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Chapter 13: MOVING SOUTH
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Keeping up a brisk pace, the cast and crew moved to the Great South Rd on 4 April to
film David’s meeting with the traffic officer. The publicity kept in step with the
film’s progress, with the Waikato Times on 3 April running a story: “somewhere
between Huntly and Hamilton, a speeding cream convertible Ford Thunderbird will
be chased and stopped by a traffic officer. No ticket will be issued. The anxious
driver – the only occupant in the car – will be given a stern warning and sent on his
way. Later, the traffic officer will stroll down a Hamilton street and find the car
abandoned.” 1 The article included pertinent comments from O’Shea; “‘This is no
travelogue or publicity film. We’re interested in the people. The English or
Continental cinema goer doesn’t want to see the beautiful scenery, he wants to know
what the people are like. It’s a no-holds-barred film’ he added, with a twinkle in his
eye.” 2 (This was virtually a paraphrase of John Grierson’s famous comments when he
visited New Zealand in 1940.) Local interest in the film was obviously high as the
Waikato Times ran a second item the following day under a photograph showing
O’Shea, his son Patrick, Tony Williams and Michael Seresin clustered around a
camera as they “wait on a bank to film the scene where a car, converted by David
Manning, played by Colin Broadley, is stopped by a traffic officer.” 3 The reporter
noted “a little group of autograph hunters huddled around the lamp-post where the
white Thunderbird, used in the film sequence, would stop.” 4
The major dialogue sequences for the hitchhiking between Broadley and Cornwall
were filmed with the Ford car fixed on a trailer and towed through Cornwall Park,
which, with its rural setting in the centre of Auckland and its liberal sprinkling of
sheep, made an ideal location (Ford had loaned several vehicles to O’Shea for the
duration of the shooting). With camera mounted on the trailer, Tony Williams and his
crew were able to gain steady, clear footage of the car’s interior. The Ford was a
relatively large vehicle so when the car was actually travelling on the road, by
removing the lid from the boot, the camera operator was able to fit himself and the
camera inside and shoot scenes through the window. Other scenes (such as the young
Maori hitchhiker) were shot in the conventional fashion from the roadside. While the
mounting of the car on the trailer was an efficient method of shooting a conversation
in a moving vehicle, it also complicated filming and continuity. Interior scenes were