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Monty Python <-> Mt Buffalo bizarre link 2-May-2015 At 11:08:59 AM dangermouse

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Hi,

I don't know if any of the authors of the above posts still look at this forum thread but I have been wondering for years been what the location of that rock face was in the film and thanks to a search, finally found the answer on this thread!

As you asked about the story behind it, I recently got around to asking the production manager on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail film to explain how the shot came about and this is what he told me:

'I put a travel book with a rocky picture open on a piano music stand and then put a couple of candles on the keyboard to create a heat haze.'

Terry Gilliam has also stated in interviews that they filmed that shot this way as a quick low-cost way of achieving a location effect without actually having to pay lots of money to take camera and crew out to capture it. By zooming in on the image slowly, it gives the impression of a camera zoom in a real location.

The reason why I wasn't able to get the name of the location from the production manager is because he couldn't remember which travel book it was from. But given that they made the film back in 1974, it is fair enough if he forgot details like that :)