SPOT LOCAL MOVIE SETS
GUIDE TO PIRATES SCENES
AARRR ... are you silver screen savvy, savvies? Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Men Tell No Tales co-directors Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning captured footage for their first Hollywood blockbuster from Far North Queensland all the way down the coast to Hastings Point, in Northern NSW.
However, the lion’s share of filming on the biggest motion picture ever shot in Australia took place at three key locations on the Gold Coast.
Here are the locations where three scenes featured in the $300 million-plus blockbuster were filmed.
THE DYING GULL CASTAWAY SET, THE SPIT
Fondly referred to by cast and crew as “the Bondi Cigar”, a version of the hulk ship known as The Dying Gull was built on a ramp at The Spit on the section of sand known as The Finger.
According to the Pirates scrolls, The Dying Gull is a single-masted sloop that sailed the Caribbean during the 1750s. The ship was launched along the ramp into the Broadwater several times during the final days of the shoot. Excited onlookers took shore leave at Bum’s Bay to inspect the action, which featured Johnny Depp’s pirate character Captain Jack Sparrow, members of his motley pirate crew and Pirates newcomers Brenton Thwaites (Young Henry) and Kaya Scodelario (Carina Smyth).
Cranes and tractors, graders, screens, ropes, pullies, trolleys and hoists were trucked on to the sandy point for filming.
Security guards and police patrolled nearby beaches and the Broadwater as jetskiers, fishermen, people on surf-skis, yachties, teens in tinnies, families and landlubbers with binoculars and cameras jockeyed for position hoping to catch a glimpse of Captain Jack.
THE BLACK PEARL, THE ‘SHIP ARENA’, HELENSVALE
Gold Coasters clocked their first sighting of the film’s pirate fleet near a suburban shopping centre and train station when a giant ship arena rose from a block of vacant land at Helensvale.
The Black Pearl was one of 11 vessels painstakingly crafted by local crew at the giant, purpose-built outdoor studio.
The ships were all built on computerised motion bases, also known as ‘rockers’. Locals were often lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a mast or two peeking out from the 100 shipping containers that framed the arena.
Footage for scenes from the film featuring new ship The Silent Mary – the ghost ship belonging to Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) – and returning Pirates franchise vessels the Queen Anne’s Revenge, captained by Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), and the beloved Black Pearl, captained by Jack Sparrow/Young Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp/Anthony De La Torre), was captured at the Helensvale set during day and night shoots.
The Black Pearl was easily identifiable thanks to its capstan – the same one seen in the earlier incarnations of Captain Jack Sparrow’s ship in the first, second and third Pirates films. For landlubbers who know not what that means, the capstan is a mechanism that turns so that rope or cable can wind around it and move or lift heavy weights, such as a ship’s anchor.
THE ST MARTIN TOWN SET, MAUDSLAND
A cast and crew of thousands featured in some of the bigger sequences shot at Maudsland, including the now iconic image of Jack Sparrow surrounded by ‘red coats’.
The extraordinarily detailed St Martin set, designed by Nigel Phelps and realised by supervising art director Ian Gracie and construction coordinator Bernie Childs, was also the backdrop for a bank heist sequence. Pirates opens on Thursday.