On Location.

Great session at Ham with Harvey Eddington, who heads up the National Trust's Film Unit. His job is to liaise with location managers and directors to source the right venues for different shoots. These hires and the free publicity a beautifully shot film can bring, are a big part of the Trust's income, but it all need incredibly careful risk management. Camilla, who looks after this end of things specifically at Ham, also came in to talk through the conservation issues.

In the new year Disney are swooping to make a new movie of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel John Carter of Mars starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Morton and James Purefoy. I could see the third years ears prick up when they heard the news. Just as Shakespeare hung around the travelling players, until they took him to London, so perhaps a film crew might just pick up a couple of rookie graduates who are prepared to make themselves useful and do some of the dirty work.

We're starting to look forward to Christmas now and the storytelling weekend we have at the house which begin in early December. We want something more flexible than last year, with stories being told by one or just a couple of actors, mingling with the visitors and choosing the moment. It needs to be short, light, but full of impact and colour. The question for now is who tells the stories? and why do they tell them? Travelling players? Ghosts? Statues? Magicians? It's all up for negotiation and the only risk seems to be that we swamp the event.

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