The Whale – Filming update

This week the cast & crew are filming scenes in the large tanks  situated at the Mediterranean Film Studios in Malta. Fans of Game of Thrones might know the location as they used the very same studios and its Island surroundings in all three seasons of the HBO series.

In the story of The Whale, the crew of the whaleship Essex have to face multiple squalls, tropical thunderstorms and gale force winds during their 90 day ordeal. Actually they were confronted with a squall just days after leaving the harbour of Nantucket. I’m not exactly sure if they are planning to film every single one Owen Chase mentioned in his narrative, but let’s hope for the cast that they do a selection.

Click on the picture to learn more about the water tanks.

I’ve always loved the making-off of films almost as much, if not more since as long as I can remember watching films. I’m the kind of girl that likes to stay in the cinema and watch the entire credits roll by or is more than happy to watch hours of bonus features on DVD’s more than once! Especially when it comes to either special effects, props, costumes, lighting, storyboards or editing and naturally the audio commentaries from either director or cast. Yes the LOTR ultimate boxset might spring to mind as a perfect example of what I mean.

As Discovery Channel is co-producing the project, I really hope they’ll be making a documentary about the industry of whaling and whaleships like the Essex, to accompany the film. And if they do that they’ll mix in some kind of making-off as well , as I’m really fascinated how they build the ship for filming and of course how they used the water tanks to achieve the storms and the whale attacks! In Master and Commander (2003) I remember the entire ship could be tilted at all possible angles, but not sure if they’re using same principle here or not. So fingers crossed  a making-off will be found on the DVD.

Really want to wish the entire cast & crew of The Whale the best of luck and fun while filming these sequences and hope none of you get injured!

If you want to stay up to date a reminder that Jassa Ahluwalia (Owen Coffin) just keeps making everyone jealous by posting pictures of the gorgeous sunny Malta filming locations and tweets almost every day what they’ve been up to. Many thanks indeed!