antonijan said: "I adore the ruins...i wonder if they were real or just sets 
"
Parts of the ruins were embellished for scenic purposes (for example, adding the scaffolding the priests clamber over like vultures), but they did mostly work with actual ruins in Israel:
* The Overture (and pretty much every Jerusalem sequence, including the temple and crucifixion on outskirts of town) were filmed in Ein Avdat National Park near Beersheba, specifically in the ruins of the Nabatean acropolis. "The Temple" sequence saw a lot of embellishment, with Styrofoam pillars spray-painted to match the architecture and make it look more like an active market.
* What's The Buzz" was filmed in the Beit Guvrin Bell Cave (the pit / "holding cell" Jesus is thrown into after "Could We Start Again Please?" was at a different opening to the same cave).
* "Simon Zealotes" was filmed in the ruins of a palace near Jericho. (Fun fact: that earth you see the crowd pounding, kicking up dust as the dance sequence is nearing its end, was not original to the area. The fine desert soil didn't work and they had to bring in several tons of earth from Tel Aviv; crewmen spread dirt all over the courtyard, and they got a perfect shot on the first try.)
* "Pilate's Dream" was shot at Ein Bokek, near the shores of the Dead Sea and the famous sulfur bath health spa in Zohar.
* "I Don't Know How To Love Him" was filmed not far from Nazareth.
* "The Last Supper" and "Gethsemane" were filmed at a national park and nature reserve now known as Ein Hemed.
* The part of the "Arrest" sequence where Jesus is brought before Caiaphas [and, indeed, many scenes involving the priests that did not require scaffolding, such as "Then We Are Decided" and "Judas' Death"] was filmed in the fortress of Herodium near Bethlehem, actually built and used by Herod the Great as a palace in its day. (Here, they had to pull out signposts with tourist info and cover up the holes, and added some supplementary columns, plunked a little more onto the staired walkway, and again Styrofoam walls were built and fitted into existing ones and painted to match.)
* "King Herod's Song" was done out on the Dead Sea (not far from Masada, where Herod actually once had a summer palace), and his elaborate floating platform was the biggest set-piece in the film, the only item that wasn't a ruin already in Israel.
* The "Trial Before Pilate" and "Superstar" sequences were filmed at the same place, an ancient Roman amphitheater in Beit 'Shaan, tunneled through with catacombs. (Judas' suicide was filmed on a tel in the same area, but the tree was not native. Tourist literature suggests the bare tree bark, oddly enough now in the shape of a cross as it has withered with age, was left over when they completed shooting.)
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28
Updated On: 3/31/18 at 08:15 AM
