Waterworld WATERWORLD CHRONOLOGY
TIG, Kevin Costner's production company, contacted LAGOON in January of 1993 in order to obtain information (photos, videos, posters, etc.) that described the trimarans such as PIERRE Ier, the generation of the open 60s designed by naval architects Marc Van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot-Prevost, who have also designed among other boats Hydroptère as well as the maxi trimaran Lyonnaise (Kersauzon) as well as all of the LAGOON catamarans. In June, LAGOON was contacted again, this time by Gassner Associates (Dennis Gassner received an Oscar for Barton Fink), the Production Designer for a big movie to come. Following his visit at the end of July, an estimate was prepared for the construction of a 60' trimaran along the lines of that of Florence Arthaud. We were at that time competing among five other boatbuilders (from New Zealand and the United States). In the beginning of August 1993, Lagoon was able to provide drawings showing the trimaran and its transformations as well as a proposition on Gassner's request for two boats instead of one, by mid-August, LAGOON put together a final proposal that was acceptable to both sides. On the August 20th, Dennis Gassner and Peter Chesney (Special Effects Designer) came to LAGOON where they were shown a model and were given a construction schedule that they could work with (delivery mid-April at the film location yet to be determined: Malta, New Zealand, Great Barrier Reef of Australia, Bahamas, London, or Hawaii were under consideration). Dennis Gassner then left us with the understanding that the order would be officially placed shortly. On September 1st, the order came but with a modification: the delivery date had been moved to March 15, 1994, with the boats ready to go on location. This meant that the boats had to leave France by February 15th at the latest. And so LAGOON began a literal race against the clock involving the following companies: MAG France (Robert Sicard and Nordahl Mabire, VMG) for the crossbeam arms, JP 3 (Jean-Pol Zolli) for all of the mechanical parts, Frank de Rivoyre for all of the special first of it's kind rigging specifications (the mast had to transform and grow from 15 to 25 meters high), Marechal (Jean-Pierre Marechal) for building the masts, Incidences-Cudennec for specials sets of sails, Cedric Chavau for the special aged Spectra rigging, and Breiz Elec for the electrical implementation. At LAGOON itself, Bruno Belmont created a special team made up of Vincent Laigo, Sebastian Magnen, and Alexendre Le Martelot, all of who spent days and nights pushing forward with the project, which was already of enormous proportions. Contact with Gassner was held every day, from 6 p.m. to midnight, while the team started each morning at 5 a.m. Gassner or Chesney would come visit every month, and before Christmas, the boats had been pre-assembled. At that time, the choice of location was made - the Big Island of Hawaii - and LAGOON contacted CARGOLUX in Luxembourg to prepare the transport by Boeing 747-400 of all of the parts. The Kona airport had to lengthen their runway by 2 miles to allow the plane to land, and CARGOLUX, in delivering the boats and material, broke the record of long-distance freight delivery! Bruno Belmont went on a reconnaissance mission in January to check on the location and the weather conditions (humidity levels, for instance, could go from 20 to 100% in the matter of minutes, affecting the choice of fiberglass resins to be used in assembling the boats). A list of logistical and material needs was also made. On the way back, a stop at Universal Pictures to procure a script (4th version), in order to get a better idea of just what to expect. On February 9th, 1994, all of the parts were en route toward Luxembourg, while Bruno Belmont and a team of 15 technicians flew to Hawaii to prepare for the convoy's arrival. For many of the team, it was their first time in an airplane! Bruno Belmont made himself available to the producers of WATERWORLD during the duration of the filming, as those involved were looking for someone who could at the same time act as marine technical advisor as well as make sure that the trimarans would work and stay in working condition. He was bestowed the title of Trimaran Coordinator and was in charge of anything involving the sailboats. On March 14th, the contractual obligation was fulfilled, the two trimarans were ready, painted white in a huge sugar hangar, ready for the Hollywood touch to be applied by the different specialists (Special Effects, painters, decorators, etc.) under the watchful eye of Dennis Gassner. The LAGOON technical crew left shortly afterwards, with Bruno Belmont staying behind with his family to put together a crew of "locals" including area skipper Gary Hoover to assure smooth operations until September, who when overcome by fatigue was replaced by Barry Idoine, a New Zealander being used as first camera assistant, who had been there since the beginning accompanying his wife Cathy Schweitzer, who has Kevin Reynold's assistant. On April 2nd, the first trimaran was launched and the mast was stepped, and the first sea trials took place the following day. Moving the boat from the hangar to the water was done with a trailer designed by Bruno Belmont that was built by in a local workshop, monopolizing all of the staff. For the first time, the production people realized that they were working with a real sailboat instead of just a decorative part of the scenery. Painted, decorated, equipped with all kinds of crazy gadgets, the trimaran sailed in 15 knots of breeze in Kawaihae Bay. Nothing remarkable happened while the crew familiarized themselves with sailing the boat while entirely hidden inside - an inner central cockpit housed the mainsail and genoa winches, manned by three men, connected by radio to the navigation center occupied by Bruno Belmont who had at his disposition video screens, a GPS chartplotter, a