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According to GoldCoast.com.au, the secret is out as to where the ship, the Dawn Treader, is being built in Australia for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. From GoldCoast.com.au:

The Dawn Treader Being Built at The Spit

The Gold Coast’s worst-kept secret has been confirmed with a set for the third movie in The Chronicles of Narnia franchise being built at The Spit.

Believed to be a fake ship, the set gave away the ‘secret location’ Narnia movie executives have been so tight-lipped about.

The project has been shrouded in secrecy. It is either going to be called Invisible Army or Dragons Prow with both phrases featuring at the site yesterday.

The film company is also called Dragons Prow Productions and one of the signs at the site featured the logo as well as the words ‘Invisible Army Production Area 1′.

Location manager Gareth Price refused to confirm if it was for The Chronicles of Narnia.

He said people would soon be able to see what was being built.

Construction began on June 16 and it’s believed it will continue until mid-August when filming will start.

Speaking of the filming start date, I received several emails yesterday asking where the July 15th date came from after we reported that it was ten days until filming starts. It surfaced here, on the casting call two weeks ago that we reported on. And considering the casting call was written by the production and is recent, this date is most likely correct. In our opinion, filming will start on July 15, but it will probably be the part of the movie introducing Eustace, Edmund, and Lucy in our world before they enter Narnia. The mid-Austust start date mentioned above is probably when they’ll start shooting aboard the Dawn Treader.

Read the full story at GoldCoast’s website here.

UPDATE: Daredevil has posted a link that has a picture of the actual sign at The Spit.

Here’s what we think it says:

“To the Resident and Visitor,

“This site has been chosen as a filming location for an upcoming major feature film being produced by Dragons Prow Pty Ltd. The Department of Transport and Main Roads have kindly granted us permission to occupy the site, temporarily close the road and construct a set piece.

“To comply with workplace health and safety regulations and to facilitate the build, we have cordoned off a section of the park and erected a temporary fence around the perimeter of the work site. Construction will commence on Tuesday June 16 for approximately 7 weeks prior to filming. In mid-August we are scheduled to commence filming until approximately the end of the month. Once filming is complete, our construction and de-rig crew will be on hand for two weeks returning Doug Jennings Park to its current condition and the ring road will re-open.

“Dragons Prow Pty Ltd would like to thank you in advance for your support. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call our locations department at Warner Roadshow Studios on 5585 9711.”

There’s an interesting tidbit of news that NarniaFans’ member Michael Thorn dug up. According to NarniaFans, “there is a forum for the Australian Surf Rowers League where someone is ’looking for several wooden boats to use in a film we are shooting on the Gold Coast. With view to hire or purchase.’ When asked when they would need them, they respond: ’At this stage between 20th July to 5th Sept.’ ” There’s a lot of speculation as to what these boats might be used for, which you can read about over on NarniaFans.com here. You can read the original post here.

According to the Bayside Bulletin, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is to film at Cleveland Point in September.

Filming is set to start at Cleveland Point in September for the next instalment in the Chronicles of Narnia film series.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is still in pre-production, but shooting at some of the Gold Coast locations is due to begin this month.

Cleveland Point will be closed off to the public for close to two months, with most of the filming there to take place on a specially designed 40-metre vessel, attached to a new 60 metre by 50 metre pier with 20mx40m ramp.

You can read the full story here.

It is now officially ten days until filming begins on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The bulk of the crew for the movie started arriving at the Gold Coast last week to begin prep work for the movie.

I have to admit this is particularly exciting for me and I’m sure it is for all Narnia movie fans as well — for a short period of time we didn’t even know if this movie would be made. Now it’s finally happening and hopefully casting announcements will begin very, very soon.

Here is an excerpt from a recent interview with Cinematographer Dante Spinotti about the new film, “Public Enemies:”

Dante Spinotti, Cinematographer for Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Q: Why not go with a digital camera you’d already used? Why did you decide on the Sony F23 for Public Enemies?

Spinotti : Michael [Mann] likes depth of field, images with deep focus, and that camera has a chip that’s more like 16mm that gave us that depth of focus. It’s the same reason why I chose the same camera for the film I am going into now, The Chronicles of Narnia. The depth of field works in our favor. The camera also has an advantage in the sense that it is much more elastic. You can adjust gamma curves and gain for incredible control over the image. You can also shoot much bigger energy in the sense that you can have a zoom lens and the camera can move around in a quicker way.

Your reaction to this news will depend on which side of the Film vs. Digital debate you are on. One side argues that the quality of digital video is not yet as good as 35mm film while the other side argues that the difference is not noticeable. Both “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “Prince Caspian” were shot on 35mm film. This year, “Slumdog Millionaire” became the first movie shot mainly with digital cameras to receive the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

From a filmmaker’s perspective, filming digitally offers many advantages for the production. You don’t have to wait for the film to be processed; you can upload it to a computer and begin editing that very day. Shooting digitally can cut down post-production time by weeks. It may also be cheaper.

The “theoretical resolution” of film is certainly higher than digital. But how noticeable is the difference in quality? That’s the debate.

(One more tidbit that may interest fans: Because they will be using digital cameras, there will no longer be any need to “check the gate.”)

Thanks to ‘Icarus’ for the find.

A 7-minute behind-the-scenes look at Focus on the Family’s audio adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” has been posted online. The video includes interviews with Douglas Gresham, and shows Andy Serkis performing as Screwtape. A Fall 2009 release has been announced. View the video here. In 2002, Focus on the Family completed their much-loved audio adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. Thanks to ‘Dekkie’ for the find.

This really isn’t much of a news story, but Examiner.com posted about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader filming on the Gold Coast. In their version however, they included two pictures of the water tanks that will be used in the movie that I at least had not seen before. Check them out here. Thanks Lucy P. for the heads up!