Filming starts on new British movie in Shoreham

Three vans and a bus turned up last Monday and set up in the car park at the Old Fort and the grassy area at the nearby Shoreham Sailing Club.

The crew was filming open water scenes for Black Sea, an adventure thriller in which Jude Law plays a submarine captain.

Law’s character takes a job to search the depths of the Black Sea for an alleged sunken submarine filled with hidden treasure.

Philip Ayton, treasurer of Shoreham Sailing Club, said: “The film crew needed a safe, and relatively private launching ramp for their RIBs, and our club facilities just near the harbour entrance were the obvious location.

“We were happy to help and it all seemed to go very well, even the weather.”

The film is due for release next year, the director is Kevin Macdonald and the writer Dennis Kelly.

The location manager, Ben Mangham, said: “It’s a British feature film and we were all very well looked after by Shoreham and, yes, we did film at the Western Arm. Jude Law is in the film but he was not present during filming on those days.

“We were looking to film an open water scene and Shoreham was perfect as it’s right by the coast and we needed a large body of water.”

Speculations as to what the crew were filming continued to puzzle those on the Shoreham forum.

Guesses ranged from dramas to a new Sherlock Holmes film.

Secretary of Shoreham Fort, Sharon Penfold, said: “The scenes they were filming were apparently for the end of the film and they were scenes involving divers who had found a submarine.

“They were all very nice, though.”

The crew left two days after arriving, on Wednesday.

Chris West, of Shoreham Beach, who owns Buccaneer Charters, spent two days with the film crew.

Chris said: “We were invited to be involved by the film people as they needed a MCA licensed passenger-carrying boat for their film crew. The stipulation, as I understand, came from the port’s harbour master and we were the only accredited boat in the river.

“It was pretty slow on the first day, acting as safety boat and general dogsbody, but the second day was more interesting. We were not briefed about the film’s content, but watched as the ‘stunt divers’ did their stuff and then the actors carried on after them. We carried some of the underwater film cameramen and helped set up the boat for the shots that they were tasked to take for the film.

“Most of the film work was inside the western breakwater, with a large army of crew with several vans and a mobile kitchen in the Old Fort car park.

“We finished the day by returning the apparently very expensive camera and support equipment to the Sussex Yacht Club, where Buccaneer is moored, to be collected by the road crew.

“Buccaneer is owned by me and is used mainly for dive charter trips, together with sightseeing trips and ‘final voyage’ ash scatterings.”