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Filming on the Renown, the 74 gun ship that plays a
main character in the new Hornblower movies, is complete, but we're here
today to see where it all happened. Standing on the quarterdeck of the
ship and staring out to the Mediterranean Sea, you feel like you could
set sail at any moment. But just a glance over the edge of the ship
reminds you that you are steadfastly planted to land, unlikely to move
an inch. The Renown is built atop a cliff near the La Mola Fort on the
island of Menorca, Spain. From certain angles, you'd never believe this
is just the shell of a ship, designed to completion only in spots. Built
on a cleared and leveled plot of land on an eastern tip of the island,
the Renown comprises several miles of rope, 17 tons of steel, about 20
cubic meters of concrete, and lots of wood. The Renown measures about 30
meters long by 12 1/2 meters wide. The ship's designer, production
designer Rob Harris, is on the Renown today, giving a tour. Harris tells
us that when he and his crew arrived on the site it was just a grassy
slope. They had to clear the area, and even build a road, so they could
transport all the building materials up to the site. The Spanish
construction company that built the Renown spent two weeks in
preparation before they arrived on-site for another four weeks to
actually build it. Since the ship is built on land, and is completely
still, the look of movement was created all with cameras.
Ext. Quarterback - Renown - Day
We asked Harris a few questions about the Renown:
A&E: How is this ship different
from the Grand Turk?
Rob Harris: This is a much bigger ship. The last series was a
frigate. This is a 74 gun ship, which is basically the battleship of the
time, so it's three times bigger.
A&E: Who would have been on a ship
like this during the Napoleonic Wars?
RH: Eight hundred fifty people
lived on it, sailed it, fought on it. So it was absolutely a sea of
people. Seventy four gun ship means 74 guns. It was a huge firing
platform. Lots of sailors to man the rigging, to do all of the sailing,
lots of Marines, so it was very, very busy.
A&E: Were there any difficulties
here with bad weather?
RH: Because we are quite high
up in the most easternly point of Spain, there are very high winds. We
had trouble on the night shoots and the weekend night shoots when we had
storms and rain and wind. Because on a ship, when there is lots of wind,
the wind hits the ship, but the ship moves. But when the wind hits the
ship, because it's concreted down, it doesn't move, so there was the
possibility at one point that it might not be here the next morning with
the force nine gales.
A&E: What was the biggest
challenge in designing this ship?
RH: Obviously, the scale of
it, building it on an island-and quite a rugged part of the island-where
there wasn't any access to all the things we want. It was a question of
materials, getting it built, and just making sure it stayed here for the
time of filming.
A&E: What will you do with the
Renown when you're done filming?
RH: It's going to be stored
not for the next story but the story after it. It's on a very similar
ship so it's going to be stored here on Menorca.
A&E: I bet nobody got seasick this
time, right?
RH: People did start to feel
sort of, um, seasick in the night when the wind and the rain were coming
in and everyone was running around. But nobody was actually seasick.
A&E: Have the cast and crew
preferred filming here or on the Grand Turk?
RH: I think the general
consensus is that they prefer not to be seasick...and they got a lot
more done than when they actually filmed at sea because it certainly
depends on the weather. You can spend a week not being able to go out to
sea and also because you are filming on land, you can actually get
better shots.
A&E: What will you shoot at the
studios in London?
RH: We're doing all the
below-deck stuff, with the gun deck and the hold and the orlop deck
hold. We'll work on the Pinewood [Studios] tank with the models. We have
large, 7-meter models of these ships, which we will insert into the
story.
A&E: Why do you think people are
so interested in these ships?
RH: I think it's the history.
It's the fact that they were made out of huge lumps of wood, and they
took hugely skillful people to actually make them and very skillful
people to sail them. And you don't go and turn your engine on and drive
off; you've got to actually be a part of it in order to make it work.
Ext. Fort - La Mola
Back on the set, Matthews (Paul Copley) has just rammed a hot shot into
one of the six mighty cannon's at the fort's perimeter, and it begins to
steam. Under Bush's advisement, Matthews makes a run for it, across the
fort's ledge, away from the potent gun.
This scene is a tricky one, and they go over it several times. Between
takes, Paul gets a break and runs over for a hello: He's just thought of
a little anecdote he'd like to share with the fans on the A&E Web site
that he knows they'll appreciate. He tells us that just the other day,
the cast and crew had a "whip round" (or passing of the hat for a
collection) to raise money for a wedding present to send to a couple
that met during filming of the last Hornblower movies. The couple, two
interpreters from the Ukrainian set-one of them the director's
interpreter-were married on June 10. By the time Paul finishes the
story, the assistant director is setting up the scene again-Paul dashes
back to position for another take.
It's getting late in the evening, and everyone is waiting to find out if
the scene where the gun actually blows will be filmed today. Finally,
it's announced: It will be the first scene tomorrow morning. We'll have
to wait until then...
Continue to Part 3
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