The Last Song: Finding The Location

The filmmakers selected tiny Tybee Island, off the coast of Georgia, as the setting for The Last Song. Tybee boasts three miles of pristine beaches and an old-fashioned pier, as well as a string of funky shops hawking beachwear and beer amid theme restaurants, bars and quaint clapboard cottages.

With a population of just under 4,000 people, its homespun charm and low-key atmosphere make the island a vacation destination for nearby Savannah residents, as well as visitors from across the world.
 
Director Julie Anne Robinson fell in love with Tybee at first sight. "It’s an old-fashioned community where people leave their doors unlocked," she says. "You can walk everywhere. You don’t find many places like Tybee anymore.

"It has a unique atmosphere of lushness and richness that I have never seen anywhere else. It’s a bit like a tropical island, which a girl like Ronnie would ultimately find irresistible."

Production designer Nelson Coates and his team were dispatched to find a house that represented the essence of Tybee Island. "There were a lot of conversations about the emotional journey of the characters and how their surroundings would reflect that," says
Robinson.

"For Steve’s house, we wanted it to feel like it had been neglected. That wasn’t exactly how we found it, but there was no other place like it on the island. It was built in 1911 and bits had been added to it over the years, which made it seem full of character.

"But it was a well-loved house and we wanted it to be less so. We had to age it and make the paint look like it had been battered by years of neglect."

Coates transformed both the façade and the interior of the house to reflect its fictional owner’s state of mind, as well as to allow
more convenient, flexible access for the camera crew. "I wanted to convey the sense that this has been there for many, many years," says Coates.

"In Steve’s house, as in the whole movie, we felt it was important to get the real feel of living on the beach, rather than an idealized resort look. It’s comfortable and worn, like it’s been there for years. Because the house really is old, there was an authentic atmosphere of age to it. It was very simple and organic, with wood walls instead of sheetrock or cutesy shell wallpaper."

The outside of the house had been updated with stark white trim, black shutters and vinyl screens. The production team softened and aged the building’s appearance, and added more authentic-looking screens over the front porch that could be manipulated or taken out to accommodate camera positions. To make space for Steve’s stained glass workshop, they moved some of the living space onto the porch, which also allowed the director to set more scenes against the beach background.

Some of the movie’s crucial scenes take place on a sand dune outside the house, where Ronnie finds and protects a nest of sea turtle eggs. "There were a lot of dunes nearby, but none of them worked for us," says Coates. "We needed a location that was close to the house.

"Plus, the dunes are protected and we needed to be careful we didn’t disturb them." So the filmmakers got permission from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to build their own dunes. "We brought in sand and plant material from approved sources,"
Coates says.

"We re-vegetated several bald dunes and created our own ‘hero’ dune in exactly the location we wanted, so we could get views of the house and water without encroaching on protected land. The Department of Natural Resources was so pleased with our work, they let
us leave the dunes and the grasses on the site."

A few miles down the road and a world away from Steve’s quiet beach house, Coates designed a colorful and crowded site for the local carnival and the volleyball tournament. Tybee itself provided loads of local color, as area restaurants and shops set up booths offering ice cream, snow cones and T-shirts as background.

In deciding on the exterior color themes, Coates says he wanted to stay away from hues audiences might associate with Hannah Montana. "So we avoided pinks, and electric or neon colors. We used a lot of orange and green, and, at the volleyball tournament, added some
blue. We put up lights and banners down the length of the pier to highlight the beautiful sunsets, since many of our scenes happened at ‘magic hour.’"

Because no churches matching the description of the one in the script 'with its prominent stained-glass window' existed on Tybee, Coates and his team found a perfect corner lot a few blocks away from the beach on which to build it. The intention, according to Coates, was to 21 create a church that served the story, but also looked like it belonged in this well-established neighborhood.

"We wanted it to feel beachy and be typical of the southeastern United States," he says. "It was a matter of putting together elements that helped tell the story. To ensure a sense of history, I drew from a lot of turn-of-the-century churches and put up a sign that said it was founded in 1908.

