Finding the right location is a crucial part of any film, especially a period piece such as Becoming Jane. Film Ireland travelled to Higginsbrook in Co. Meath to visit the location for Jane Austen's house, and talk to location manager Manus Hingerty. Photos: Nerea Aymerich, Text: Lir Mac Cárthaigh.

Locations of all descriptions can occur to the mind of the writer, from kilometre-long Acient Roman fortifications to the haunts of post-apolcalyptic dragons, but when it comes to finding real loactions in order to bring those ideas to the screen a great deal of expertise is called for. Manus Hingerty is one of the leading loaction managers working in Ireland today, with credits ranging from the Fifth Province to The Count of Monte Cristo. Manus and his team have just finished work on Julian Jarrold's Becoming Jane, starring Anne Hathaway as novelist Jane Auten. The film presented a number of challenges, not least of which was finding a believable location for the Austen family's house. Manus found the ideal solution in Higginsbrook, a real home in Trim, Co. Meath.

Persuasion
Christopher and Hannah Gray, the owners of Higginsbrook, had sent photos of the house for Manus's consideration some years ago. He had filed them away thinking it could be a potential location. When he read the script for Becoming Jane he realised that Higginsbrook would be ideal; a four bedroomed house with a large garden and the right amount of Eighteenth Century grandeur. 'It's a remarkably small house,' manus notes. 'I always think it's the opposite of the Tardis from Doctor Who: it's smaller on the inside. Proportionately the house is big, but the reality of the house is what appealed to the designer straight away, and the fact that everything could be contained within one area.'

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 111.