Our Visit to Spectre - Jackson Lake Island

There's a little-known film-maker named Tim Burton. I'm sure you've never seen any of his movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, or Edward Scissorhands. One of his totally unpopular movies, Big Fish, was filmed in various locations across the state of Alabama. In the spring, we took a trip to visit one of the filming locations.

During Big Fish, the main character, Edward Bloom, leaves his hometown in search of something new. He finds his way to an idyllic little town called Spectre. This picture-perfect town was filled with friendly characters. Since there was no road in or out, the townspeople walked around barefoot on the grass through the middle of town. When new people came to town, the townspeople threw the new person's shoes over a tall clothesline that ran across the main square since they wouldn't need the shoes anymore.

Bloom eventually leaves Spectre and continues on his adventures, which you'll need to watch the movie to see. When he returns again years later, the whole town has changed. They blame it on a road being built through town.

The film crew built the entire town of Spectre on an island for filming. Then once they filmed the bright, happy scenes for Bloom's first visit to to town, they aged it. They made a paved road into the middle of the set town and painted the prop buildings to make them look old and worn down.

You're probably sitting there wondering why on earth Alabama was the chosen location for filming a Tim Burton movie. Well it's because Daniel Wallace, the writer of the book the movie is based on, is from Alabama. When you're filming a movie set in Alabama by a man from Alabama, there's really no other choice but to film it in Alabama. I'm still confused as to why they didn't film the scene that's supposedly set in Auburn actually in Auburn since it was just up the road, but that's a conversation for another time.

One Saturday, we decided to take a little trip down the road to Millbrook, AL, to see Spectre for ourselves. The movie town of Spectre is actually located on a private island called Jackson Lake Island. The entire island is worth a visit. They have space for kayaking, fishing, camping, gorgeous photo shoots, and just generally relaxing. We were here with a single goal in mind, but we will definitely be back to visit the island for all of its recreation potential.

The first thing you will come to is a gate with instructions for entry. We called the number, got our gate code, put our money in the envelope ($3/person for the day, slightly more if you stay overnight), dropped the envelope in the box, and onward we went. You are on the honor system here, so don't be a jerk. These people are opening up their island to you, a few bucks isn't much to ask.

The day we went, it hadn't rained recently, so the dirt road from the gate to the island was pretty good. I suspect if it had rained soon before our visit, the Prius would've had a much harder time getting to the island, so definitely keep that in mind. Once on the island itself, we just kept following the dirt road until we saw a little wooden sign with an arrow pointing left and the word "Spectre" painted on it. We knew we were headed the right way!

The movie town has definitely seen better days, but I'm not sure what more you could honestly expect from a town that was made to last for a couple of months of filming. If you visit, please use your common sense. Looking closely at the plywood buildings showed how much detail goes into movie props. The "bricks" on the buildings are all painted onto pieces of plaster. A lot of the windows had curtains, which really added to the look.  On the doors, you can see where doorknobs used to be, but all of the keyholes are painted on.

Go watch Big Fish. Then as soon as you turn the movie off, head over to Jackson Lake Island to visit Spectre for yourself.

Oh, and don't forget to bring an old pair of shoes (with laces) to throw over the line!

This is the room where they filmed the scene in which the characters are eating pie & Ed's shoes get stolen by the little girl. It's the only house in the little prop town that is actually finished on the inside.

An example of the painting technique that set designers used to make the buildings look aged

This is the inside of the church. The entire thing is made of plywood and wooden beams that are held together using  wires and a few support beams. In this picture, you can also see some of the numbering system. All of the different walls have numbers on them. From what I can gather, the numbers would have been used to keep up with what piece goes where.