Valhalla Rising - Scottish Screen

locations
Va l ha l la R i si n g
A Location Report by Francis Lopez
On a mountain-side at the foot of Glen Kinglas just
past Rest and be Thankful in Argyll, Valhalla Rising,
the feature film produced by Belle Allee Productions
(Scotland), Ipso Facto (England), NWR and Nimbus
Film Productions (Denmark) was on the last day of
its four-week shoot at this particular location.
The star of this Viking story, Mads Mikkelsen, plays
One-Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength
is held captive and was in the process of killing his
captor and escaping with the help of young Scottish
debutant Maarten Steven playing the part of Are.
On their flight they board a Viking longship, which is
soon engulfed by an endless fog that disintegrates
as they sight an unknown land.
On my visit to the set make-up artist, Jessica
Cruickshank, unveiled a prosthetic head designed
by Artem Ltd in Glasgow. Mike Kelt from Artem who
was in charge of the team that made the head, told
me: “It took roughly four weeks to make by a team of
four people. From the original head casting through
to the final stages of creation, which included the
hand punching of every individual strand of hair on
his beard, it was a very detailed intensive process.”
Duncan Muggoch, Location Manager for the shoot
said: “Filming in the Glen Kinglas area, we had
amazing depth of field and could shoot 360 on every
location there. The craggy rocks and incredible
views at height, mixed with typical Scottish summer
weather of horizontal rain, mist and chill factors of
-6 on top of the mountains in July is what we were
hoping for and added to the whole look of the film.”
Duncan also noted that the Scottish crew worked
through these conditions, never complaining and with
great professionalism.
“In order to get this look and feel we had to access
via ATVs (all terrain vehicles) for most of the shoot
there. This was aided by the fact that we used no
lighting on the hill, so although we are still a feature
film unit, we were able to travel relatively lightly. By
doing this I gave the director (Nicolas Winding Refn)
the dramatic contrast between our Scotland locations
and our scenery for America, which is being shot in
the Highlands.”
Valhalla Rising is supported by Scottish Screen National
Lottery through its Content Production Fund.
On set with Maarten Steven
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Main pic: Jessica Cruickshank with a prosthetic head designed by Artem Ltd. All Photos by Francis Lopez

On the set of Valhalla Rising.
location
On set with Mads Mikkelsen and Stewart Porter.
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