I have been publishing my pictures of scenes from Sherlock on Facebook and Instagram for a year now. Every now and then I am asked how a picture was created, or where I got the props in it. This blog is just for fun – an introduction to the world of Toylocked and how I’ve spent my spare time for the last year creating my TinySherlock world.
A Day on Dartmoor – The Hounds of Baskerville
An invitation to Devon for a couple of days provided an ideal opportunity to recreate scenes from The Hounds of Baskerville. Luckily I have tolerant friends who were happy to play along, including walking across Dartmoor in high winds and scrambling over rocks to put the toys in place.
The first picture was simple enough – a little bit of Blu-tak under Sherlock’s feet kept him stable, and I was able to shoot various angles from Hound Tor. It seemed important to get the figure posed partly against the sky, as in the original shot:
Thus:
So far, so good. Next, I wanted to recreate the scenes of John looking at a local map. Before we left the house, my tolerant hosts lent me their laptop and printer, and between us we created a tiny version of a real map of Dartmoor: it took several attempts, but the map was printed and folded to look like the real thing. It wasn’t just the cover which had to be real. It is a miniature map of Dartmoor, as represented in the large scale version.
Now we had a map which John could hold folded up…
… or he could spread out on the rocks (with more Blu-tak):
And then we had to introduce the hound itself. It had to be terrifying. It had to be supernatural. It had to be… a cuddly toy labrador puppy. I mentioned that it was a windy day. The dog kept blowing away. Sherlock and John kept falling over. My trusty friends had to assist several times.
After numerous attempts, and considerable damage to the toys from falling onto rocks, I caught the moment when the dog’s ears flew back in the wind, and got the shot I wanted. I hope you agree that it is truly terrifying.
Toylocked 