© Netflix : The Woman In Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10

Backplates for film and TV are something I’m called on to produce due to the scale of the images I create. This is a cityscape backplate I shot for the Netflix production of ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’.

The skyline I photographed appears early in the film, seen through the windows of The Guardian’s offices, setting the tone for what follows.

Backplates for film & TV by Will Pearson. The image is a still from The Woman in Cabin 10 © Netflix. It shows two women in an office setting with the London skyline visible through the office windows.
This image is a film still from The Woman in Cabin 10 (© Netflix), showing my original London skyline photograph (© Will Pearson). Reproduced here under UK fair dealing provisions for the purpose of discussing my contribution to the production.

Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10

The Woman in Cabin 10 is based on Ruth Ware’s bestselling novel. It’s a tense psychological thriller. The story follows travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock (Keira Knightley), who boards a luxury cruise to cover its maiden voyage. When she believes she has witnessed a woman being thrown overboard, no one believes her, as everyone on board is accounted for. The sense of paranoia builds as Lo tries to uncover what really happened.

Alongside Knightley, the cast includes Hannah Waddingham, Guy Pearce, David Ajala, Art Malik and David Morrissey.

The London backplate image

The image was captured for the production team as a high-resolution panorama looking out over the City of London. It was created to give the production team complete flexibility when building the scene.

Backplates for film & TV by Will Pearson. The image is a still from The Woman in Cabin 10 © Netflix. It shows a woman in a red top sitting in an office setting with the London skyline visible through the office windows.
This image is a film still from The Woman in Cabin 10 (© Netflix), showing my original London skyline photograph (© Will Pearson). Reproduced here under UK fair dealing provisions for the purpose of discussing my contribution to the production.

Backplates for film and TV

Shooting large-scale backplates for film and TV allows total control over the environment. The light, weather, and perspective can all be managed, so that every element fits seamlessly within the production’s visual world. I work at extremely high resolution, meaning the image / translight can be used across multiple camera angles and focal lengths without loss of detail.

Creating backplates for film and TV productions like The Woman in Cabin 10 is always a pleasure. It’s about building the invisible backdrop that helps stories feel real. Seeing the finished shot on screen knowing it began as a skyline through my lens is a quiet thrill!

Backplates for film & TV by Will Pearson. The image is a still from The Woman in Cabin 10 © Netflix. It shows a woman (actress Keira Knightley) sitting at a desk in an office setting with the London skyline visible through the meeting room windows.
This image is a film still from The Woman in Cabin 10 (© Netflix), showing my original London skyline photograph (© Will Pearson). Reproduced here under UK fair dealing provisions for the purpose of discussing my contribution to the production.

I regularly create panoramic backplates and large-scale cityscapes for film and TV productions. These images provide directors and VFX teams with flexible, high-resolution imagery to build their worlds. You can see more examples of my work with backplates and production photography in the links below.

Sky news studios backplates

Jax Jones music video

If you have a backplate or translight project you’d like to discuss, please do get in touch.

Note: All images shown on this page are © Netflix and are reproduced here under UK fair dealing provisions for the purpose of discussing my contribution to the production.