Birth of the movie

Unique location

With the completion of work at the main Elk Bay location, the production moved to Elk Falls Provincial Park. The terrain again presented a challenge for everyone. A suspension bridge was built across a 200-foot gorge and waterfall. A cave facade and a small village was also built on the rock beds. When it rained, the rocks became so slippery that the construction and set dressing crews had to wear felt on the bottom of their boots to avoid falling, and safety crews worked with them to attach harnesses as a precaution as well.

"The cave entrance was built away from the sides of the cliff in order not to touch or harm the vegetation," explains production designer Wolf Kroeger. "We matched the rocks with plastic form pieces so that our construction did not harm the fragile old-growth of the natural environment. We also used non-toxic paints in that area, and the trees were banded with pieces of carpet to prevent any scarring from the steel support cables for the bridge."

Next, the production completed filming at a farmstead built in a very unique location over a stream bed. The company then moved to the mainland of British Columbia, and inland to the Caribou Region near the town of Williams Lake. John McTiernan had found the next major location along the banks of the Fraser River.

"For the setting where Ibn first meets the warriors, we were looking for a sweeping vista that was plausibly out of Central Asia, a thousand years ago," explains McTiernan. "I was looking for a place with no power lines or highways anywhere in sight. When youТre dealing with such a large canvas, it might almost seem appropriate to the scale of the environment to build scenery with a bulldozer. But in this particular location, we had to figure out how to move in and move out and, in effect, leave nothing behind. I believe the expression is, СTake only memories.Т"

Indeed, the rangeland that McTiernan chose as the setting for the sequence contains one of the rarest ecosystems in Canada. The grassland area and the riverbank also hold significant historic importance to the Native American peoples in the area. After an archaeological assessment and the acceptance of the Federal and Provincial governments, as well as the blessing of the Alkali First Nations Band and the Canoe Creek First Nations Band, the filmmakers were allowed to proceed.

McTiernan notes, "We had to work out a way of filming that had a very soft footprint, so that once we were finished, everything would, in effect, disappear."

"We determined that in order to have the least impact upon the location, it would actually be better and less harmful to transport everything to the area by helicopter," says producer Ned Dowd. "There was absolutely no road to the area, so it meant that everything from construction materials to set dressing, props, camera gear, actors, crew and animals, all had to be flown in."

"It took a while, but we finally found a tent builder who was willing to take on the task of creating the tents we needed for the warriorsТ encampment," recalls set decorator Rose Marie McSherry. "The largest tent was 75 feet square and the smallest one was 25 feet square. Both of them were made out of burlap and buffalo hides that were aged to reflect the continual wear the tents would have had from long use and exposure to the harsh elements."

In addition to having to transport the crew, the NorsemenТs ships and the horses to the location, the production now had 25 camels to contend with.

"The camels were both Bactrains with two humps and Dromedaries with one hump," explains wrangler John Scott. "We got them from across Canada. But since they came from zoos and game farms, none of them had traveled more than half a mile in a month, so they needed to be conditioned in preparation for filming.

"Our camel trainers, Sled Reynolds and Gene Walker took the camels to a race track near Williams Lake," continues Scott. "They started them out with about three laps and eventually got them up to 20 laps. ItТs like conditioning an athlete. You have to get their respiratory systems and their legs in shape in order to handle the action in the film."

With the caravan and warriorТs camp sequences completed, the production moved to a soundstage in Vancouver. After the filming of scenes in the Baltic Seaport and the interiors of the Baghdad and the cave scenes, principal photography was completed.

Editor John Wright, A.C.E. had begun editing the film concurrent with the start of principal photography on location in British Columbia, Canada.

Post production for Touchstone PicturesТ "The 13th Warrior" was completed in Los Angeles.