Dive deeper into this episode with exclusive sketches, production designs, and fun facts delivered directly from the Outlander crew.
Culloden
“Having set the scene for Outlander’s Culloden so convincingly in Season 1, I received a call from National Trust for Scotland after it aired to check that we hadn’t filmed at the real Culloden site without permission. Season 3’s Culloden was filmed on the edge of the same moor that we used in Season 1—in a field that was roughly 7 acres as opposed to the real battlefield which is an area of approximately 80 acres.” -Hugh Gourlay, Supervising Location Manager
Realtor Sign
“The Art Department made this for the scene in Episode 301 when Frank buys the Boston townhouse. I actually didn’t know about it—the Art Department did it as a surprise. The bigger surprise was…we cut the scene in post for length. But I still have the sign hanging in my office in Scotland.”
-Matthew B. Roberts, Executive Producer/Writer
Visual Effects
“We undertook a great deal of historical research for Culloden, covering weapons and tactics, as well as the disposition of combatants and later bodies on the ground. We also looked at many other films and shows to examine how they told the story of large scale battles and brought the audience into it—what we could learn, and what we could improve or do differently.
Ultimately it was felt far more compelling and poignant to put the audience in amongst the carnage and chaos, right with Jamie, and not to try to convey the whole historical event from some imagined overall vantage point; an individual experience reflecting the limited visibility and sense of the overall that any one person amongst it all would have. The visceral hand-to-hand impact of only what can be seen in the immediate surroundings; the confusion, the passion, the fury, fear and desperation. Moving backwards and forwards in the loose chronology of events; further serving to put the audience in that unreal, confusing world
From a Visual Effects perspective, the key challenge was to help seamlessly create the feel of the large numbers of fighters on both sides, with only somewhat limited numbers of actual artists practicable to film. This was in part a collaboration between Camera, Special Effects and Stunts departments using well planned camera angles, staging and smoke, but of course also involved adding many more fighting figures, or indeed ‘carpets’ of bodies, into the shots, during post production. While some additional material was shot at the location, these were mainly shot separately on a couple of special days of filming set aside for the purpose. Filmed against green screen we could then position as required to better populate many shots and ‘dress’ the scenes. Various enhancements and additions to smoke & snow levels and blood were also added.”
–Richard Briscoe, VFX Supervisor
Matthew B. Roberts
“I love this moment — I snapped it just before we called action. You can see Tobias preparing to ‘become’ Black Jack”. –Matthew B. Roberts, Executive Producer/Writer
In this photo you’ll see Tobias is doing his own stunts.
There were two exterior locations used for Culloden – Torbrex farm (Culloden Moor) and Craggan Farm (Culloden Moor cottage). Indeed, there were 9 locations in all featured in Block One; 4 locations for Block Two; 7 locations for Block Three; 6 locations for Block four; 2 locations for Block Five – a total of 28 locations in Scotland (not including the stages at the studio).
“We stacked real supporting artists on stuffed dummies to create the mounds of bodies around the Culloden Battlefield.” –Matthew B. Roberts, Executive Producer/Writer
On average, there were 160 supporting artists per day during the shooting of Culloden, with 184 on the biggest day. The total number for the entire Culloden shoot, including our 2nd Unit was around 1,100.
