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Nicholas Greening has posted a follow-up blog to the one we linked a few weeks ago (here). This time he talks about his tour of the sets in detail. Here are some highlights from his report.

After clearing security at Movie World, we drove past the giant water tank with a suspended blue screen around it, to a car park that was surrounded by props for the movie. This was really like entering a fantasy world  – Imagine all of the props look real, however they are made of fiberglass or foam or MDF.  There were the larger than life statues of the seven lords, rock walls, trees & boulders that looked like the moeraki boulders on New Zealand’s South Island (Maybe there will be some filming done in that region??) .

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Our second stop was the set for inside the hull of the Dawn Treader, up a flight of stairs and entered into another world, visually it all looked so real, the timber could have been 100 year old oak, it was not until you touched it that you knew it was all fabricated. There were wooden oars laid along the floor, large wooden barrels. This is the engine room of the Dawn Treader, when man power is needed to propell the ship. The explanation for why the ship was named of the Dawn Treader, was it always heads East approaching the Dawn.

The next set we were in King Caspian’s quarters aboard the Dawn Treader. It was dimly lit and really looked the part, this was a truly amazing visual treat. There was an ornate wooden writing desk below the large stained glass window which was surrounded by the timber of the boat with a mural on one of the walls.

You can read Nicholas’s full report here.

Thanks to icarus for the heads-up!

The Dawn Treader production has posted their first blog entry on Facebook with more details about the Dawn Treader. The following pictures were also posted.

Dear Friends:

We are delighted to offer the first of a planned series of reports direct from the set of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. These will not be the kinds of canned pieces you’d find on “traditional” outlets. Instead, you’ll be getting unfiltered reports from and about the filmmakers, as they work tirelessly to bring all the magic of C.S. Lewis’ beloved story and characters to the big screen:

“Dedicated to the Ones He Loves”
by Ernie Malik

“All Narnians, with grateful hearts may we give thanks to the crew of the mighty Dawn Treader for their strong minds and artisan hands”

So reads the dedication etched onto the base of the towering mast of production designer Barry Robison’s mighty and majestic set build of the film’s title character in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” which sat out on the peninsula at Cleveland Point about 20 miles east of Brisbane, Australia, and hosted cast/crew for 17 days of filming during the month of September.

What does it all mean?

It’s very possible that such merchant sailing ships of yore carried the names of its crew in honor of those whose hands helped build such a ship. Or, that of an unexpected death at sea.

In the film’s story, it was Barry’s idea to inscribe the ship’s soaring mast as Caspian’s dedication to his loyal Narnian crew who built the vessel for their King. While audiences will never see a close-up of the names on the mast, they represent, in the story, those Telmarine sailors on the journey with Caspian and the Pevensies.

However, below Barry’s poetic inscription on The Dawn Treader (which, by the way, was modeled somewhat after James Cook’s Endeavour, which sailed the South Seas in 1768, a replica of which currently sits in Sydney’s harbor) are the actual names of each individual on the film crew who had a hand in bringing this kingly frigate to life.

Regardless of their home, be it the U.S., Mexico, England, New Zealand, or Australia.

The list honors those carpenters, illustrators, plasterers, painters, laborers and art department personnel who all contributed to this monument to motion picture set designs. Robison estimates there are at least 200 people listed.

When he is questioned about the vessel (its inspiration, or dimensions, or whatever), the longtime movie artisan is quick to include the names of those who assisted in bringing his grand vision to life. While his name alone will grace the motion picture screen as the sole production designer for the film, he fondly recognizes that there are dozens of creative minds (and hundreds of talented hands) that crafted the regal set design.

Like supervising art director Ian Gracie, who served in the same capacity on “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Kiwi art director Mark Robins, who spent every day out at Cleveland Point overseeing its construction (after watching it first come to life on a sound stage at the studio). Mexican art director Marco Nero, whose early design work when filming was scheduled for Rosarito Beach (the site of the “Titanic” shoot in 1996) proved invaluable. Construction manager Sean Ahern. Head scenic (painter) Matt Connors, without whose contributions the ship would be just a colorless model. Like the names on the mast, Barry’s list goes on and on.

The day the boat was finally erected in its entirety out on the peninsula that juts out into the South Pacific, Barry stood beside his creation, almost in tears at the sight of the finality of what began as a three-foot model some 28 months ago.

Now, his design, and that of his colleagues, would get to shine before the movie cameras.

So, these few words are dedicated to this gracious gentleman, artist and creative talent whose own contributions to not only the Dawn Treader, but the entire movie itself, stand as a testament to movie magic in a land and world whose magical landscape has endured with readers the world over for well over a half century. And, will continue well into the millennium.

After reporting a couple days ago that filming had wrapped, we were contacted by the production and told that this week they are still shooting some final scenes. All filming units will wrap up officially this Friday, November 27.

Spencer Howson from ABC Brisbane spent some time with Michael Apted as they’re wrapping things up in Australia for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Apted spent a good amount of time talking about why they decided to film primarily in Brisbane and (more specifically) Cleveland Point.

It’s a very interesting interview that you can listen to on ABC Brisbane’s website here.

And just like that, filming for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader wraps up. According to the blog of Mirko Grillini filming finished up the afternoon of Nov 21.

As we have come to an end, the last opportunity of being all together was on Saturday night. My first hollywood wrap party…. wow. I can certainly do another one. There was so many people that I didn’t even get the chance of say hi to at least 75% of them.

