The Masquerade Ball. You mention that to  any Fifty Shades Fan and they know immediately the scene in the book you are talking about. It brings to our minds many events during that night that prove to be both challenging and magical for Ana and Christian. The filming for The Ball took place today at Casa Mia the location for the Grey Mansion. This is day 4 of filming at this location and the production crew has been very busy transforming the inside and outside for the filming. There is a large expansive backyard area that I believe will be used for the main part of the The Ball. They also filmed on the front driveway and entrance with Christian Grey’s Audi Q7 SUV’s late into the night/morning. Earlier in the day I spotted a Seattle Taxi which was also used at some point for filming.

When I arrived there was the crew and a few production people already present. The background people were arriving in costume and walked to their holding area located a couple of  mansions down the road. They continued to walk back and forth for food and working in the Grey Mansion throughout the afternoon and evening. There were maybe up to 40 of the background people. They were dressed in both modern evening wear and some in old world styled gowns and mens attire. It was a mixture of both. They seemed to have their own team of hair/makeup/accessories crew to work with them throughout the day.

As the late afternoon passed all the actors were soon arriving. We were asked to not take any photo of the main actors while at this location. It became a moot point because none of the actors came into view during the day to evening. It looked as though several may have gotten dressed at the mansion because I noticed the arrival of several garment bags and accessories taken inside. The arrival of 2 black Audi Q7 arrived and were parked on the street in front of the mansion. I wondered all evening why 2 were present and later saw how they used them.

As it became darker in the evening it looked like they were filming behind the mansion possibly under tents. There was no huge outside lighting that was visible from the street. Very late, close to midnight several crew starting leaving and it looked as though most of the actors had also left. Jamie and Dakota returned after a break and they filmed a scene in the front driveway/entrance to the mansion. This included 3 Audi Q7 SUV’s plus some other regular cars. Before they started this part of the filming they watered down the driveway and street area.

They also brought out extra light for all this filming on the front of the mansion.  Earlier in the day I had a glimpse of a large crane on the grounds with white lights attached to it. I was quite excited to see in the evening that they were raising up this lighting to be over the front of the mansion to act as a moon lighting effect. It has several round lighting pieces attached to it and they moved this to get it in the right place. They also raised the lift on the street with guys in it and had this spotlight on a huge tree on the street across from the mansions driveway entrance for background lighting. These poor crew guys were up there for several hours.

The last scene of the night was done without Jamie and Dakota as they had sped away into the night right after they completed the closer filming around 2:00 am. I saw the quick arrival of Max Martini or it was his double, it was hard to determine on the dark street. I believe he was in one of the 3 Audi Q7 SUV’s they used. The last scene started with all the cameras and equipment moved out to the side of the street driveway entrance. The 3 Q7’s were lined up on the street and waiting for the go signal to then quickly turn into the driveway and proceed up to the mansions entrance. It was quite fascinating to watch all the different crew and police coordinate this on the street. Luckily at 3:00 am there wasn’t much traffic to deal with like earlier in the day. The filming was completed by 3:30 am and wrapped up a very exciting day on the street with the Fifty Shades production. Thanks to the crew and “containment” for a great 12 hours.

More Filming at Casa Mia:
April 15
April 18
April 19

April 20 Masquerade Ball Pt 1
April 21 Masquerade Ball Pt 2
April 21 Masquerade Ball Pt 3

April 21 Masquerade Ball Pt 4

These two plus one more was used for filming later Ana and Christian arriving to the Ball:

These later went high into the sky for “moon effect” light:

These guys were up there for hours:

And the friendly camera guy I keep snapping pics of along the way. I have heard he may be the guy we can all thank later for the behind the scenes videos. Can’t Wait!

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