Robin Hood - Speed in Tights!
Published on August 10th, 2009

Part III...

As well as the 40 or so cameras that were situated around the beach, there was a helicopter flying low overhead, capturing the whole thing from above. This only served to make the horses more nervous and unpredictable!

English horse riders charging through the tail end of the French.

After several takes, we had to move into the water and film the same scene, just with the boats in shot. I volunteered to jump off one of the boats and get my feet wet, but it took ages for the scene had been reset. When they shouted 'Action' I jumped over the side of the boat, expecting the water to be up to my knees at most. But the tide had come in quite quickly, and I found myself chest deep trying to wade to the beach! That wasn’t a problem in itself, but it meant that the horses were a lot closer than I had anticipated by the time I hit the beach. I looked to my left to see a group of 4 horses barrelling towards me full pelt. I didn’t have time to run past them, so I just stood firm, hid behind my shield and hoped for the best! Luckily, the horses split and went around me, but I felt one of them brush past my shield. Scary stuff!

Over the next few days we filmed the same scene several more times from different angles, and with subtle differences, so they can cut it all together. We also filmed the major battle scenes which were awesome! The horses were interspersed amongst us, and we were told to attack the riders on horseback, and they were told to hack us down. It was one big melee. Even though us extras were told not to, I soon learnt that it was a wise move to attack the stunt horses ridden by the stuntmen. Although these horses were much bigger, they were trained for this sort of thing, whereas all the other horses were draughted in from local stables, so were a lot nervier, and didn’t like it when you shoved a spear up their nose, causing them to rear and jump about all over the place. Fake blood was poured into the sea turning it red, and the make up crew came around, splashing it all over our faces and weapons. It looked like a real battle!

Robin Hood surveys the bodies littering the beach

During the second week of filming, I finally got the chance to be an English soldier. Luckily, I didn’t have to wear my 'duvet' costume. Once I had changed into my English foot soldiers tunic with 3 lions on the front, I felt proper :o) It just didn’t feel right playing a Frenchman… We were filming the end of the battle scene, we had to advance down the beach, with the French retreating back to their boats with us picking them off one by one with arrows.

The next day it was back to being French again, and we continued filming the French retreat and surrender. All the sword fighting training went out of the window, and it was a huge, messy free for all, with swords and axes swinging wildly everywhere! During one take, I got hit by a sword and had to play dead. As I was lay there, a horse backed into me and kicked me in the head! I was lucky though, my helmet, although only plastic, took most of the force. Others weren’t so lucky, and there were quite a few injuries across the 2 weeks. Some of which were through being trodden on by horses, some from over zealous extras going all in with their swords. Yours truly took revenge on one bloke though – he had injured several people and pissed off scores more by going in seriously hard. I charged towards him, clattered him with my shield, then swung my axe (which was made of hardened rubber) as hard as I could at him. He wasn’t very happy at all, and after the take he had to go and see the medical crew. Apparently, I knocked his tooth out!

On the final day of filming, I had to revert back to being English again, this time though, they wanted me to wear the dreaded duvet! I thought sod it, I’ll just get changed into the tunic with the 3 lions on, but on my out of the costume tent, I was stopped and told I couldn’t wear that, I had to be dressed in the costume I was originally issued with. So off I went and changed into my duvet. I returned to the head of the costume department, and he said "You can’t wear that in this heat! You’ll die!" Was I glad to hear him say that! He disappeared off into the racks and said he would put together an archers costume for me. He retuned later with a knights smock, which may look ok while on horseback, but on me, it looked like I was wearing a nice blue dress! I didn’t mind though, at least I was English again! He gave me some leather plate armour to put on over the top of it, and off I went to fight the French.

We were filming the final battle scene, where all the remaining French surrender and Robin Hood does his thing (can’t tell you what happens, it’ll spoil the film for you!)

Here is some video footage of the battle scenes being filmed:

All in all, it was probably the most fun thing I have done as an adult. What could be more fun than running around a beach, playing soldiers and hitting people with swords and axes?

Cheers,
Speed "you touch my bass, I’ll cut your balls off" Harris