It was great to see cast, crew and extras all together as one team, plus partners. Everybody was talking to everybody (or trying to) people dancing, the food was constantly coming around on large trays, and everybody seem to be happy.

We had finished the shoot late afternoon, just enough time to go back to the hotel, shower and get changed.

There were speeches from Mark Johnson, Michael Apted and the main cast, Ben wrapped it up with his amazing energy. I tell you what, he knows how to get the crowd going. He’s natural charm and portrayal are magnetic. Ben is not only a wonderful actor, he is a prince in real life, not because he’s from a royal family, but because he has an incredible good and friendly nature.

You can read the whole blog post here.

And now onto post-production!

Thanks to ellz_bellz for the heads-up!

Forty-three new pictures have appeared on the blog of Chris Martin, who claims to have done some prop construction on “Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

One of the highlights of this batch is a small boat. It seems safe to assume that it is Reepicheep’s coracle, which, in the book, the crew finds on Burnt Island. Most fans would no doubt be very excited to see the coracle in the film, since Reeicheep’s tear-jerker farewell on the coracle at the end of the book is a very memorable moment in the series, and one of the scenes that made the character such a fan-favorite.

But wait, there’s more. Also included are some sketches of the seven missing Lords, shots of the Dawn Treader’s deck, a shield with a strong Telmarine influence, and what looks like a very interesting steering wheel for the ship.

View the photos here.

Huge thanks to icarus for finding these!

Mirko Grillini, whose blog we reported on a couple days ago, has added a few more entries about his time on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader set. In an entry where he talks about makeup and hair, you can see a small picture of some concept art that is labeled “Ramandu’s Island” at the top. There it is on the right, though it’s a bit hard to make out because it’s so small. But it appears to be a rather tall and rocky island with lots of waterfalls pouring off of it. Beautiful!

Oh, and if you haven’t taken the time to actually read through Mirko Grillini’s blogs, you should definitely do so, they’re very interesting.

Thanks to icarus for the find!

TimesOnline has posted their prediction of the 50 biggest movies of 2010. They have The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at number 16. “One of a number of franchises jostling for the soon-to-be vacated Harry Potter spot, the Narnia series suffered something of a setback with Prince Caspian’s lacklustre performance. Dawn Treader is, though, considered by the Narnia faithful to be one of the best books of the set. The best known names in the film, Liam Neeson and Eddie Izzard, don’t actually appear onscreen, but lend their voices to two of the fanciful characters encountered by the young cast as they seek the Seven Lost Lords of Narnia. For good or for ill, this will be a turning point in this series. If it succeeds, The Silver Chair and other Narnia movies will win an enormous worldwide audience. If receipts are broadly similar to those of its predecessor, it could well be the last of the Narnia films.” You can read the full list here. Thanks to Lucy P. for the heads-up!

NarniaWebber icarus stumbled across the blog of one of the Telmarine crew members working on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In this blog he confirms what roles Rhince and Rynelf will have for the movie. If you are avoiding spoilers for the movie, you may wish to stop reading here as both characters have been changed.

From the blog of Mirko Grillini (who plays “The Belligerent Telmarine”):

Arthur [Angel] plays Rhince in the film, joining the crew on board of the Dawn Treader to begin his voyage looking for his wife.

Narnia has now reopened the door to [Tony Nixon's] screen performance abilities with his role of Rynelf, the right hand of Captain Drinian (played by Gary Sweet). He is effectively my boss on the boat

For those of you who follow the discussions on the forum, we’ve long suspected that Rhince might be the father to Gael based on the video clip here where the two jump off the side of the ship to swim out to Gael’s mother.

We’d also noticed that Rhince never appears in a typical sailors costume unlike the rest of the crew, and rather appears to be a blacksmith or some other craftsman.

So this blog has confirmed that the role of Rhince has been changed from the book and Rynelf will be taking his place as First Mate. Should be interesting to see how they do this come Dec 2010!

Huge thanks to icarus for the find!

There are a couple blogs out there describing personal The Voyage of the Dawn Treader set visits at Movie World. There aren’t very many spoilers, but they’re still fun to read.

The first is from the blog of Nicholas Greening:

Last Friday I went to Movie World on the Gold Coast to meet with Mr Douglas Gresham, the stepson of C.S. Lewis who was the author of The Chronicles of Narnia.

Douglas Gresham very kindly allowed me and my family to see the filming of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We met a lot of the actors including Ben Barnes (King Caspian), Georgie Henley( Lucy Pevensie) and many of the cast and crew.

Gary Sweet (Lord Drinian, the captain of the Dawn Treader) and Skandar Keynes (Edmund Pevensie) were busy acting out a scene where the Dawn Treader is being attacked by a sea monster. The Dawn Treader was being moved around by it’s hydrolic base and all the actors were falling across the deck.

You can read Nicolas’s full report on his blog here.

The second report comes from dkyarian’s livejournal blog and it reads:

One of the coolest things we’ve been able to do was our last full day on the East Coast…we were able to visit the set of the third Narnia film, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”!! (Many thanks to Pastor Bob! J ) We were given a personal tour of the studios by the PR Director, who let us walk through sets (a large town square, Prince Caspian’s ship quarters, & on top of the giant ship!). He also answered so many questions we had about filming, PR, etc. We also watched filming in the cast member’s chairs (I was sitting in Ben Barnes’ chair-he is the actor that plays Caspian!); there is SO much that goes into a full-length film, I couldn’t believe it! Even just one minor scene took so long to rehearse, try different angles, etc.

You can read dkyarian’s full report on his/her blog entry here.

Thanks to icarus for the heads-up!