This post first appeared on Ren’s Patreon page.

Not really a week, just a single day. A day of shooting solely flashbacks, with a different cast and a skeleton crew, but a sizeable number of extras and fight performers.

After a week of slowly starting to organise and disassemble things at the studio, we set off on Friday night for the Suffolk Coast. 27 of us were staying at a bunkhouse called Darsham Country Centre. (Only as I write this have I realised how appropriate that figure is, 27 being the number of Mahri spirits in universe.) The team included both of the original creators, Kate Madison and Christopher Dane–one helping with costumes and the other donning a familiar costume to reprise his role as Karn–and directors Alan Hay and Mark Hampton.

Early on Saturday morning many cooks were in the kitchen to fry up a hearty communal breakfast and fortify us for the long day ahead. Our location, a five-minute drive down the road, was the beautiful Thorington Theatre, an al fresco wooden structure surrounded by trees. Filled with birdsong and dappled light, it was a peaceful place to work… though the costume and makeup departments had a busy few hours getting our 11 fighters and another 11 background artists ready to go before the cameras. Not to mention the principal characters of Karn, Tallan (played again by Soorya Mahendran) and a newcomer played by Amber Doig-Thorne.

Aside from some scant drops of rain, and a minor accident when our camera assistant Nicolas Hepburn put his foot through a broken wooden stair, the day went well. By the last scene things were quite frantic, as the sun dipped low and the clock ticked past wrap time, but an extra half hour was enough to complete the material and snap a cast and crew photo! Then followed all the packing down, loading up and travelling back home.

The rest of the bank holiday weekend found the faithful few carrying on the work at the studio, stowing props and flats in the hayloft, and loading trailers full of steel pillars and more flats to go into storage elsewhere. As I write we still haven’t finished. The final push to clear the grain-store is still ahead of us this weekend.

And the first writers’ meeting for Season Four is in the diary for the weekend after that.

This post first appeared on Ren’s Patreon page.

When I last updated you, we were en route to Colchester to have fun storming the castle. Aside from some traffic headaches, our two days there went very smoothly. We had a filming window of about 5pm-11:30pm each day, working after the castle had closed to the public. Across the two days we had key scenes from all three episodes to shoot, so they were always going to be fast-paced evenings. As usual the cast and crew did us proud, including 2nd AD Jamie Weston and a few other locals who joined us to lend a hand. The most fun was probably the scene with Kah’Nath soldiers approaching the castle with flaming torches! The day marked an end to filming on 303, Jo Lewis’s episode.

Thursday 24th was originally a day off to rest after the night shoots and travel back to Cambridgeshire, but a last minute rejig was required after Oriana Charles (Ren) landed a guest role in a well-known BBC drama. So we were back filming at Burleigh Hill Farm by Thursday afternoon, racing to complete the season’s very last scenes with director Mark Hampton before the light faded. Writer Ash Maharaj came along to see one of his favourites scenes brought to life.

On Friday we embarked on three solid days shooting a complex sequence on the castle battlements. Rather than trying to film this nighttime scene on location, or building the set outdoors, we elected to film it indoors with a huge black drape surrounding the set. This way we were immune to weather and could work reasonable daytime hours. The set build had progressed slowly while the Archive was still a priority, but the Easter weekend, plus some extra work by the Family Finn while we were in Colchester, had seen it finished and looking beautiful in time for filming. A big shout-out is due to Dan Edgar, who made the battlements his personal project for weeks and does not appear to have stopped for sleep!

The sequence involved multiple characters, big speeches, magic, special effects, sword fighting and a major decision for Ren. We filmed most of it through in a wide master shot before focusing on individual pieces for the rest of the three days. Our priority on Saturday was to wrap Oriana, which we did with many hugs and a few tears, and then Sunday focused on Alexander Hackett (Hunter) and Florian Hencher (Tomas). Some of our last shots were an energetic sword fight between the two men, which was a real high to end on.

After wrapping we held the now-traditional bonfire with a barbecue and plentiful beverages, which was a lovely event. But the work is not yet done. Not only do we have all of post-production ahead of us, and a barn full of sets and props to clear, but we still have one day of filming, this Saturday in Suffolk. Updates on that soon!