TABOO
If you are within the Radley College Network, you can watch "Taboo" via this link.
TABOO was made in 1997 by Edward Boase, James Walker and James Hannay
They secured Dan Rusby as Director of Photography, and James Cohen as Director of Sound. These two appointments ensured that the technical requirements were met, in fact Taboo was the most technically accomplished film ever made by boys. It was the last production to be edited on our original analogue editing suite. The following year we switched to computer editing – just too late for TABOO.
The team also employed the late Desmond Llewelyn – very well known to theatre goers, but probably best known to the public for his portrayal of “Q” in the James Bond films. Desmond was paid the sum of £100, somewhat less than his normal fee, but he was an Old Radleian…
TABOO was premiered at the Phoenix cinema in Oxford in 1997.
The film cost a total of £3000, much of which was spent during the week on location in the Christmas holiday. An old castle in Wales was rented for the week and every waking hour was spent on the production. Each evening Ed Boase would plan the following day’s shoot, checking every detail, every prop, every light, sound etc. Back at Radley many weeks were spent on the editing, and the integration of the specially written music.
One of the most memorable sequences was the two main characters dancing round a circle of lighted flares in the dead of night. What the audience can’t appreciate was that the characters – stripped to the waist – were battling against sub-zero temperatures. Meanwhile in the comfort of my warm living room, I received several desperate phone calls about the camera freezing up…