Thursday, April 18, 2013

Two Harbors: Catalina Harbor Overlook

(GPS: N33° 25.675 W118° 30.365)

After looking back at the Ningpo gravesite I turned around at Catalina Harbor Overlook. This is a popular spot for people to walk to, so I ended up having to wait a while for people to come and go before I could really do what I wanted to do.

You can see some of the benches they have here so one can look further into the ocean of the pacific…next stop Hawaii! Not really, San Clemente Island (and San Nicholas Island if you move to the right spots) can be seen from this side of Catalina. John Ford was here filming a movie called The Hurricane. In the scene that took place near here Jon Hall was being used as a slave while John Carradine was the warden. You can see the rocky hillside across the harbor.
Now I have to admit I don’t think I really got all of this right. I knew I was in the right area of course, doing a lot of this from memory, and I wanted to get this done quick since I was on a schedule. In the movie, it looks like they were actually a lot higher. I’m sure, knowing what I know now, that I could do a lot better in figuring this one out a second time around, but to be honest…I don’t care. Just look at this one as giving you an idea of the terrain they were using for this scene.
You can see the path up the hill under the main mountainside. On the right you can see the craggy mountainside as John Hall escapes by jumping down below. The field in the middle of the picture and below is where he tumbles. They then show him jumping from a rock into the water, and that looks like it was done somewhere else on the island, but it could have been done nearby.
Okay, truth be told, no disrespect for John Ford or those who love The Hurricane, but I was here for something else that I thought was way cooler.


Two Harbors: Ships and Movies (Youtube Version)

Two Harbors: Ships and Movies (Vimeo Version)

The following tracks were sampled from Incompetech.com for the video:

At the Shore, Reggae Sketch, Creeping To Ship, Evil Plan FX, Evil March, Trouble