Woody Harrelson’s ‘Lost in London’ To Be Handed Production Guild Award

The production team behind Woody Harrelson’s live, one-take feature film Lost in London are to be feted at Production Guild of Great Britain Awards.

The awards take place on Saturday September 22 at The Grove in Hertfordshire and are sponsored by Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden.

The team, which includes Co-Producer Andrew Warren, Production Coordinator Samantha Black, Supervising Location Manager David Broder and Location Manager Paul Tomlinson, are to be awarded for their work on the Harrelson, Owen Wilson and Willie Nelson-fronted film, which was shot on one camera in 100 minutes and was broadcast live across more than 550 U.S. cinemas and one UK screen.

With no room for error, the team found solutions to a host of technical challenges, placing antennae across two square miles of London to ensure signal was unbroken and using more than 150 microphones to pick up dialogue. Continuous filming across 24 locations presented its own difficulties, as action moved from West End theatre to nightclub, restaurant and police cell settings, before ending on Waterloo Bridge, which unexpectedly closed just hours before filming was due to begin following discovery of a WW2 bomb in the Thames. The bridge fortunately reopened in time but not before the team had to think fast to create alternative plans.

Harrelson said, “I want to congratulate everyone who worked on Lost in London on this Production Guild Award. There were so many obstacles that seemed almost insurmountable. The concept of shooting in real time was crazy enough but to live broadcast as we shot it; well, some people called it insane and I did think the same myself on a number of occasions! I’m very proud of the movie and I don’t think the team could have done a better job. They really exceeded my expectations and certainly those of the multitude of people who said it couldn’t be done. So thank you all so much for being a part of that great experience and thank you to The Production Guild for proffering this award to these very first-rate artists.”

London’s Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries Justine Simons added, “Lost in London was an incredibly ambitious film project and bringing it to life required innovation and support from a range of agencies including Film London, Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Film Unit. The Mayor has pledged to make London the most film-friendly city in the world and works hard to attract investment so it’s fantastic to see the efforts of the Lost in London team celebrated with this Production Guild Award. Our city is a global capital for film and television and we want production teams of all kinds to know that London is open to them.”