Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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location and then matched with studio locations and special effects was the medieval
mining machine digging through the earth which
was filmed in a three-storey set in an Auckland studio, then a model was made
and painted identically so a computer-programmed camera enabled the studio
scenes to be inset in the cliff face. Back projection, handmade moon and clouds
being moved separately, thirty different machine sounds, impact sounds and
blasts of dusts synchronised with the ‘hits’ added to the weeks of shooting and
many people involved. 791
At the time the film was being made, Maynard stated that: “About half the budget is
going on special and visual effects – there are more in this film than any other New
Zealand film to date” and for this reason the film was studio-based rather than locationbased,
unlike most New Zealand films at that time. 792 It is interesting that New
Zealand’s largest film project would subsequently be Peter Jackson’s medieval fantasy
epic, although Jackson would have a vastly greater budget at his disposal, and a newer
generation of computer effects.
The work of Australian visual effects designer, Paul Nichola “played an enormous part
[…] in getting the powerful images which director Vincent Ward, the perfectionist,
demanded”. 793 Nichola was initially drawn to the script because “it was extremely
challenging visually”, and he and Ward spent a great deal of time discussing how
particular images might be realised. Nichola thought - as did Graham Morris, the sound
recordist who worked on Vigil - that Ward was not very strong on practicalities:
“Vincent was totally void of visual effects knowledge. He’d come up with these really
difficult shots because he didn’t know they were next to impossible”. While some
designers may have found this frustrating, Nichola felt that this lack of knowledge or
refusal to accept limitations was stimulating. “It meant having to come up with new
ways to achieve the effects Vincent wanted”. 794
791 Snow, "Performance: Visionary Force," 30.
792 Dowling, "Location Report: Medieval Mystery in Manurewa," 23.
793 Jonathan Dowling, "In Search of the Effect," Onfilm 5.3 (1988): 9.
794 Dowling, "In Search of the Effect," 9.