Working on the hottest dating show on the planet.

A fresh news article is something like a new scene in a play; and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a lady, reclining in the grounds of Castle Howard.  Nicole Remy is the heroine of NBC's new dating show The Courtship and it was our utmost pleasure to provide crew for the production in the princely shape of Captain Carney.

The juxtaposition of 15 American young bucks arriving, on horseback no less, at a regency castle is television gold.  Jane Austen wrote in Mansfield Park "There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time" and what better way to explore this than with a regency-themed reality dating show.  Hosted by the incredible Rick Edwards and produced by Endemol Shine US, The Courtship is premiered on NBC in the US. 

Carney spent many a merry week at Castle Howard filming with an enormous crew, capturing Nicole Remy's quest for love on the Bridgerton inspired dating show.  Friendships were forged over long days, hard nights and a macaroon mountain. If you’re across the pond you can catch it on Sundays at 8/7c or stream it on Peacock TV. 

The production was enormous, with a feature-film scale crew, impressively managed.  Ground crew used golf buggies to move production crew and kit around the estate so that they were able to keep up with moonlit trysts as they unfolded.    

Carney shot on Sony FX9s and Canon CN10 and CN7 CINE-SERVO lenses which give stunning optical performance.  The production used ND and pro-mist filters to give the footage it's luxurious look.  Some scenes had 9 cameras, each with a live colour feed to the gallery.  Under the management of Siggi Rosen-Rawlings' Zigcam TV, the camera crew were a highly experienced specialist bunch, many having come from other giant reality shows like The Apprentice, TOWIE and Made In Chelsea.  The camera assistants were an incredibly strong, hard-working team.

The Courtship was directed by Ben Archard, an expert in this genre and the king of talkback.  Carney maintained it was, at times, difficult to keep a straight face at times, as his expressive yet succinct direction let the team know exactly what he need them to capture.

The film crew were a delightful team and Carney thrilled in the opportunity to try out Jon Kassell's TRINITY as well as getting inspiration from drone god, Steve Peters.  ARRI's TRINITY is the first hybrid camera stabilizer that combines classic mechanical stabilization with advanced active electronic stabilization, provided via 32-bit ARM-based gimbal technology.  After taking it for a spin the captain said, "it's so intuitive, like having a responsive robotic appendage to your body.  It's the best stabilisation rig I've ever worn.  It does this incredible thing where it auto-levels the horizon so you can do some really interesting pitches and rolls, moves through doorways and up and down stairs."

Filmed during Summer and Autumn of 2021, the production took place in the grip of the global Covid-19 pandemic.  The movement and segregation of the various crews was intricately and impressively planned by a dedicated Covid team with safety and compliance absolutely paramount.  Crew and facilities were routinely quarantined and partitioned, according to units, to ensure the safety of the cast and production team.  The complexity of the task on a production of this scale was astounding and managed with military precision.

There was a huge amount of shooting with thousands of hours captured and old friend of the Nest Jon Oliver - aka Lord Dash of Hearts is part of the team, conducting the monster edit.

From carriage rides and masquerade balls, to archery, fencing and handwritten letters, Nicole and her pursuers swap modern-day sensibilities for grand-courting gestures of the past. Leaving the modern world behind presents its fair share of challenges for Nicole’s hopeful admirers, and the pressure builds when they discover that they must also get the seal of approval from her trusted Court: her father, Claude; her mother, Claire; her sister, Danielle; and best friend, Tessa.