While everyone certainly enjoys the finished product, most of us do not get the opportunity to observe the filming of a movie. Imagine the excitement when our St Augustine Sailing Base was asked to provide a boat and Captain for Hollywood filmmakers, the Downes Brothers, who were on set in Northeast Florida to shoot the movie “Like Dandelion Dust”, based on a book by author Karen Kingsbury. The script supervisor explained that the story involved the family sailing while they worked out a troubling situation which was resolved by the end of the film as they sailed off into the sunset together.
Filming day in February 2008 was sunny and warm and a perfect day to sail. Actual Filming was done on our SailTime Hunter 41 Deck Salon at the dock, plus leaving the harbor and on the water. It was a kick watching them lay tracks down our harbor’s “H” dock so the camera could move with the boat down the fairway! Rick Gardner was the Captain onboard for all boat scenes and you can imagine the difficulty of camera men, staff, equipment, etc., etc., ducking out of the shot each time it was necessary. The crew invited us to their catered lunch and we all marveled at how filmmaking was hours of no activity interspersed with minutes of frantic action!
The actor, Cole Hauser, proved an excellent helmsman and the movie crew moved onto the Vilano bridge next to our Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor to film some on-the-water scenes. They sailed Paradise north on the Tolomato river (Intracoastal Waterway) and also out the St. Augustine Inlet, filming through sunset for plenty of beautiful footage.
After the movie was entered into numerous independent film festivals (and won many honors!) it is finally being released to theatres on September 24th. SailTime Northeast Florida’s Paradise looks fantastic in the movie trailer and we are anxious to see how much ofParadise is seen in the film. Sailing off into the sunset is a fabulous end for any story, and should the movie be released in DVD format, we know that many copies will be purchased around Northeastern Florida!
