“Dive In” to Narnia: Exclusive Blog from the Set

Tuesday, 2/2/2010

A new blog from the set of the upcoming Narnia film, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER has just been posted to the Official Narnia Facebook Fan Page. Read an excerpt below, and become a fan of Narnia to be the first to receive updates about the production.

In DAWN TREADER which is due out in theaters this December, the Pevensies return to Narnia and embark on an adventure on the high seas. To prepare for all of the water scenes in the film, the young cast became scuba certified, and embraced life underwater:

“The third book in C.S. Lewis’ series begins when the two youngest Pevensies, along with their irritating cousin Eustace, are swallowed into a bedroom wall painting, which depicts a ship sailing on the high seas.

To create the effect of the bedroom flooding with water, the production’s mechanical SFX crew, under the direction of veteran movie magician Brian Cox, and working with Barry Robison’s and Ian Gracie’s crack art department and construction crew, duplicated the sound stage bedroom set on an elevated platform which was then dunked into the smaller of Warner Roadshow’s two exterior studio water tanks. The three actors were then instructed to swim out of the bedroom door and windows to the surface.

Weeks before their scenes were filmed, Keynes, Poulter and Henley underwent a three-day scuba diving course under the supervision of Aussie diving instructor Andrew Allen. The actors trained in a local swimming pool and at sea.

You can say they all took to the lessons like fish to water.

After a relatively short rehearsal period in the studio tanks, filming began on the bedroom water scenes in late July, the first week of production. A short time later, the three young actors dove into a second studio tank, to enact the moments where they surface in the ocean and are saved by Caspian and his crew aboard the Dawn Treader.

One might assume the cast would wait until all camera angles were set before jumping into the tank. Not so. There were several situations where the actors were required to wait underwater until director Michael Apted (the new skipper at the helm of the “Narnia” franchise) called “action!” In these instances, stunt coordinator Allan Poppleton’s safety dive crew rigged scuba tanks to the floor of the studio water tank, 24 feet underwater. The actors would then dive to the bottom of the pool, don a mask and regulator, and breathe normally until they were ready to film a take at the water’s surface.

The actors became so adept and comfortable staying underwater for long periods that, to pass the time, they would play “Paper-Scissors-Rock!” while awaiting their filming cue. The game simulates a coin toss in selecting something for a desired purpose – such as determining who would make it to the surface first once Apted rolled cameras.”

Posted by » walden
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