Desire Avenue

I've had a few email exchanges with Rupert Bingham,the director of the 'Welcome To Happiness' promo film this morning, and he has very kindly shared some information regarding the filming of the promo.

The location of the filming was on London's old North Circular Road, very close to the famous bikers Ace Cafe, which is where the production team was based for the day.

The bridge / tunnels sequence were also filmed near by, close to Stonebridge Park.

It was a very long day of filming, with the day overcast and with plenty of rain. The early filming was of the 'plate shots' used when Stina crosses the road as there was minimal traffic at that time of day.

Despite the weather, and the traffic, Stina 'was completely unfazed and just got on with it, (with) no fuss.'

The umbrella (held by 'the man') used as a prop belonged to the directors mother and was her favourite umbrella and she wasn't very happy when it was accidentally hit and run over by the traffic. You can see the moment its happens in the finished film.

All of Stina's dancing was completely improvised on location.

The name of the man in the film isn't recalled but he was chosen by Stina from 20 to 30 different casting videos of various men. 'He was the one she felt could lure her to drift through the moving traffic.'


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLvCZcsYLXA

Fascinating...that's definitely the most immediately arresting of the This Is videos, mostly because of the presence and magnetism of Stina, so it's great to get some background on it. Nice one RobB!

Just been having another look at that tunnel sequence where Stina is crouching down at the beginning of the promo film. Using Street View (to check the internal brickwork of the tunnel) & Google Earth, I'm pretty confident that filming took place under the nearest railway bridge to the Ace cafe. Stina would have literally been looking at the Ace cafe, which was a couple of hundred yards away.

Still on the old North Circular Road and heading away from the Ace cafe in the direction of Stonebridge Park, the sequence where Stina is being watched by 'the man' was filmed under the Blackmore Drive road bridge, with 'the man' being located on top of the embankment by the railway track/bridge that runs parallel.

The sequence where Stina is crossing the four lane carriage way (or eight lanes once she gets over the central reservation barrier ) is shot in the vacinity of the first two locations, but on the 'new' (sic) North Circular Road. This appears to be the only eight lane stretch in the area. The only reservation I have is that the brickwork behind the man waiting for Stina to cross doesn't appear as high as it does in the film. Hmmm