Sands Films

Sands Films is a small British film production company, founded by producer Richard Goodwin and director Christine Edzard in the early 1970s, and based in Rotherhithe, London. The company is known for its production of costumes for period dramas.

Sands Films
IndustryFilm production
Founded1975
Headquarters
London
,
England
Websitewww.sandsfilms.co.uk

Background

The building that Sands Films occupies is a former granary, now a grade II listed building.[1] The business was founded in 1975[2] and since 1976, it has housed a small film stage, film theatre, picture library, workshops and costume stores.[3] The Goodwins initially used the derelict building rent-free, on the basis they completely repaired and renovated the property.[4]

As an independent film production studio Sands Films has its own soundproof stage, workshops, costume department, set construction workshop, cutting room, cinema and other services needed to make films. It is a self-sufficient and fully integrated production facility. Cinema and television companies as varied as Working Title, Talkback, BBC, Channel 4, Freemantle, Ridley Scott Associates, Sky TV, the Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera and Canal+ have used the facilities at Sands Films for their projects. With the covid-19 lockdown the studio has intensified its live streaming activities.

Productions

The studio has also been successful in delivering full production packages to companies in need of a London studio base, from A Passage to India (1984) to Bright Star(2009). Sands films supplied facilities to Working Title's productions of Anna Karenina (2012) and Les Miserables (2012).

Other productions for which the company has produced costumes include all the Agatha Christie films produced by EMI (including Death on the Nile),[5] Vanity Fair (2004), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Fingersmith (2005), and Pride & Prejudice (2005).[6] They hand embroidered the costumes for the main characters in the BBC's 2015 series, Wolf Hall.[7]

In 2011 the company's annual turnover exceeded £1 million for the first time.[4] After their rent had almost quadrupled since 2000 and they had been asked to pay back-rent for an unrenovated part of the building, the Goodwins began to raise funds to purchase the property. This included selling shares at £500 each[4] and, later in 2012, they successfully bought the property, with plans to modernise its production facilities. Managing director Olivier Stockman has worked for Sands Studios since 1980.[2]

In 2017 Sands Films began production of "The Good Soldier Schwejck", written and directed by Christine Edzard and based on the famous The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. The project was partly funded by the auction of a costume worn by Mark Rylance in the BBC's Wolf Hall.[8]

References
  1. Grices Granary Film Studios, Bristish Listed Buildings. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  2. Izabella Scott (12 April 2013). "Expat lives: Paris to London". The Financial Times. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. "Information". www.sandsfilms.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  4. James Hurley (21 February 2012). "Sands Films seeks saviour in financial stars". The Telegraph. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  5. "Sands Films Films and Productions". Acting Website. Retrieved 19 Oct 2008.
  6. "Sands Films". IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 19 Oct 2008.
  7. Gerard Gilbert (16 January 2015). "Behind-the-scenes with the costume makers for Wolf Hall, Broadchurch and Doctor Who". The Independent. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  8. "You could own a piece of history as Sands Films puts Mark Rylance's Wolf Hall Cromwell costume up for auction". The Weekender. London. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
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