YARMOUTH, N.S. - Since news about the filming of The Lighthouse at the Cape Forchu Lighthouse property was published by the Vanguard on Feb. 21, viewing traffic to the webcam on site has quadrupled.
Ralf Pickart, the founder of Nova Scotia Webcams, says the webcam is currently the most visited site of all his 80-plus cameras around the province.
“There have been close to 100,000 page views since it (the film) has been made public, with 15,000 unique users,” he says.
The movie is about a Nova Scotia lighthouse keeper in the early 20th century, starring actors Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
Although the webcam is located at least half a kilometer from the set where filming is taking place, viewers are still able to see action in the distance with the construction of the film’s period lighthouse, lightkeeper’s house and outbuildings.
Cape Forchu - A Beautiful Journal: The Lighthouse Set Construction from nicole2dogs on Vimeo.
There has been lots of truck and van traffic too with the arrival and departure of filming gear and props.
Access to the Leif Ericson trail, to the immediate southeast of the Cape Forchu lighthouse, has been closed since March 1 and will remain so until May 11.
A barricade to prevent public vehicles from entering the film site has been established at the John’s Cove beach corner.
Pickart says 81 per cent of the webcam viewers are new users.
“Which is amazing!” he says.
Statistics are as follows: Viewers from Canada up 220 per cent, United States +39 per cent, Germany +25 per cent, Russia +5600 per cent, UK +115 per cent and Australia +500 per cent.
“Russia is interesting. Not sure if it’s related to filming,” he said.
(Facebook fan pages for Robert Pattinson have large numbers of Russian members.)
Pickart says he thinks it's great that so many fans can “take part” in the production even though it only shows the area in general and not the film set.
“And I'm happy to see that Cape Forchu gets more attention than Peggy's Cove!”
Read more:
- March 2018: Lights, camera, action coming soon to Cape Forchu Lighthouse
- March 2018: Lighthouse filming a big boon to Yarmouth economy
- March 2018: Film company using Yarmouth Airport for project
- March 2018: Scaffolding company's exposure rises to new heights with Yarmouth film project
- April 2018: Is that a boat in the shot? Curiosity seekers aboard vessels asked to avoid Cape Forchu location