"I pulled references from about 35 different wood clapboard structures. It couldn’t have any brick, because we ultimately had to burn it. We added very simple Gothic windows that immediately said ‘church,’ and irregular shingling that I’d seen in a small church in South Carolina," Coates continues.

"The building was raised off the ground on brick piers, which they do in the South in areas that flood."

The designer kept the interior of the church very spare, creating an understated, organic look. The stained glass above the altar is the pivotal visual element. The inspiration for the design came from old wood blocks and etchings depicting the stone being rolled away from the tomb of Jesus as angels look on, underscoring Sparks’ themes of hope and resurrection.

"I spent about 60 hours designing the window," says Coates. "Then I had to figure out how to get it fabricated fast, because stained glass is so labor intensive. I approached a friend who’s done this for me in the past in Los Angeles. I did a blowup drawing of the full-sized window and she started shopping for glass.

"She’d email me photos of the glass with sun coming through and we’d choose the sections we wanted to use. To do this long distance was quite challenging, especially because one of the processes to make stained-glass faces and hands is to paint with multiple colors and then fire each color separately, so no matter what I drew on paper, it was up to the artist to choose the elements of color for each firing."

Coates and his art department had only 11 weeks to scout and prep for the movie, so designing, building and completing the church and the window happened at lightning speed.

"All told, the church was standing in its semi-burned first version four and a half weeks from the minute we broke ground," he says. "We filmed the window eight weeks after the design was complete."

For the lavish wedding scene set at the Blakelee mansion, Will’s family home, the filmmakers left Tybee and secured hard-to-get permission to use the Wormsloe State Historic Site near Savannah. At the end of a long mud and gravel road lined by ancient live oaks laden with Spanish moss is a magnificent colonial estate built by Noble Jones, one of Georgia’s first English settlers. Coates only had to add slight embellishments, including a fountain, some greenery, a piano and the trappings of an extravagant wedding, to complete the picture.

The earthy, soft-edged look that Coates developed for the film influenced wardrobe as well. As Ronnie becomes more comfortable in her own skin, her clothing evolves as well. The urban punk look she cultivates at the beginning of the movie gives way to a wardrobe in
keeping with her new outlook.

"Julie Anne and I definitely wanted the costumes to reflect the progression of Ronnie’s character," says Jennifer Gibgot. "What we see on the outside says a lot about how she has changed on the inside. Louise Frogley, our costume designer, definitely 22 got that. Through the course of the movie, Ronnie loses some of the edge to her. As she falls in love with Will and begins to forgive her father, her clothes become softer and more feminine."

Robinson and director of photography John Lindley used Tybee Island’s soft afternoon and evening light for several scenes. "John and I wanted to convey a sense of naturalism," says Robinson.

"We wanted the performances to underscore the universal qualities of what our characters are feeling. To do that, we tried to use unexpected angles, and keep it as fresh and light as possible so the actors wouldn’t feel hemmed in."

Robinson and Lindley made extensive use of crane and wide shots to photograph the vibrant beach festival and volleyball tournament, as well as the wide expanse of Tybee’s beach. The technique was also used to highlight the characters’ emotional vulnerability.

"On an artistic level, we wanted to give it a scale to counterpoint the emotional aspects of the story," the director says. "The use of the big shots allowed us to put one or two characters in the context of this environment so the audience can see how vulnerable that person feels.

"For instance, there’s one shot where Jonah has just gotten some very bad news and he’s in the foreground of a very wide shot, with Ronnie and Will in the background. You’re up close to this boy’s pain. Somebody once said you should be able to tell the story of the movie with the sound off and that’s what I tried to do."

One of the trickiest aspects for Robinson was finding a way to direct the baby loggerhead turtles that play such a pivotal part in
Ronnie’s rebirth and redemption. Ronnie spends much of her summer protecting a turtle nest from raccoons, until the eggs hatch and the newborn turtles make their way to the sea.

Planning to add in computer-generated turtles in postproduction, the filmmakers and cast originally shot this sequence using only
their imaginations and advice from a turtle expert and the visual effects team.

"We sat on the dune above where the turtles would hatch, but nothing was there," says Bobby Coleman. "We had to imagine where they might be and pretend to follow them along and not crush them.

