YARMOUTH, N.S. — In one of the scenes in The Lighthouse movie Thomas Wake (portrayed by Willem Dafoe), declares to his new helper that he’s “damn near married to this here light.”
He also informs the apprentice, Ephraim Winslow (played by actor Robert Pattinson), that the latter’s predecessor died after raving about sirens and some sort of “enchantment” in the tower’s light.
The beacon at the top of the lighthouse structure possesses strange power in the film and Wake seems to have an intimate relationship with it. He refuses to allow Winslow any duties involving it.
Instead, he cares for it exclusively and sometimes takes off his shirt to bask in its glow.
When Dan Spinella, owner of Artworks Florida Classic Fresnel Lenses, was contacted by Jay Van Hoy, one of the producers for the film, and Craig Lathrop with production design, about building the period lens for the movie, he was told they needed the element to be very detailed and accurate.
“They said, ‘It’s really going to be a character in the movie and it’s going to be a contention piece between the lightkeepers,’” said Spinella.
“It has to transport the audience,” he was told.
A build of that magnitude would normally take Spinella six months and typically he can only devote 20-30 hours a week in the evenings and weekends because of his full-time job.
His engineering background has provided him with the expertise required for drawings and taking dimensions, important attributes for building reproduction lenses for lighthouses and lighthouse museums.
Nowadays, these are more interpretive pieces. Optically they function the same as the lenses built in the 1800s and Spinella uses the same type of formula used in that era.
The frames are made out of solid brass, but prisms are now manufactured out of acrylic to make the lens more affordable.
Spinella took the challenge on for the film and managed to build the six-foot-tall, four-foot diameter lens in eight weeks.
The complete assembly, including the pedestal, was approximately 1,500 pounds. Kurt Fosburg of Superior Lighthouse Restoration built the steel and brass pedestal.
Spinella came to Yarmouth for the installation of the lens in the film's constructed lighthouse but didn’t get to see it lit up in person.
However, he was able to see it through the Nova Scotia webcam set up at the Cape Forchu lighthouse. The lens was brighter than the existing lighthouse.
“It blew out the camera,” he laughed.
“They did say they were going to put a very bright light in it, some type of stage lighting,” he said.
The lens was removed and relocated at a hangar at the Yarmouth airport for interior scenes afterwards.
On Oct. 17 it was installed at the ArcLight theatre in Hollywood for the premiere of the film, where three Q&As for the film were scheduled with director Robert Eggers, Dafoe and Pattinson.
The future home of the lens, co-owned by A24 and New Regency, is unknown. Cost for the lens was $115,000 and the pedestal rang in at $20,000.
Spinella says he’s looking forward to seeing the movie in Orlando.
“It’s going to be here on Oct. 24. I’ve seen a couple of trailers and it (the lens) seems to show up a lot in the film, so I’m pretty excited. I can’t wait to see it.”
The Lighthouse's first viewing in Yarmouth was scheduled for Oct. 24.
The Cape Forchu Fresnel lens
The first lighthouse in Yarmouth was erected in 1839.
The Fresnel lens that is on display at the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives was installed in it in 1908. This lens was a sophisticated improvement over the original, according to a description on the museum’s website.
The Fresnel lens was named after its inventor, Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), who was a French physicist and engineer. He devised a method of producing circularly polarized light and replaced mirrors with compound lenses in lighthouses.
The lens was built in Paris and cost around $38,000 CDN. It weighs approximately 3,300 pounds and has 360 prisms. The lens floated in a vat of mercury and was rotated by weights, similar to a grandfather clock. Every night the lighthouse keeper and his assistant made three trips each, up a series of narrow stairways, to the top of the light to wind up the weights.
A new, modern structure replaced the original lighthouse in 1962 and a new light was installed to replace the Fresnel lens.
(Source: Yarmouth County Museum and Archives)
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