51 Degrees North (2015) Online

51 Degrees North (2015) Online

When Damon Miller (Moritz von Zeddelmann), a talented, young London filmmaker becomes involved in the disturbing research surrounding Near-Earth Objects he stumbles onto the discovery that the Earth stands on the brink of an extraterrestrial disaster. Believing he's finally discovered the ideal subject for his next documentary, Damon gets caught up in a conspiracy that threatens him and the ones he loves. Chasing shady leads, and armed only with his camera, Damon must overcome his fears about the future and prepare himself to make the ultimate sacrifice. By depicting cataclysmic events through the perspective of one individual, writer/director Grigorij Richters succeeds in crafting a truly human story about love, disillusionment and obsession in the face of overwhelming cosmic forces.

While filming on Tower Bridge, a bus driver believing one of the actors to be carrying a bomb released the bus UNDER ATTACK signal and a counter-terrorism squad was called.

The director never envisioned this to be a large production. He wanted a cast/crew of maximum 10 people. It ended up being a production of over 2000 Cast/Crew.

According to the movie's director, Grigorij Richters, he was stopped and booked by the London police 42 times during 2nd Unit filming.

The director and three of his team members were arrested by a counter-terrorist unit of the police while attempting to climb a high rise to get "the perfect shot" of London.

The director and his main actor accidentally shut down Waterloo Train station while shooting a scene.

The production team staged a stabbing scene on a Thursday night in Central London.

Though they had no permission to do so, the production team shut down a bridge in Central London in order to shoot one of the climactic scenes of the film.

The director asked his First Assistant Director (John) to shut down one of the busiest roads in London on a 5 minute notice. When he realised that the director was serious he ran to the street to get a better idea of the scale. When he came back he just said "Hmm, this is going to be interesting".

The director asked his main actor to "park" the car at 2PM on a tuesday on the crossing of Oxford Circus which is one of London's busiest places. They got away with four takes until they created such a massive traffic jam that the police came and asked them to leave. The DP James Kinsman had a camera set up nearby on a 5.5 Meter long pole which caused a lot of attention.

At one point during the shoot, Richters and his team were filming outside the US Embassy near Oxford Street. While they were setting up, a member of the embassy personnel called the police to alert them of a man wearing a suspicious backpack and holding an object resembling a grenade. Six police officers turned up and Richters had to explain what they were doing. No charges were made but one police officer did offer the director his script.

The 2nd Unit team had to get a shot of Big Ben and its surrounding area. It had to seem lifeless. Parliament Square and Westminster Bridge (the area surrounding Big Ben) are almost always busy as they connect many parts of London. One day before the 2012 London Olympics the director and producer decided to shut down the entire area at 5AM by blocking off the streets with a wall of runners. During the first take, a police van showed up and gave the director a warning. It took them eight takes to get the perfect shot.

During 2nd Unit shooting the director, Grigorij Richters, went to Embankment, London. He was looking for a place to rest his 6m long camera crane to imitate a CCTV camera for a scene. He saw a CCTV camera pole and rested the crane against it. After securing the crane to the pole the CCTV camera started moving, trying to figure out what was going on. Within minutes a team of security officers and police arrived at the scene and explained that the building he was filming was the Ministry of Defence (MOD). One day later Richters received a phone call from the MOD. They were investigating the case for espionage and terrorism.

The film was shot over 109 days, which resulted in 327 hours of footage spread across 72 terabytes.

The main actor had 62 days of shooting in London. During that time (Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Summer 2012) it rained one single day. That's what made 2nd Unit filming in Spring 2012 and Summer 2012 extremely difficult for the production.

The filming of the Market scene (shot at Portobello Market, London) had to be cut short as the older dog, Frenzi, had an emergency on set. Due to her age (15 years) her heart stopped beating for a few seconds and she lost consciousness for at least 5 Minutes. Mr Richters and his team ran immediately to the car and drove her to the nearest vet which was 7 miles away. Traffic slowed them down and Mr Richters was forced to drive through opposite-direction traffic. When the team arrived at the vet, Frenzi got so stressed that she seemed perfectly alright and the doctors couldn't tell what was wrong with her. This was the second time during the production of this film that she had serious health issues.

During 2nd Unit production the team crash landed an unmanned helicopter in Central London. No one was hurt.

During 2nd Unit production director Grigorij Richters, operated an unmanned helicopter inside the Royal Airspace near Buckingham Palace. He was surrounded by London police officers within minutes after they received an alert from The Royal Air Force that an unknown object popped up on their radar. He was asked to stand down. No formal charges were made.

During 2nd Unit the film Crew crashed an unmanned Camera Drone into the arch of London's famous monument: Marble Arch. No one was hurt but the Drone was unrecoverable.

Frenzi, the 17 year old dachshund died between the 6th and 7th Unit (natural causes). She had to be replaced for some of the scenes.

The film is bilingual (English and German) to keep the scenes as authentic as possible.

All dates that appear in the film are blurred out.

12 different animation teams worked on this film.

For the climactic moment of the movie, the producers cast 600 Extras and asked them to act as if the world ended on a Saturday Night at Piccadilly Circus. To everyone's surprise 1500 Extras showed up and an additional 1000 passer-byers ended up being in some of the shots. This made the production the second largest film shoot at Piccadilly Circus and the low-budget movie with the most Extras in history.

The London police was forced to shut down Piccadilly Circus for 5 Minutes on a Saturday Night as 1500 Extras and 1000 passers-byers blocked the streets and made it impossible for cars to pass by.

The director asked his main actor to take off his clothes and walk past the MI-6 headquarters with a sandwich board around his neck.

The production team was shooting a kidnapping scene in Central London, shutting down one street for a period of an hour with permission. An employee of a nearby Embassy thought the kidnapping was real and believed the police were fake. He alerted the authorities the next day and tried to get the director arrested. He wasn't successful.

The director asked his main actor (von Zeddelmann) to take a swim in the fountain which is located in front of Buckingham Palace. The scene was shot at 3AM at 1 degree Celsius and took exactly 12 Minutes to shoot.

A large part of the film was shot in the director's own apartment. Richters sat down with Zeddelmann in the living room one day and asked him: 'If the world would end, what would Damon do?' The actor looked around the room and answered, 'He would use the living room like a notepad and write on the walls'. Two days and 50 marker-pens later the room was covered in 4,000 pieces of paper (mainly from newspapers and magazines) with a huge hand-drawn map of London covering the main wall. It took the director and his fiancée three weeks and 21 layers of white paint to return the room to its original condition.