Anytime a film is on location, everything gets more difficult. Lawrence of Arabia gets the nod for Best Movie Stunt for 1962 because it’s simply the longest on location film epic of all time. The film was shot over the course of a full year. Everything on the film is shot on location and for the most part in the harshest environment on Earth.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s, Peter O’Toole was describing just how long the movie took to make by referring to the scene when T.E. Lawrence and Gen. Allenby, after their meeting, continue talking while walking down a staircase. According to O’Toole, part of the scene had to be reshot much later, “so in the final print, when I get to the bottom of the stairs, I’m a year older than I was when I started walking down them.”
The film wasn’t without its peril, but no one died during the film shoot. There was a scary moment although, when a gun (used to signal the beginning of the scene) went off prematurely, and O’Toole’s camel panicked, throwing him to the ground, while the extras on horseback began charging. Fortunately for O’Toole, his camel stayed still and stood over O’Toole, saving him from being trampled.
The camels were definitely something to get used to, for the actors and the stunt men, but Peter O’Toole finally mastered his camel-riding technique by adding a layer of sponge rubber under the saddle to ease his bruised backside…a practical innovation quickly adopted by the actual Bedouin tribesmen acting as extras during the desert location filming.
Lawrence of Arabia was directed by David Lean for Columbia Pictures.
Things to look up (go to IMDB ):
- Lawrence of Arabia
- David Lean
- Columbia Pictures
- Peter O’Toole
Film Terms as described by Wikipedia: On Location – A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, in addition to or instead of using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. For example, the television series 24 is filmed primarily on location except for some scenes which are always filmed on the same sets.
In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialog. A location where dialog is not recorded may be considered as a second unit photography site. Filmmakers often choose to shoot on location because they believe that greater realism can be achieved in a “real” place, however location shooting is also often motivated by the film’s budget. For instance, the independent horror film Marianne was shot entirely on location in Sweden. However, many films shoot interior scenes on a sound stage and exterior scenes on location.
It is often mistakenly believed that filming “on location” takes place in the actual location in which its story is set, but this is not necessarily the case.
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