pirates of the caribbean - Cannes International Film Festival

In addition to Astrid Bergès-Frisbey’s Syrena, “real” mermaids came in the form of seven
gorgeous model/actresses (including Australia’s superstar Gemma Ward as the alluring
Tamara) and a talented team of 22 synchronized swimmers—some of them Olympic
competitors in Beijing in 2008—organized and choreographed by Candace Hipp, and
outfitted in motion-capture suits to later be converted into “reel” mermaids by visual
effects supervisor Charles Gibson and Ben
Snow of Industrial Light & Magic.
Considering the amount of time they all had
to spend in the waters of the Whitecap Bay
set at Universal—at night, no less—it
helped greatly for them to have a comfort
level in liquid surroundings. “In Australia we
have beach training from a very young age,”
notes Ward, “and I’ve always loved being in
the ocean. We did a lot of training in the water for this film with certain types of
movements that mermaids make, and the way they move underwater is very different
from a human being. We had to learn how to move with our legs together and
undulating movements.” While a fashion icon, Ward is still relatively new to the acting
ranks, and was clearly blown away by the size and scope of the Whitecap Bay set. “My
God, it’s amazing; it’s incredible. I mean, just the scope of it; I’d never seen anything like
this before.”
“The biggest challenge,” notes synchronized swimming coach and choreographer
Candace Hipp, “is that the girls don’t get to use their arms as much as they would like.
So they’re using a ‘dolphining kick,’ one of the hardest kicks to use in swimming because
of the stomach muscles that need to be used. This is when the swimmers jump out of
the water as far as they can, keeping their legs together. They’re also using what’s called
the ‘eggbeater,’ turning your legs around and around in circles as a way of treading
water.”
The actors, who had to be together in a small wooden boat floating in the middle of the
huge Falls Lake tank, forged a camaraderie based on necessity. “We were surrounded by
beautiful mermaids, so that wasn’t a bad thing by any means,” says Sam Claflin, “but it
definitely wasn’t the most comfortable of boats, and there were six of us in that tiny
boat for four consecutive nights. It was kind of like island fever, but on a boat. But we
started feeling like real pirates, singing songs, mucking about and having chats between
takes. We made our own entertainment, and it was nice to get to know each other and
the mermaids.”
The visual effects for “On Stranger Tides,” which would prove to be as much of a gamechanger
as what had been done for the previous three films, were primarily handled by
Industrial Light & Magic, Moving Picture Company and Cinesite, with contributions also
made by CIS Hollywood, Rising Sun, Method and Hydraulx, all under the supervision of
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