Elk Falls Provincial Park
Jul. 5th, 2007 09:17 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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13thwarriorI visited this park, on the outskirts of Campbell River, British Columbia, on Monday July 2. On Tuesday I got to talk to the woman who scouted locations for the film, and she gave me a lot of great information. I'll post about that later when I do the other location post, but I'm bringing it up because she talked about Elk Falls too. One thing that came up is how much this location is used for any movie in BC, from The Scarlet Letter (one of the first filmed in BC) to Pathfinder.
In The 13th Warrior, this location was used for the wendol camp. The caves, although apparently adjacent to the river set, were built at the other primary filming location (Elk Bay), but Disney was impatient with the shoot being so far from Vancouver and demanded that they be moved back to the city, so the built set was disassembled and reassembled in Vancouver.
This is some of the trail around one of the visitor entrances to the park. We went to a parking lot for the very short walk to the falls viewpoint, rather than taking a 5 km hike (I'd just finished a hike and didn't want to do a second).
The trails all around the parking lot were impeccable; wide, flat, well-groomed. There was also plenty of fencing and signs. The river above the falls is dammed for hydroelectric power, so all the signs were warnings for changes in flow (if you hear a siren, they're releasing water and you should get to higher ground). This was mere hundreds of feet from the river bank, where they built sets and did filming, a testament to movie magic: you can't tell at all that this level of development is so close, and that they had literally hundreds of people in the park watching the filming going on.
The park is so accommodating because it's good business. It attracts visitors (witness: me) and the film companies bring business to the area. Plus, Joan (my guide) said she encourages film companies to pay back the filming locations in some way, such as a load of gravel for a road, or some trail work. The trails look this good because the film company groomed them. They replaced the fences and signs (removed for filming) and spruced up the trail, leaving it better than before they'd started. Everyone wins.
I made a map so that you can get a sense of positioning. The trail switchbacks parallel along the river. You can walk off the trail and onto the bedrock river bank (at your own risk). Orange is for sets produced by the movie. Red is for camera angles with the corresponding screencaptures. White numbers are my camera angles and corresponding photos.
My photo, panning from up river (left) down to the falls (right, off-camera).
Looking down river and across the falls to the cliff opposite. In this shot, you're looking across at the ledge where Herger, Buliwyf, Ibn, et al lay down and leaned over to watch the wendol ("Straight into the rock face!").
This shot is from the viewpoint further down the trail (a couple hundred feet). That's Elk Falls. The dam was spilling a lot of water on that day, and planned to spill more; we were awaiting the siren at any time. Very impressive flow, especially with a sheer rock cliff on all sides and a river that makes two 90˚ turns from the falls (left from the pool, then right again).
Note the tree hanging over the cliff (above where I drew the bridge). That's a full-size trunk, maybe 20 or 30 feet long, for scale comparison. :)
I panned down for this shot, showing more of the pool and cliff. I'm quite impressed that they built the bridge and faux cave entrance, given how inaccessible that cliff face looks.
A shot from the movie, taken from the ledge I mentioned. Note the weak water flow; they'd turned the water almost completely off for filming.
Looking down from the previous spot, showing the bridge landing directly below. In the corner, you can see the surface of the pool far below.
The boys infiltrate the wendol camp and watch the wendol. At this point they're further up the river bank (having gone around from the ledge and down to the bank) and looking down river.
Back on the ledge, showing one of the boys in a wendol disguise crossing the bridge. Another view of the falls.
As you can tell, this area is really very accessible. I think if I'd had the right energy, I would have been up for some hiking on the trails and finding different vantage points, but this was great for so little effort. And the park itself is a beautiful place, worth a visit on its own merits. If you're in the area, check it out.
In The 13th Warrior, this location was used for the wendol camp. The caves, although apparently adjacent to the river set, were built at the other primary filming location (Elk Bay), but Disney was impatient with the shoot being so far from Vancouver and demanded that they be moved back to the city, so the built set was disassembled and reassembled in Vancouver.
This is some of the trail around one of the visitor entrances to the park. We went to a parking lot for the very short walk to the falls viewpoint, rather than taking a 5 km hike (I'd just finished a hike and didn't want to do a second).
The trails all around the parking lot were impeccable; wide, flat, well-groomed. There was also plenty of fencing and signs. The river above the falls is dammed for hydroelectric power, so all the signs were warnings for changes in flow (if you hear a siren, they're releasing water and you should get to higher ground). This was mere hundreds of feet from the river bank, where they built sets and did filming, a testament to movie magic: you can't tell at all that this level of development is so close, and that they had literally hundreds of people in the park watching the filming going on.
The park is so accommodating because it's good business. It attracts visitors (witness: me) and the film companies bring business to the area. Plus, Joan (my guide) said she encourages film companies to pay back the filming locations in some way, such as a load of gravel for a road, or some trail work. The trails look this good because the film company groomed them. They replaced the fences and signs (removed for filming) and spruced up the trail, leaving it better than before they'd started. Everyone wins.
I made a map so that you can get a sense of positioning. The trail switchbacks parallel along the river. You can walk off the trail and onto the bedrock river bank (at your own risk). Orange is for sets produced by the movie. Red is for camera angles with the corresponding screencaptures. White numbers are my camera angles and corresponding photos.
My photo, panning from up river (left) down to the falls (right, off-camera).
Looking down river and across the falls to the cliff opposite. In this shot, you're looking across at the ledge where Herger, Buliwyf, Ibn, et al lay down and leaned over to watch the wendol ("Straight into the rock face!").
This shot is from the viewpoint further down the trail (a couple hundred feet). That's Elk Falls. The dam was spilling a lot of water on that day, and planned to spill more; we were awaiting the siren at any time. Very impressive flow, especially with a sheer rock cliff on all sides and a river that makes two 90˚ turns from the falls (left from the pool, then right again).
Note the tree hanging over the cliff (above where I drew the bridge). That's a full-size trunk, maybe 20 or 30 feet long, for scale comparison. :)
I panned down for this shot, showing more of the pool and cliff. I'm quite impressed that they built the bridge and faux cave entrance, given how inaccessible that cliff face looks.
A shot from the movie, taken from the ledge I mentioned. Note the weak water flow; they'd turned the water almost completely off for filming.
Looking down from the previous spot, showing the bridge landing directly below. In the corner, you can see the surface of the pool far below.
The boys infiltrate the wendol camp and watch the wendol. At this point they're further up the river bank (having gone around from the ledge and down to the bank) and looking down river.
Back on the ledge, showing one of the boys in a wendol disguise crossing the bridge. Another view of the falls.
As you can tell, this area is really very accessible. I think if I'd had the right energy, I would have been up for some hiking on the trails and finding different vantage points, but this was great for so little effort. And the park itself is a beautiful place, worth a visit on its own merits. If you're in the area, check it out.
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Date: 2007-07-06 06:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-07 12:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-07 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-07 12:05 am (UTC)