Little Women was a three-part BBC drama based on May Alcott’s classic novel. Set in 19th century Concord, Massachusetts across four seasons, this latest adaptation was filmed entirely in Ireland during summer 2017. “It was a big challenge but I would like to think nobody would watch it and say ‘You shot it in County Wicklow in August,’” said producer Susie Liggat in a press release. The Little Women Production Design team utilized Rosco SoftDrops to establish the seasonal changes on set as the storyline progressed – and they did it with extreme efficiency to meet the production’s incredibly tight shooting schedule.
Production Designer, Susie Cullen, explained that the benefits of using Rosco SoftDrops in Little Women were twofold: 1.) the backdrops ensured consistency between the exterior footage captured on location and the Computer-Generated Imagery created by the Visual Effects department; 2.) Rosco SoftDrops enabled the crew to quickly shoot both summer and winter scenes on stage.
The Little Women production team supplied several photographs that our Rosco Digital Imaging team used to assemble the establishing image for the single-sided, daytime SoftDrop. Because the physical set pieces weren’t built in time for the location photo shoot, the VFX team provided RDI with digital elements, such as fences, a bridge, a stone gateway and patches of grass to digitally layer into the original image. Once work on the summer drop was completed, the Rosco Digital Imaging team removed leaves from the trees and added snow to transform the summertime image into the production’s winter SoftDrop image.
After both summer and winter SoftDrops were printed, additional scenic elements began turning up - either as C.G.I. or as built elements on-location. These elements, which included a small henhouse, a rope swing and some additional trees along the fenceline, were painted directly onto the fabric SoftDrop – a feat not easily achieved with traditional vinyl drops.
According to Cullen, applying paint to the printed SoftDrops did not present any major difficulty once they ensured that the quality of the printed and painted whites of the snow matched. It was also important not to apply too much paint; A.) so they didn’t blot out the printed elements, and B.) to avoid activating the flame retardants in the SoftDrop. They achieved the desired effect by using Spray N Go rather than relying on too much brush work – but testing is always recommended before painting too much scenery onto a SoftDrop.
