Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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and illustrator of The Ancient Mariner. 781 (This style of biblical illustration had already
influenced Vigil and would later influence What Dreams May Come.)
The finished product did not entirely achieve these ambitions, in Simpson’s view.
Although some scenes such as the pouring of the molten cross worked well in terms of
rich reds and blues contrasting with the black-and-white sequences, they were “not
entirely successful in getting the audience to feel that we were trying to be evocative of
a medieval palette” due to time and budget constraints compromising what they had
envisaged. 782 Ward expressed a similar opinion: “I never achieved what I wanted to in
the twentieth century [scenes] in terms of colour. I would have needed a shoot about
five weeks longer – well, a couple of weeks. It was achievable, but not with our
resources […]. Whereas in the medieval scenes, I think we got there, in terms of
style”. 783
Post-Production
The music soundtrack sought to create a medieval feel in its use of medieval rhythms
and modes (rather than the modern major and minor scale). Alison Carter, who was
then working as a journalist in Sydney was involved in doing music research on The
Navigator after Ward had moved to Sydney to try and raise money in Australia. Ward’s
brief to Carter was that the music should convey “strong passion” and he wanted
“natural instruments”. 784 Carter went around Sydney meeting a variety of musicians,
from Italian bagpipe performers to Latin American musicians, and Ward eventually
settled on Iranian Davood Tabrizzi, who had been classically trained in Iran and had
later played with Celtic and South American folk bands, to compose the film score. 785
The problem with attempting to re-create music from fourteenth century Cumbria was
that only fragmentary evidence existed. In Ward’s words:
Essentially you’re faced with re-creating a tradition and working out what the
sources of that tradition are. It’s a logical process. What we [drew upon were]
six different sources of music: Celtic folk music, Scottish military music,
Gregorian chant and plainsong, peasant music to give it that earthy feeling,
781 Campbell and Bilbrough, "A Dialogue with Discrepancy: Vincent Ward Discusses the Navigator," 13.
782 Lynette Read, interview with Geoffrey Simpson, 29 September 1999.
783 Campbell and Bilbrough, "A Dialogue with Discrepancy: Vincent Ward Discusses the Navigator," 13.
784 Lynette Read, interview with Alison Carter, 6 August 2002.
785 O'Brien, "Success Is Being a Good Liar," 12.