Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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its side, only to hoist it vertically by rope, detailing all the parts of it before looking at
the whole structure.” Ward also commented: “While John deals in broad strokes, I’m
obsessive about detail”. 626 This combination, however, while it occasionally led to
conflict, proved to be so successful that after Vigil was completed, Maynard went on to
produce Ward’s next film, The Navigator. Vigil’s budget was just under two million
dollars and Maynard was successful in finding funding for the film from the New
Zealand Film Commission and the Film Investment Corporation of New Zealand. This
would, however, prove to be a lean budget for a film made in a spirit of perfectionism.
Production and Post-Production
The cast of the film, particularly Fiona Kay who played the part of Toss, contributed a
great deal to the film’s success. Finding a suitable child actor proved to be timeconsuming,
and over two years Ward visited several hundred schools looking for the
face he had in mind. He sought “an expressive child, in some ways untouched rather
than sophisticated, imaginative, with an unusual presence”. 627 He finally found Fiona
Kay to play the role, although “she was a bookworm, a scrawny city kid who hated
walking barefoot on the grass and read insatiably between every take – unlike the
tomboy I had in mind”. 628 That she bore more than a passing physical resemblance to
Ward has often been commented on, and he subsequently wondered if he had really
scanned the faces of 40,000 schoolgirls “unconsciously searching for my clone”. 629
Frank Whitten, who played the role of Ethan, was also involved in the casting of the
children, as was Maya Dalziel who stayed on the set to look after Fiona Kay. When
Ward eventually came up with a short list of actors to play Toss, Whitten ran workshops
with the children. He recalls Fiona Kay as having “this incredible quality of stillness, of
listening, and doing it in a very true way […]. She had the ability to be very natural and
was an example to us all”. 630
Ward had to spend a great deal of time coaching Fiona since she appeared in almost
every scene of the film, but he described her as “very bright and astute, with an inner
strength that helped her last the distance in sometimes difficult conditions. The work
626 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 70-71.
627 Merrill Coke, "Ward, Vigil Set for Cannes," The Evening Post 8 March 1984: 15.
628 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 73.
629 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 75.
630 Lynette Read, interview with Frank Whitten, 13 April 2002.