KATA BEACH: Phuket city and province, in southern Thailand, was the second location for the film-makers whilst in Thailand. They used this large island as their base for the production office, studios, hotels and many of the locations. This page is for the scenes shot on Kata Beach and nearby Taina Road and Club Med Road.
Two shots of Hat Kata southern beach, near Club Med. In Thai hat means beach. The picture to the right shows the southern end where they filmed The Beach in one of the bars.
Signs in English and Thai were put up to announce the closure of this end of the beach and the nearby roads. The production team had to do this by law though the notices in Thai revealed more information. The movie was shot here from 27th March to 29th March 1999 in the evening. The cones to the right were later used to block this end of the beach off.
The retaurant where Leonardo briefly stops. The scene invloves the "rice run" when two charcters from the movie go to nearby Pha Ngan island to buy supplies. The man in the blue shirt in the picture on the left is Ross Palmer the greensman.
This is the top of Taina Road, Hat Kata, where they were shooting on the evening of 28th March. The scene started with Leonardo's character and another Beach Community member (not Jed so can you guess who?) walking from the top of this road down to a bar called Easy Rider. These pictures were taken the day before but when we arrived the following evening there were a lot of road-side food stalls down the right hand-side of this road. We stood and watched them making the movie near the motorcycles in this picture. Leonardo and his co-star walked up and down very close to us.
Two cameras were used for this scene. One mounted on a tripod (left) and the other on a steadicam strapped to the chest of a cameraman. This enabled him to sit on a kind of wheel chair and be pushed down the road and still keep the camera steady. Whilst the crew practised the shot two stand-ins were used for the stars who waited in comfort nearby. The picture to the right is of the stand-in for the actress who took part in the "rice run". We are not saying who that is yet.
The photograph to the right shows the director Danny Boyle studying the script and to the far right director of photography Darius Khondji. The picture to the right shows Danny posing with three of the Thai students that work on this web site: Sakdipat, Nattawud and Suthiphong. Danny was kind enough to take a break from his hectic schedule to chat with the students. This is the location for 29th March when they shot at Crazy Bar corner on Club Med Road. The following is the location report we filed whilst in Phuket. It was posted on the Beach Watch page:
28th March 1999: This has to be a quick report as it is late at night. Really just to say that around the corner from where I am writing this Leonardo and another actress (I'm afraid I have to keep you guessing on that one) are busy rehearsing a scene from the movie. They started at this new location last night down on a relatively quiet beach. At the far end of this beach is a restaurant where Leonardo and XXX briefly stop before heading off. The scene is for the "rice run" when they go to Koh Pha-Ngan. As you know, in the book Leonardo goes with Jed. But as the latter doesn't feature in the movie he has to go with someone else. Who? Well, all I'll say is that it is a woman - I'll show a picture of her stand-in later. Leonardo's stand-in didn't want me to take his picture but I already got it from the other day. The scene we have been watching them shoot tonight involved walking down a sidewalk. We sat and watched for a couple of hours on the other side of the road near the start of the scene. Leonardo's bodyguard arrived first looking very tense scanning the crowd on both sides of the street. As this is a public place they can't just tell everyone to go away. Then one of my students spotted Sarah the film publicist who took us to Phi Phi island the other day. She was chatting with Danny the director. My students went over to say hello and then Danny also said "Hi" to them. Sarah introduced us by saying that we were those people doing that internet web site at the Thai school. He knew about us already and was very friendly. He chatted with the students and as one of them was wearing a Manchester United footbal shirt he told him that he came from Manchester. He then kindly agreed to pose for a photo with them. We were very lucky to get that chance as he was so busy the whole time we were there.
Shortly after that Leonardo appeared with his fellow actress ready to start their rehearsals. No-one was allowed to use flash as it would spoil the shot so I'm afraid we didn't get any photos. But it was interesting to observe them working for about an hour or so. We have now left them to continue their work. The scene they spent hours getting ready and rehearsing will only last about ten seconds in the movie. Once they have finished at the top end of the street they will move further down. This will go on like this all night. They will be around the corner from here tomorrow night so I cannot give out the location though it is no secret where we are. Hundreds of people watched them making the movie tonight.
We are now heading off to a small island for a short break. There is one more location that we know about which will take place on Tuesday evening. This is at the hotel we told you about around the corner from where we are staying. We will come back to watch that I think before heading back home.
Once the film-makers have left Thailand we can tell you a bit more, though some things we have been asked not to reveal until nearer the release of the movie. They want to have some surprises for you. It still looks like that they will finish about the first or second week in April. No-one is saying for sure at the moment. Obviously this is a big secret. It has been difficult tracking down some of these locations as we are working in the dark. However, we did find the film studio today in a very quiet location. The large building used to be a shoe factory. They seem to have taken over both sides of the road so maybe they are using the grounds for another of the locations. We also learned today that the bungalows for the beach were built in the studio. At both entrances there were security guards and big notices in Thai and English saying that no photographs could be taken.
It is time to sign off now. We will send another report later in the week. After Phuket we will be driving over to Krabi to check out another location which they used last month. From there wie will drive north back to Bangkok.
[ On Location: Phuket | Thai Students in Phuket City | Hat Surin | Hat Kata | Other ] [ On Location: Thailand | Picture Index | The Beach Homepage ] The pictures taken on location on this page were photographed by students and teachers at Sriwittayapaknam School, Samut Prakarn, Thailand. The copyright belongs to the school. The pictures cannot be used without permission from the webmaster. The trip to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Krabi was financed by the school owners.
