Portsea Filming

One night in late November, a group of three movie fans took a trip to Portsea (about an hour-and-a-half drive from the city of Melbourne) to scope out the night's filming of 'Queen of the Damned'...

Eyewitness account one:
(Daniel)

"Stephanie, Louise and I (Daniel) went on a mission to find the Queen of the Damned filming, at Portsea. It was a fairly impressive job to actually find anything that night as the Mornington peninsula is a large place. We had trouble finding an open supermarket on the way home. Anyway the night was dark and balmy. We wore minimal clothing and the three of us packed into Stephanie's car. All excited about the trip ahead, mostly not sure if we would find anything.

We had been driving for about an hour, and after a few failed attempts at looking for vampires in the local cemetries, I asked Stephanie if she would like me to ask the local teenagers if they knew anything. She parked the car and I ran toward three teenage girls. "Excuse me" I began, "But have you seen any movie vans drive past, or any Cameras set up near town?". "No, why?" One of the girls replied. "Well," I began slyly, "I am running late for the filming of the Queen of the Damned." "Oh, yeah its down at Portsea back beach, What are you doing in it?" I couldn't resist. "I am an actor," I said, half lying. "Oh my god!" They all screamed, "Come back to my house!" "Sorry guys I gotta run," I yelled as I sprinted toward the car. "What's it about?" she called after me. "Vampires". I left them in a fit of giggles and screams and jumped back into the car.

Driving for what seemed like an eternity we finally found Portsea back beach. We saw a sign wich read "DQ". "A stupid code word for Queen of the Damned" I guessed, not remembering DQ Productions. Just as Louise said, "We will never find anything" we rounded the corner. A mass of light hit us and we were confronted with a huge set of marques all encasing tables for what would be the cast and crews dining area.

Stephanie turned off the car. We crept along the road and parked two cars into their car parks, and got out of the car. Looking back we saw security approach us, and we ran. We ran down toward the beach down a flight of stairs and hit the sand. Then we ran toward the shore. Then the most beautiful sight graced our eyes. A huge island of stone in the water lit up like it was the walls to "Those who must be kept". Then we ran. Through our own excitemment or our own fear we ran to escape anyone who might spoil this chance at seeing visions of Lestat and Akasha in the flesh.

We finaly got to the set. We had been running for almost ten minutes when we got to the cliff face. We slowly crept around the rocks and the sand looking at all aspects of the set. The whole sky lit up with massive lights. And there was Lestat with Akasha. Lestat was being shown the Gypsies. Akasha and Lestat looked on as the Gypsies danced and played the violin and mandolin. Then it was time for a rest. One of the Gypsies wandered from the camp fire and walked along the beach. We hid further into the shadows, but to no avail. We could still be seen. He wandered up one side of the shore and then turned around and came back. He glimpsed at us, and us at him. He pretended not to see us and then went toward a security guard.

The security guard walked toward us and then away. They were obviously seeing if we meant harm. But we didn't. They swung a huge spotlight in our direction. It was then we realised we were sitting amungst a masacare of dead birds. It was surreal. Two vampires, a troup of Gypsies and dead birds at midnight on a beach, with us as voyers to this whole situation.

Someone approached us. Louise was nervous for us to even talk to any crew member but I shouted out, "What are they doing?" I figured if I act dumb we may not get in trouble. "Shotting a movie," The man replied. "Does it matter that we are here?" I asked "If they knew you were here they would freak out," he replied. Then he left. After a few intense moments of trying to avoid the path of the camera we decided to move a bit closer. Creeping and manouvering past rocks and cables, we saw him return.

"If you are going to stay there don't smoke. There is enough gasoline in those bottles to blow us all up." We looked where he motioned. There were two huge drums of gas right behind us, and more dotted along the coast. They were to feul the bonfires. Then we looked back and saw Akasha apporach. She was beautiful. Her hair all long and straight, all lovely and egyption like, she was amazing. She stopped two meters ahead of us and then returned to her position on set. She didnt see us! After about three hours of silently watching we decided to go back and check if Stephanie's car had been towed.

On our way back we saw a path leading up toward the cliff top which we were under. Louise and Stephanie both suggested we go up and see what was happening. I grabbed a peice of Gaffa tape from the rail and kept it. Stephanie had earlier decided that it would be a good idea to souvenier a set of keys which I later put back. Gaffa tape wouldn't have been missed.

Waiting up top where security guards restricted out movement we watched and waited. We couldn't see anything interesting. That was until we saw the actors walk past us for "Lunch" at midnight. It was interesting as a lot of them were locals. But we caught a glimpse of Lestat in full makeup. Without the wig this time. He looked genuinely vampiric, and I am convinced he will make an excellent Lestat this time.

All heavy hearted as the action had ended we headed back to the other  car park via the street. It was an impossible journey and we ended up flagging down a passing technition car and hitching a ride back to the car park. We asked the guy if there was any chance of getting something to eat and he laughed at us.

Driving back, excited but a little tired we all agreed we would never forget this spure of the moment vampire hunt. We all felt it was a night well spent and didn't even mind being tired at work the next day."

Eyewitness account two:
(Louise)

"- The scene was being filmed at the back beach of Portsea where a large, open cavelike rock formation standing in the water, faces the beach. It's really intriguing and mystical which is probably why they picked it. They had also set up some sort of bonfire pile which was presumably going to be set alight in a later scene.

- My friend, a big Anne Rice fan, thought the scene that they were filming there was probably the scene where Akasha shows Lestat all the different cultures, (or something!) At any rate, they had actors 'playing' music instruments around a campfire on the beach, while the technicians played the prerecorded music. Stuart Townsend as Lestat was playing the violin in some parts of the scene and appeared to have a music coach who was taking him aside occasionally, showing him how to play it convincingly. There were also dancers, but it was hard for us to see the action as there were hundreds of crew members standing around, in our line of vision, and very bright lights.

- Stuart Townsend was wearing a light-coloured powdered wig with curls, a dark red coat over a white shirt and pants tucked into boots. He was wearing really heavy white makeup but it was definitely him! He looked really good, very handsome.

- We were sitting behind a rock near the place they were filming, among many electrical cords and wires! We definitely shouldn't have been there and as it turned out Stuart Townsend was the first person who really saw us, as he walked past and sat down to have a cigarette. He looked at us, and we looked at him, and for a second I thought he might come over and say something like, 'You shouldn't be here,' but he didn't say anything. My friend said to us, 'I'm going to go and chat to him,' but I said he really shouldn't!!! So we just stayed behind the rock. I don't think Stuart minded us being there really, or he would have had one of the many security guards move us on.

-Later, we went up to the cliff path above the beach so we could watch the filming from above. When they broke for 'lunch', (about 12.30am!) all the cast and crew walked past us to go the the cars that would take them back to the main set, at the other beach. Stuart Townsend looked at us as he walked past, very seriously - he was probably scared by then that we were stalkers!

We left not long after that, but it was pretty exciting to watch what we had seen. One thing - Stuart seems to be the consummate professional because even though it was windy and very, very cold, he was relaxed and chatting with the lighting guys whenever he took a break and didn't seem to be demanding, or getting any 'prima donna' type treatment. He seems a very down-to-earth guy, so it will be good if the movie's a hit."