Sea turtle biologist Matthew Godfrey talks about challenges directors faced in making the movie The Last Song.
So a friend of mine in Georgia who has my job in Georgia, the directors contacted him and said, “Hey, you know, there’s going to be some sea turtles in this movie. Can you get us some hatchlings that we wanna show going down the beach near the water at sunset?” And this guy Mark’s like, “You know, I don’t control turtle behavior. It’s not like I can tell a nest to produce hatchlings.” And they’re like, “Well can you maybe hold some overnight for us?” And he’s like, “No, I’m not going to do that for a movie. That’s changing nature.” And so they contacted some people higher up in the agency and everybody thought it would be a good idea to raise awareness for turtles like you’re talking about if they could show real turtles. So he did it and he collected some hatchlings. He said it took forever; you know, they kept waiting for the perfect shot. They finally got the shot and the turtles are going to the water, and after about five minutes the director’s like, “Can you make them go faster? It’s a little bit too slow. We need them faster.” And Mark’s like, “No I can’t make them go faster! This is what they do!” And so they took the shot but apparently they had to use CGI in the movie to make the turtles go faster down into the water.
Click to Listen: