Braveheart (1995) in Ireland had developed contacts with the Irish Army and knowledge of local beaches. One such location, the long Curracloe Beach, near Curracloe, County Wexford, offered the desired golden sands and sheer cliffs and nearby amenities. Spielberg selected a segment of the beach, known as Ballinesker. He said, "I was a bit disappointed that the beach we used wasn't as broad as the real Omaha Beach... I tried to use certain wide-angle lenses to extend the length of the flats on the sandy beach before the soldiers reach the shingle. I used wider lenses for geography and tighter lenses for the compression of action. A segment adjacent to Blackwater, County Wexford, was considered, but the local nuns could not make the land available in time. Service roads were built for vehicles to reach Ballinesker. Production designer, Thomas E. Sanders, led construction of the concrete battlements, bunkers, Czech hedgehogs, and barbed wire, much of which was made by local metalworkers. Over eleven weeks were spent preparing Ballinesker for filming. A storm destroyed some of the props just before filming, and were rebuilt overnight. The main crew arrived on location on June 25, 1997. Filming in Ireland Principal photography began on June 27, 1997. Filming completed up to 50 shots per day. Spielberg wanted the actors to get little rest, "A war is fought fast, and I really wanted to keep all of the actors off-balance. I didn't want them to be able to read 75 pages of a novel... I wanted to work fast enough so that they always felt as if they were in combat... I had to keep them on the set, which meant shooting the film even faster than I normally do. War doesn't give you a break." Saving Private Ryan was shot almost entirely in continuity order, although some of the crew found this a "a mentally demoralizing experience" because the cast started together and left as their characters died. The Omaha Beach battle was filmed over three to four weeks, and at a cost of $12million. The scene involved about 1,500 people including 400 crew, 1,000 Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil (FCA) and Irish army members, and dozens of extras and about 30 amputees and paraplegics fitted with prosthetic limbs to portray disfigured soldiers. Their numbers were supplemented with over one thousand detailed mannequins. The extras were divided into platoons with a designated leader, allowing Dye