Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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Chapter 5
Vigil
Ward’s involvement in the process of making In Spring One Plants Alone further
convinced him that: “Filmmaking for me is to do with exploring who you are and where
you come from. Weaving stories from these experiences to take people on some sort of
journey”. 588 Vigil, his first full-length feature film, was grounded in his own
experiences and background. This chapter will discuss changes in Ward’s approach
which marked his development from student filmmaker to professional; it will also
examine the unusual process of making the film, focussing on the development of the
initial script to its final version, and the contributions of the cast and crew. This
detailed record of writing and production will be a special feature of this chapter,
offering a particular perspective on Ward’s aesthetic and providing additional evidence
of his status as an auteur. I shall also consider the give and take between the New
Zealandness of Vigil and its mythical or archetypal elements (which some would
describe as universal). Lastly, the chapter will examine the importance of this film to
the subsequent directions of New Zealand filmmaking.
The film was released in 1984, four years after In Spring One Plants Alone, and it may
be seen as the third of a trilogy of films that began with A State of Siege and In Spring,
all focussing on strong female characters as the main protagonists. Ward has said:
“This film feels like the completion of the other two – I feel my ideas are clearer and
I’ve brought them to fruition”. 589 Vigil grew partly out of Ward’s experience in making
In Spring.
I felt that there were two films to be made while I was making this documentary
– one was the documentary, and one was a drama. More than anything, it was
the feeling there, which I wanted to translate into a feature film – the feeling of
claustrophobia, of paranoia, and, at moments, of genuine human warmth,
588
Ward quoted in Carl Denham, "Profile: Heaven's above, a Religious Filmmaker," New Zealandia
(1989): 40.
589
Mitchell, "Vincent Ward: The Eloquence of Isolation," 39.