B & G navigation center, and radios to communicate with either the crew, those on the shore, with other boats or even a helicopter. The first camera shoots started at the end of April, led by Dean Semler, the movie's Photo Director, and that is when we first got the sense of the amplitude of the movie itself: barges, catamarans, zodiacs, all turning around a trimaran with 20 people on board, while in the harbor the construction of a 150 meter diameter atoll was underway! Following these first shoots, the director Kevin Reynolds asked that the trimarans be painted a darker color, and the boats were put back on land and reconditioned. Shooting began at the end of June with the scene where the trimaran enters the atoll; Kevin Costner had but 15 days to train under the tutelage of Bruno Belmont, but he quickly became used to the boat, and on that first day, the first of 150 to come, everything happened without a hitch. So that the boat could enter the atoll through the gateway (with less than a meter clearance on each side), Peter Chesney and Bruno Belmont came up with a system of land-anchored cables activated by a zodiac and using a mooring line that passed under the boat and into the side portholes that the trimaran cast off once Bruno Belmont heard the director shout "Action!". This operation was repeated around 20 times the first day, and the system of cables, complete with two cross pieces, was used from then on for all of the scenes inside of the atoll. During one of the scenes, the trimaran was held in place, under sail, at the inner end of the atoll, so that the camera could film its rapid exit towards the gates. For safety's sake, Bruno Belmont tripled the mooring lines used to hold the boat in place so that the boat wouldn't crash on the other side of the atoll. Kevin Reynolds was expecting a slow acceleration, and was astonished to see the boat fly across the atoll in only a few seconds ! Three mooring lines was just enough to hold it in place after all. After a month and a half of shooting the film in the atoll, where the trimarans were used every day, we began to film outside of the harbor and at sea, sometimes with the film crew on board, sometimes with them filming from a barge or the helicopter. These scenes were mostly shot in calm conditions (wind less than 20 knots), with cancellations interspersed here and there because of hurricane warnings (which happened three times), or to send everybody offshore because of a tidal wave warning (luckily, this happened only once)! The camera was only supposed to see the horizon, and it was a real brain-teaser so that successive scenes could be filmed where the sails would always be viewed on the same side! Shooting also had to stop once the boat reached the horizon, or when an airplane crossed the sky, and regularly shooting lasted until sunset. The second production unit, in charge of directing the scenes without the principle actors, began using the trimarans for the scenes of the open sea, and the boats finally were let loose to run with the wind: the 30 knot speed barrier was broken in September for the first time, and Kevin Reynolds could not believe his eyes ! From October to December, the scenes were shot on the boat at sea in a breeze. For one scene with Kevin Costner on board, Kevin Reynolds wanted to "push the limits", and the trimaran was pushed to the limit as well, in 45 to 50 knots of wind and smooth seas starting to swell up, doing 33 knots through the water. The priority was always safety first, and never to endanger anyone in any manner, so while the boat was being pushed to its maximum, or during delicate maneuvers (such as passing over the camera that was located in the water), Bruno Belmont was always close at hand on deck, hidden under the netting, to tell the actors where it was safe to be, and what parts of the boat to avoid. Safety issues were multiplied when the three principal actors were all on board at once ; each with their hair stylist, their make-up person, their wardrobe manager, etc., so that sometimes there were up to 40 people on board, and none of them with any sailing experience whatsoever among them. When the wind piped up, it was often necessary to evacuate the boat so that no one fell in the water! Sometimes the boat would be anchored outside of the harbor (for the scenes where the boat didn't have to be seen in motion). Then, two 15 meter barges would be alongside, and the trimaran was totally invaded! The role of each crewmember (Mike de Wilde, Steve Crory, Elika, Robert, Munch, and towards the end, Tom and J.B.) was to watch over the safety of those on board, especially getting on and off the barges. The second trimaran, which couldn't sail but transformed itself by deploying, in less than 8 seconds in one operation, 10 meters of mast vertically, the mainsail and the boom (that launched out of the deck and telescoped upwards) all the while unrolling the genoa, also saw a lot of action. It demanded a lot of special attention because, in the "folded" mode, the mast had no lower shrouds, akin to a vertical strand of spaghetti with a 10 Kg weight at the top! Filming at sea with waves over 50 cm high was impossible without putting in place the safety lower shrouds. Gary Hoover and then Barry Idoine were respectively in charge of the two trimarans when they were being used. After filming was finished on the 10th of December 1994, the main film unit closed its door on Hawaii to finish filming in the studio, and none of the boats suffered the slightest damage, and no one on board had been hurt. For LAGOON, this is the principle source of pride and satisfaction, as well as having been included in the participation of such a gigantic production. During the course of the adventure, Kevin Costner and Bruno Belmont became friends, and following that Kevin Costner came to San Diego to join Bruno Belmont during the America's Cup trials; where he spent a day on board of the French challenger. Back |