Emmerdale will be hoping to uphold its history of impressive stunts next week as disaster hits the village on the day of Debbie Dingle and Pete Barton's wedding.
Here, Emmerdale's head of design Gillian Slight offers a unique behind-the-scenes insight into next week's spectacular scenes.
This summer stunt is one of the most ambitious storylines we have had on Emmerdale in recent years. It's mainly due to the fact that there is a sequence of events which happen in a number of different locations, resulting in a more major disaster. This meant that multiple special effects and stunts had to be arranged.
When undertaking these ambitious storylines, you have to consider the most visually effective way of bringing the script to life on-screen. Today's audience expects a very high standard from the special effects, wanting them to be as spectacular and convincing as a major drama or even a feature film. In soap, our budget and time allocated to shoot is far less than a film, but what ends up on the screen still has to look great.
Each big storyline we undertake has its own unique set of demands and challenges to overcome. The Woolpack siege and flood in 2013 involved working with huge quantities of water in various locations, which presented particular problems, whereas the live episode brought more logistical issues regarding precise timing for props and scenery to be set in place or moved to the correct positions.
The problems which this summer's story presented were altogether different. We had to make huge structural alterations to one of our existing sets, which involved taking part of a roof off. The integrity of the remaining roof had to be ensured, as actors and crew still had to work in the building safely. We also had to provide temporary rain cover over the hole in the roof, for obvious reasons! This consisted of a colossal scaffold rig over the building, with a huge waterproof cover over.
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Because our big story takes place within the village, we had to carry out noisy construction work, whilst other crews continued to film nearby, which slowed down the job greatly. Also, the other filming crews had to avoid shooting towards the areas that were under construction.
The funfair element brought its own set of challenges. The rides were required to stay in position for over five weeks. At a time of year when fairs are in demand, this was quite difficult to secure. We also had to design and construct a fairground attraction from scratch. This is because the story demanded that there was some damage to the structure and we were not allowed to damage a real ride.
We didn't make life easy for ourselves, as we made a mirror maze! We built a full-scale façade that was the entrance to the maze at the village. It was designed and painted to look like a traditional Victorian fairground attraction, while the inside of the maze was built in the studio.
Mirrors are notoriously difficult to film with. Lighting, sound and cameras all have issues with even one mirror on a set - they tend to reflect all the things that you don't really want to see! We had about 50 full-length mirrors in our maze, so I was not popular!
However, once we had built the maze in a blacked-out tent in the studio, with clever use of coloured strip lights and some clear glass panels, it was amazing! It was much more forgiving than we had first expected. Our director Duncan Foster spent many hours carefully planning his shots, using stand-ins for the actors, so by the time we came to shoot it for real, he knew exactly how to achieve the best results.
Everyone was really excited by the mirror maze. Even the actors said they had never worked in such an unusual set and they really felt it was a very creative experience.
The wedding, which is the focal point of these episodes, was designed in such a way as to accentuate the devastating effects of the disaster, which unfolds during the wedding reception. After discussions with costume, we decided that pale pastels would be the colour scheme for the wedding, with lots of draped white, diaphanous muslin and hundreds of hanging paper lanterns.
This look was in keeping with the beautiful soft flowing wedding dress, which was altogether very feminine and pretty. When things suddenly go very wrong and disaster strikes the wedding, the devastation which results is all the more poignant. The beautiful wedding is spectacularly trashed and the muslin and the lanterns end up torn down, dirty and ripped. It's visual reminder that what started out as a happy celebration turned into a nightmare day to remember.
The chain of disastrous events all start with a martial dispute between husband and wife at the scrap yard. As an act of revenge, Chrissie sets fire to Robert's latest toy, his 1967 black Corvette Stingray. This fire spreads to some nearby propane gas bottles, which explode high into the sky. This has catastrophic consequences for the village and the wedding which is taking place in the village hall.
The gas bottles were made by the special effects team. They were fibre glass replicas of real gas bottles. These were fired into the air by the effects team. This will be enhanced by digital computer effects when the sequence is edited together.
I can't wait to see episodes edited together. It is really hard to know exactly what the on-screen impact will be until all the effects are compiled, in the final cut. I know that the end result will be something that we can all be very proud of and will be worth all the hard work and months of planning.
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Emmerdale launches its disaster week on Monday, August 3 at 7pm on ITV.
