Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Friday, June 11, 2010

BAP Ferré at Navy Base

Guillermo Moore, one of the Naval heroes in the Pacific War had one incident that haunted his last days of existence: the sinking of the Peruvian battleship under his command: BAP Independencia. As it's told in history, while chasing the Chilean ship Covandonga, it hit an undersea rock that wasn't in the nautical charts and it run aground. The smaller Covadonga -noticing this- turned around and began to bomb the ship taking it out completely. Commander Moore after this incident, was under the spotlight politically and was sued for losing the ship. Being infamous for it, he looked for ways to clean his name of shame thru dangerous endeavors that would salvage his honor. That's why he was stationed in Arica and fought in this battle where he lost his life next to Bolognesi.
My script involves some scenes where he has flashbacks recalling those moments when he run aground. I needed then an old ship that I could alter to make it look like one of that era.

My friend, Commander Juan Carlos Llosa, suggested me to give a check to the old Peruvian battleship BAP Ferré stationed in the Naval Base of Callao. It's years since I've been there so, it will be fun to be back and see the gigantic destroyers and ships. I drove around slowly and felt some kind of national pride to see how many good ships we have and in good conditions. Of course the one's I was seeing here were just some of the many around the coasts of Peru in naval bases and in deep sea assignments.
Anyway...back to BAP Ferré. It's one of the oldest ships around here and being long-time "retired", it's slowly being "cannibalized" and dismantled, leaving just several structures intact that keeps the "look" of the era.

The only bad thing is that this ship is from around World War II not from the 19th century.

I gave it a look in and outside to see what areas could be used if decorated and furbished as the old vessel and found some spaces that I could use.

I think it will be quite a challenge to make things look much older than it already is and recreate the scenes where he is being bombarded by the Covandonga and the water is coming flooding the lower levels of the ship. Here are some pics. to show a glimpse of what I saw aboard. I guess I will have to use CGI for some canon-shot takes and aerial shots.