The Dawn Treader is moored at the end of my street!
Well, two streets over and a couple of kilometers down the road, but definitely within walking distance.
The next Chronicles of Narnia movie, being Voyage of the Dawn Treader is being filmed at the Warner Bros studios on the Gold Coast (i.e Movie World), and they're using Cleveland Point for some of their location work. The park there has been fenced off with mysterious construction work happening for the last month or so, but parts of the ship started arriving this week, so it's getting interesting fast. I took a wander down there at lunchtime today to have a bit of a stickybeak... along with a fair number of other curious locals.
The location is quite cunningly chosen. The ship is mounted on a complicated-looking set of hydraulics right on the edge of the seawall, so it can be rocked around without actually being in the water. Depending on the angle you film at it from, you can get open sea or one of three different islands in the background (Moreton, Peel and North Stradbroke). Or the canal estate on Raby Bay, I guess, but that's a bit less Narnian-looking than I hope they plan to show :). Filming is supposed to start in early September, and they seem to be quite happy for the general public to watch what's going on: there's a grandstand set up and everything.
The parts of the ship visible so far (she's still in pieces at this point) are all beautifully detailed, but about twice the size of what I was expecting - at something like 45m long, this is a big boat. The security guard said there is still a full-height mast and rigging (and, I assume, the sail) still to arrive.
Information for the locals (click-through to get a version that is actually readable)
Parts of the ship, waiting to be assembled.
The main body of the ship:
Closeup of the stern detailing and poop deck.
The dragon-head waiting to be attached to the prow:
A front-view of the Dragon's head:
I am fairly sure I'll be posting more pictures as work progresses... I needed a goal to make me go for a walk more often anyway :).
The next Chronicles of Narnia movie, being Voyage of the Dawn Treader is being filmed at the Warner Bros studios on the Gold Coast (i.e Movie World), and they're using Cleveland Point for some of their location work. The park there has been fenced off with mysterious construction work happening for the last month or so, but parts of the ship started arriving this week, so it's getting interesting fast. I took a wander down there at lunchtime today to have a bit of a stickybeak... along with a fair number of other curious locals.
The location is quite cunningly chosen. The ship is mounted on a complicated-looking set of hydraulics right on the edge of the seawall, so it can be rocked around without actually being in the water. Depending on the angle you film at it from, you can get open sea or one of three different islands in the background (Moreton, Peel and North Stradbroke). Or the canal estate on Raby Bay, I guess, but that's a bit less Narnian-looking than I hope they plan to show :). Filming is supposed to start in early September, and they seem to be quite happy for the general public to watch what's going on: there's a grandstand set up and everything.
The parts of the ship visible so far (she's still in pieces at this point) are all beautifully detailed, but about twice the size of what I was expecting - at something like 45m long, this is a big boat. The security guard said there is still a full-height mast and rigging (and, I assume, the sail) still to arrive.
Information for the locals (click-through to get a version that is actually readable)
Parts of the ship, waiting to be assembled.
The main body of the ship:
Closeup of the stern detailing and poop deck.
The dragon-head waiting to be attached to the prow:
A front-view of the Dragon's head:
I am fairly sure I'll be posting more pictures as work progresses... I needed a goal to make me go for a walk more often anyway :).