Movies - TV
The Ever-Expanding Scope Of The Shining Put A Strain On London's Film Industry
By MATTHEW BILODEAU
No haunted dwelling has quite the notoriety as the fictional Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining.” While Kubrick used several U.S. hotels as the exterior for the Overlook, the director convinced London’s historic Elstree Studios to demolish one of its more useful street sets to make way for the scope he had in mind for the interior.
However, the massive location required for filming inadvertently caused a dilemma with others trying to make movies in the surrounding area due to the number of crew required for the set. “Stanley Kubrick: A Biography” described some issues: “Any interior filmed during a snowstorm demanded an army of grips outside the windows strewing expanded polystyrene snow.”
The large number of crew members needed to bring the Overlook Hotel’s Colorado Lounge to life also caused an equipment shortage for the others working in the studio. Kubrick’s biography noted, “‘The Shining’ finally took up every square centimetre of space at the studio, and its hunger for equipment strained the capacity of London’s rental companies.”