinderella and A Little Chaos.
Blenheim Palace has played host to many film & TV crews over the years and the Specialist Tour shares with visitors the secrets of filming, taking care of the Palace and how the crews operate on set. Previous productions filmed here also include Gulliver's Travels, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Young Victoria.
Filming can also cause a knock-on effect to Woodstock and beyond. Lighting during the filming of Mission Impossible caused problems for Oxford London Airport creating a distraction to incoming planes. As a consequence, red warning lights had to be fixed to the top of the huge cranes.
Filming of 'A Little Chaos' created its own little chaos when actor and director Alan Rickman carried out a location recce in February 2013 he caused much excitement amongst the Harry Potter fans at the Palace – despite not wearing his greasy Snape wig.
With large-scale productions the Palace has to cope with an invasion of an enormous amount of equipment, people and at times animals. The Palace has been set on fire and has been the scene of mass dancing, feasting, intrigue and murder. The talk will explain exactly what happens at Blenheim Palace when Hollywood descends and will also look at how TV documentaries and films are made, sometimes involving the colourful characters who work there.
