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Behind the scenes

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Most of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed either on the water, at an abandoned amusement  park, or this massive prison that they built for close up shots outside.

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Anything shot in the "moonlight" had to be don't indoors where they could control the lighting in a place like the picture to the right.  They also had to be creative with any shots at "night" like the picture to the left.  Because they can't set the stage on fire, a really bright projector works.

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Shooting here required a lot of infrastructure to hide the houses and bits of amusement park, but the result was a gorgeous place to work.

At this point in the film Elizabeth has been kidnapped by the pirates, and Barbosa is showing her how he and his crew are "cursed".  This required a lot of special effects and a fair amount of equipment.

Instead of  having the actors actually tread through water and remember their sword-fight choreography, they used platforms over the water.

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The idea for makeup in this film was fairly simple: make the actors look unhealthy and gross, but wardrobe required a little more attention to detail.  A lot of the props for the main actors were real pieces from the time of pirates.

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Instead of build a pirate ship, the crew built a fake ship over an existing barge.  

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They also built the cage for the treasure from scratch, cutting through styrofoam and spray painting it.  To the right is a renovated imitation of the first ship to land on our continent.  It got a face lift and played the Interceptor in the film.

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