NarniaWeb.com

Narnia Web member ellz_bellz visited the set and sent in this report:

UPDATE: You can view her pictures here.

I took a trip to the set today, and was absolutely AMAZED by what I saw. First, as we pulled in on the Shuttle Bus, there were about fifty locals watching, and a few pressed up against the fence. Overshadowing them all was the Dawn Treader herself. You really have to see it to appreciate just how beautiful it is. They were in the process of filming a scene were a dragon lands on the mast.

The Crew were armed with TELMARINE crossbows (I could recognise the eagle head), and were instructed to fire at the dragon. They all wore Telmarine style shirts and vests, and some wore beanie-like caps. Amoung them all was one black minotaur (Shane Rangi?) and a Faun that I remembered from Prince Caspian. I caught a glimpse of Ben Barnes, wearing a shirt similar to his cream shirt in PC, with black pants.

Jeff “O” (I can’t spell his second name) is the man who we have been hearing over the loudspeaker, not Michael Apted, as first thought. I got some great footage of the boat rocking from side to side, and the crew scrambling all over it. Jeff O started each take with “Rolling!…And he’s landing on the mast! What he doing up there!?…Fire at him, You’re firing at him, and…HIT! And he’s falling, he’s in the water!…And he’s back up again, he’s cricling the ship, he’s at the front, he’s t the front, and he’s off, back to island, and he’s gone… Cut”

We met a few people on the way. I saw the doubles for Ben, Georgie, Will and Skandar. I didn’t see Georgie or Will, but my sister was pretty sure she spotted Skandar chatting with Michael Apted while I was away.

While I was checking out the crew with my binoculars, one of the guys spotted me, and aimed his crossbow at us. I pulled out a sign my friend and I had made that said “YAY” and held it up, He laughed and gave me the thumbs up.

I noticed that there was a small girl (8 or 9) walking around et. SHe was dressed like a telmarine, and had her hair done “Narnianish”.

But, the most incredible thing that happened was when we were heading back fromlunch, we spotted none other than DOUGLAS GRESHAM himself. I had seen him walking around set, and had a bit of a freak-out. But he quite literally just strolling around the open area, out of the gates, in his trade-mark high pants and cap. I immediately walked up to him and asked if he was Douglas Gresham (even though I was sure he was). He looked so surprised on being recognized, but replied that he was. We then asked for a photo and stopped for a chat. He was SO NICE, talking to us like we were good friends, and informed us that the set looked fantastic, and that they were ahead of schedule for the day. We then asked if the dragon “attacking” the boast was Eustace, which confirmed was (he looked even more suprised by the fact we knew what was going on!). After saying good bye and skipping off, I realised that My camera hadn’t captuured our photo. I ran back, and asked for another photo, we he instantly agreed to. He then asked for our names, and said it was very nice to meet us. All in all, a lovely man.

Most of the videos I took have me talking through them, but there are a couple of good ones. I’ll include then one were I first spot Doug, and freak out.

I will advise all people in the area to go check it out!

David Vallon as Governor Gumpas

The Queensland Times interviewed David Vallon recently about his role in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where he plays Governor Gumpas. Here’s what he had to say.

“I am Governor Gumpas who is the Governor of the Lone Islands,” he said.

“He is corrupt. Most, if not all, of the people who arrive (on the island) end up being sold into slavery.

“Of course the heroes get caught up in it and Gumpas, being the baddie, gets his just desserts in the end. It’s a small role, but key to the story line.”

While Mr Vallon wasn’t able to talk in detail about his role or experiences on the set while filming is under way, he said he had jumped at the chance of working with director, Michael Apted.

“He directed Gorillas in the Mist which is one of my all time favourite movies,” he said.

“He is so easy to work with.”

You can read the full interview here.

Running time 39:51
Well, the sail is purple, the King has a beard and Barnes had an interview with “pitched battles” and more to discuss. Here’s your podcasting NarniaWebbers going at it once again.

Download Podcast

Hollywood.com writes: “While [Ben Barnes was] filming scenes with co-star Skandar Keynes earlier this week, a sword stunt backfired – and Barnes had to receive treatment for an injury to his mouth. He says, ‘We’ve been sword fighting. It didn’t go quite according to plan – I’ve got a slightly swollen lip, because I got popped with the sword by young Skandar Keynes.’ ” Apparently Ben recovered just fine as we’ve seen him many times in pictures this week.

NarniaWeb Spy Tamara has uploaded two more videos of the Dawn Treader set at Cleveland Point. The first one shows the ship slowly rocking back and forth in front of a large blue screen:

Another shows Ben Barnes and Skandar Keynes being sprayed with water, which Tamara also described in a recent report. Is Caspian wet after diving in to save Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace?

Double click on the videos to view their YouTube pages.
Thanks to CaspianThePrince.

UPDATE: This video shows the actors performing as the ship rocks:

UPDATE: In this video, Caspian appears to be taking Edmund into the cabin.

NarniaWeb spy Tamara went to take another look at the Dawn Treader, and returned with more photos and another report on what she saw being filmed:

I went AGAIN to the set and got some more photos. Had a bit of a fiasco with leaving my memory card at home but I was able to run off and buy another card! Phew!

They were filming a sword fighting scene but it looked like a playful fight because all the Narnian crew were egging them on and cheering and clapping at the end.

