Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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only on himself but also on cast and crew: “To have atmosphere you actually have to
see it and to see it you also have to experience it”. He cites the example of the
nineteenth century painter Turner, who tied himself to a mast during a storm in order to
be better able to capture it on canvas: “To portray those elements you can’t be below
deck”. 760 Certainly the location at Lake Harris was “another world where the crew and
actors would experience the visual ‘atmosphere’ Ward required – intense cold in the
biting winds and waist-deep snow”. 761
Some scenes were shot in Auckland, including the motorway scenes in Wairau Rd on
the North Shore and the foundry scenes in Penrose. Several of the Auckland locations
created difficulties of a different kind for crew and cast. An old sewage pond in
Takanini was used as a location for the footage of the submarine and a number of
people who had to work in or around the pond became sick. The sewer shots in the film
were shot in an actual sewer in Newmarket, and for the cathedral, the exterior used was
St Patrick’s cathedral in Wyndham St, and the interior, St Matthew’s cathedral. There
were also problems with some of the studio sets. The spire of the cathedral that
McFarlane’s character has to climb in the film was specially constructed and a stunt
person used for Griffin’s fall from the top of the spire, but in the last weeks of the shoot
the spire collapsed, and the last closeup shots of the film were shot amongst the
fragments. Ward’s comment was penetrating: “I suppose it was curiously appropriate
that I was shooting pieces – I always see the close-ups, the details, before the overall
pattern”. 762
Financial constraints caused by the shoot being over budget and behind schedule meant
that eighteen locations had to be changed or cut for cost reasons. Maynard was trying to
avoid the production guarantor stepping in and taking over, and worried that the film
might never be finished. By contrast, Ward was worried that “it might not be worth
finishing”. 763 The need to streamline and simplify was a particularly anxious demand
for a director with a passionate concern for richness of visual texture. Geoffrey
Simpson, the film’s Director of Photography, comments that in terms of Ward and
Maynard’s working relationship, “even though they argued and fought all the time, the
bottom line was [that] Vincent did know that there was severe time and money
760 Tara Werner, "A Mediaeval Craft," Southern Skies: 20.
761 Werner, "A Mediaeval Craft," 21.
762 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 167.
763 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 169.