Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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shoot was lengthy by Australasian standards, the cast and crew often had to work
overtime to keep to the schedule. In hindsight McFarlane feels that because he was
“totally in touch with the character” of Griffin, whom he saw as quite similar to himself
in many ways, and because he felt completely comfortable and trusted Ward, the
experience of working The Navigator was the “Mount Everest” of his life. Even today
– he now works as a First Assistant Director - he always compares his film experiences
with that initial experience. 755
After two weeks of intensive rehearsals in an old warehouse in Otahuhu, the cast and
crew flew down to the South Island, to Lake Harris in the Southern Alps, to begin
shooting. McFarlane was unaware at the time of the dangers of shooting in the middle
of winter in such a location but comments in retrospect: “It was, I suppose, quite a big
risk, and I think this is why Vincent does get compared with Werner Herzog quite a lot,
that he does live up to his taking risks […]. And they pay off too. If we hadn’t shot it
there it wouldn’t have looked anything like it did”. 756 Ward had chosen Lake Harris
because it reminded him of Cumbria. He knew that “the film needed a strong opening
and closing and that in purely financial terms the expense of shooting here would prove
worth it on the screen”. 757 However, when it was realised that the lake would soon be
frozen over, making it impossible to work there, the filming was brought forward
several weeks, which put a great deal of pressure on the art department to have
everything ready in time – costumes, props and so on. At Lake Harris, the cast and
crew stayed at Glenorchy and had to be airlifted up to the lake itself for the shoot and
flown out by helicopter before dark. All the camera and art department equipment also
had to be airlifted in by helicopter and it required four or five trips each day to bring in
all the gear, which was hung underneath the helicopter in nets. As Ward wryly
comments: “It became a running joke with the crew that I chose difficult locations
deliberately: ‘Vincent found a new location today, but we’re not using it. You can get
there by road’”. 758 Other difficult locations for the medieval sections of the film were
half-way up Mt Ruapehu, and the tunnel scenes, which “were filmed 100 metres
underground at Waitomo […] where access was by rope”. 759 For Ward, getting the
details right has serious implications for the choice of location, putting demands not
755 Lynette Read, interview with Hamish McFarlane, 15 August 2002.
756 Lynette Read, interview with Hamish McFarlan, 15 August 2002.
757 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 157.
758 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 159.
759 Hughes, "The Two Ages of the Navigator," 31.