There was this one time when Ben and Skander were looking out over the side of the ship and waved to all the people watching (I like to think he was waving at just me haha)

They had a break for about half an hour and I managed to see Skander literally 2 metres away, he smiled at me and my friend and we smiled back. I couldn’t think of anything to say anyway!!

Ben was walking around as well, close to the fence and waved to this other girl who lost it and almost fell on the ground hyperventilating!! It was pretty funny.

UPDATE: A video of the fight has appeared on YouTube, and a HD option is available!

NarniaWeb spy Tamara returned to watch the filming earlier today, and this time, she returned with a “totally awesome camera.” Along with taking pictures of the extras and crew, set, she also managed to capture a few shots of Ben, Skandar, and Georgie on set.

I went back to the Narnia set again today, armed with a borrowed, totally awesome camera (with 20x zoom!! arrrh love!) and around 3 hours to spare

There was a massive blue screen hanging by a crane in front of the ship so no one could see anything! There was this very small gap in which you could see some of the crew walking around but there was no way to see any of the actual filming. They moved the ships direction after about an hour and a half which gave us some more space to see but it was still very small.

I had no idea if any of the main actors where there as we could still see nothing! I did see all their chairs lined up with their names written on them, but unfortunately they were empty. But about 2 and a half hours in, I finally saw Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley doing a scene where they all looked to be drenched. I could be wrong but I could only see it through the camera as they were wayyyyy to far away to see it with my eyes only. There were people constantly spraying them with water as well.

There was a voice (with an american accent haha I have no idea who it was) who was obviously attached to a mic and would occasionally give directions and I definitely heard him talking about Reepicheep (he had just done something and they had to react.. I think..) and there was also something about a wedding dress.

I am going back again tomorrow (because I have no life haha – no really I think it’s super exciting) and maybe they’ll have moved the blue screen!

Here are Tamara’s pictures (we’ve also included one from RedBubble.com of Gary Sweet who plays Drinian).

Thanks so much Tamara for your report and pictures!

UPDATE: NarniaFans’ spy Tanika sent them a set of pictures from earlier today as well. You can check them out here.

NarniaWeb spy Michael sent us a copy of his report from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader filming complete with a lot of pictures. It turns out there are a lot more creatures aboard the ship than just one minotaur and Reepicheep.

Cleveland Point 6:15 am, shooting beginning at 7:30am

The sunrise breaks through the clouds lighting up the Dawn Treader swaying side to side and back and forth going through its morning mechanical exercise. There had been rain over night and two major cranes shifted off the sight that had been used for the fly over shoots.
The access staircase is moved into position and film crew begin to climb the stair structure in single file to board the Dawn Treader. The ship towers over a sea of portable camouflage tents.

A group of experts meet on the deck and point towards the direction of the sun, wind and boats and nod. They disband and an announcer sound checks in a mono tone voice says, “Good morning”. He continues to announce key decision and warns when the DT will be moved into a new position.

All the equipment begins to morph back into a controlled state by an army of crew. About 20 Narnian sailors enter the site as the Dawn Treader is moved into position for the first shoot “Shot 64:8”. A giant crane raises a huge blue screen blocking the view. An hour later the screen is lowered and the Dawn Treader is rotated 180 degrees so that the decorative dragon head is pointing out to sea. It is an awesome display as this monster of a ship is moved skilfully through the array of portable tents and cranes.

Shooting has been said to continue until the end of September at this site. It’s worth a look and take a camera.

Huge thanks to Michael for sending in your pictures and report!

Locals watch the filming at Cleveland Point ~ Bayside Bulletin

Bayside Bulletin has a story about all of the local Australians (and even some visitors as far away as New Zealand) coming to watch the filming of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Birkdale mother Lyn Fullerton went down to Cleveland Point to check out the action with daughters Sarah and Bethany.
“We’ve been planning it for a while and coming down regularly to check on the progress.”
Sarah said they had spotted a number of young stars of the film, including characters King Caspian (Ben Barnes), Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) and Skandar Keynes (Edmund Pevensie).
“We were very happy fans to see them, but we weren’t planning on mobbing them!” Sarah laughed.
“I don’t think they’ve even bothered with bodyguards because we’re so laid back here.”

You can check out the full story and pictures here.

Bethany said she’d also spotted centaurs and various other mythical creatures around the set.

DeviantArt was sent a two minute video of live filming at Cleveland Point for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In the footage, the Dawn Treader is under attack by a dragon.

Here’s the transcript written up by icarus:

Wave!(?)

It’s a Dragon!
He’s coming in closer! He’s starting to come towards the ship!
One! He’s coming around towards the front! He’s going round the front!
Two! We (or “He”?) don’t know where he is going! React! React!
He’s coming around to the other side!
Three! He’s coming around the back now!
Look around! He’s coming to the back side! He’s on the tail now!
Four! He’s swinging all around. He’s circling, circling!
Coming around the starboard!
And Five! He’s coming towards the mast! He’s looking up towards the mast!
And he lands on top of the mast!
Shake to Port!
And shake to Starboard!

**a crew member yells “Fire!” ?? **

And Hit! He’s trying (?) to fall down! He’s going down!
He lands! Crash!
And he’s getting back up! Here he comes!
And he’s flying out to sea! He’s going around!
He’s coming around the front, he’s going around the nose(?)
And now he’s flying off towards the island
*something, something* and he’s going off to sea