"I made an invisible line in my head as to where I had to go. It was really fun but then we had the real turtles come and that was so much cooler!"

In the end, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources provided 26 hatchlings for the faux turtle nest. On cue, the tiny turtles waddled down the sand towards the water and swam out to sea.

The Last Song is released 30th April.

The filmmakers selected tiny Tybee Island, off the coast of Georgia, as the setting for The Last Song. Tybee boasts three miles of pristine beaches and an old-fashioned pier, as well as a string of funky shops hawking beachwear and beer amid theme restaurants, bars and quaint clapboard cottages.

With a population of just under 4,000 people, its homespun charm and low-key atmosphere make the island a vacation destination for nearby Savannah residents, as well as visitors from across the world.
 
Director Julie Anne Robinson fell in love with Tybee at first sight. "It’s an old-fashioned community where people leave their doors unlocked," she says. "You can walk everywhere. You don’t find many places like Tybee anymore.

"It has a unique atmosphere of lushness and richness that I have never seen anywhere else. It’s a bit like a tropical island, which a girl like Ronnie would ultimately find irresistible."

Production designer Nelson Coates and his team were dispatched to find a house that represented the essence of Tybee Island. "There were a lot of conversations about the emotional journey of the characters and how their surroundings would reflect that," says
Robinson.

"For Steve’s house, we wanted it to feel like it had been neglected. That wasn’t exactly how we found it, but there was no other place like it on the island. It was built in 1911 and bits had been added to it over the years, which made it seem full of character.

"But it was a well-loved house and we wanted it to be less so. We had to age it and make the paint look like it had been battered by years of neglect."

Coates transformed both the façade and the interior of the house to reflect its fictional owner’s state of mind, as well as to allow
more convenient, flexible access for the camera crew. "I wanted to convey the sense that this has been there for many, many years," says Coates.

"In Steve’s house, as in the whole movie, we felt it was important to get the real feel of living on the beach, rather than an idealized resort look. It’s comfortable and worn, like it’s been there for years. Because the house really is old, there was an authentic atmosphere of age to it. It was very simple and organic, with wood walls instead of sheetrock or cutesy shell wallpaper."

The outside of the house had been updated with stark white trim, black shutters and vinyl screens. The production team softened and aged the building’s appearance, and added more authentic-looking screens over the front porch that could be manipulated or taken out to accommodate camera positions. To make space for Steve’s stained glass workshop, they moved some of the living space onto the porch, which also allowed the director to set more scenes against the beach background.

Some of the movie’s crucial scenes take place on a sand dune outside the house, where Ronnie finds and protects a nest of sea turtle eggs. "There were a lot of dunes nearby, but none of them worked for us," says Coates. "We needed a location that was close to the house.

"Plus, the dunes are protected and we needed to be careful we didn’t disturb them." So the filmmakers got permission from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to build their own dunes. "We brought in sand and plant material from approved sources,"
Coates says.

"We re-vegetated several bald dunes and created our own ‘hero’ dune in exactly the location we wanted, so we could get views of the house and water without encroaching on protected land. The Department of Natural Resources was so pleased with our work, they let
us leave the dunes and the grasses on the site."

A few miles down the road and a world away from Steve’s quiet beach house, Coates designed a colorful and crowded site for the local carnival and the volleyball tournament. Tybee itself provided loads of local color, as area restaurants and shops set up booths offering ice cream, snow cones and T-shirts as background.

In deciding on the exterior color themes, Coates says he wanted to stay away from hues audiences might associate with Hannah Montana. "So we avoided pinks, and electric or neon colors. We used a lot of orange and green, and, at the volleyball tournament, added some
blue. We put up lights and banners down the length of the pier to highlight the beautiful sunsets, since many of our scenes happened at ‘magic hour.’"

Because no churches matching the description of the one in the script 'with its prominent stained-glass window' existed on Tybee, Coates and his team found a perfect corner lot a few blocks away from the beach on which to build it. The intention, according to Coates, was to 21 create a church that served the story, but also looked like it belonged in this well-established neighborhood.

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