Page 43 - Fujifilm Exposure_50th AWARDS ISSUE FULL PDF - cropped

S
“I FELT THE FUJIFILM STOCKS WOULD DO ALL THE LANDSCAPES JUSTICE WITH ITS RICH INTENSITY
OF COLOUR.”
et in turn-of-the-20th Century New Zealand, Tracker tells the story of Arjan van Diemen (Ray Winstone), ex Boer War guerrilla, hired to bring in Kereama
(Temuera Morrison), a Maori fugitive accused of killing a British soldier.
For cinematographer Harvey Harrison BSC, the film marked the return to shooting main unit after a dozen years as one of the UK’s most prolific 2nd Unit directors and/or cameramen.
It also reunited him with old friend British director Ian Sharp for the first time since they’d made RPM, the French-based action comedy, together in 1998.
Kereama’s escape route takes the viewer to some exotic locations, particularly in the South Island around Queenstown and Glenorchy.
South Island location manager Phil Turner said: “We’re blessed with a diverse range of locations around Queenstown - from Moke Lake which is a lowland lake pastoral look, to Rees Valley, a primeval rainforest area close to the Main Divide, which provides a dramatic Southern Alps backdrop, and the Nevis Valley for a stunning craggy rocky background.
There’s also the Kawarau River,
a simply amazing river gorge just 20 minutes from Queenstown and then Queenstown Hill, a farm and another 20 minutes away on the northern side, giving us hilltop plateaus, rocky out- crops and steep scree slopes for some of the fight scenes.
“And, there’s no sign of modern civilisation – just big skies, big moun- tains and big vistas in diverse environments that all have that overwhelming epic feel that’s associated with a Western.”
Other locations were found around Auckland – the spectacular black sand beaches, bush and waterfalls at Karekare and Piha on the west coast and the calmer waters of Narrow Neck Beach on the east coast.
No wonder open-mouthed Winstone, while on a hilltop location near Queenstown, summed up the UK view thus:
“Why wouldn’t you shoot wide screen here? Anamorphic. Imagine having a little square box and not see this? And I love that (wide screen) because it gives it an epic feel. And for me that’s cinema. This makes it a big film and that makes it very exciting for me as an actor.
“I was walking up the hill this morning and I was thinking ‘oh I wish I was 17 again. I’d walk round this’. I’d put a bag on my back and I’d see this place properly, because they say this isn’t it. I think this is the most beautiful place I’ve been to and they say ‘oh that’s nothing to where we’re going’.
I can’t wait to see exactly where we’re going next.”
Like several of the New Zealanders involved, producer Trevor Haysom origi- nally read the setting as being the New Zealand bush, but he saw the advantages of having Sharp’s fresh take on the New Zealand landscape.
“Ninety-five percent of the story is exterior, so the New Zealand land- scape certainly is a big part of it, but I was a little concerned when Ian ar- rived and said he wanted to shoot it like a Western.
“I had visualised it as a film in the bush primarily, but Ian has seen things that a New Zealander probably doesn’t see, being blinded by the everyday ex- perience. I think it’s an advantage of Ian being a foreigner that he can show
us a fresh viewpoint, a different perspective of our landscape that certainly benefited the film.
Added Sharp: “Originally it was supposed to be set around Auckland, but when I read the script I had this idea for an anamorphic big Western and so I was told that the South Island was the place to be. And as soon as I landed in Queenstown I thought ‘this is it’. Because with any kind of epic you need an epic canvas to paint on and although for most of the film it’s a two-hander, the themes it explores are absolutely massive, so the landscape reflects that.”
Harrison says the film is modelled on the visual style of old Westerns, “because it’s set around that time and some of the old Western photography was absolutely beautiful. Because we’re shooting in New Zealand, we are virtually in the ‘Big Country’ and it’s very similar to being in Montana or Utah or Oregon and so I’m using a Western style of photography.
“Recollections of Butch Cassidy AndTthe Sundance Kid come back to me every time I look at the photogra- phy style because Butch and Sundance were being chased by a posse and it’s a bit like the story of this film in many ways, and Conrad Hall, who pho- tographed Butch Cassidy did a wonderful job.”
Tracker, to be released in the UK on April 29, was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250D 8563, ETERNA Vivid 160T 8543 and ETERNA Vivid 500T 8547
THEBIGCOUNTRY
TRACKER TAKES US INTO THE GREAT KIWI OUTDOORS FOR AN EPIC MANHUNT ‘WESTERN’
Photo main: Ray Winstone (left) gets his man (Temuera Morrison) in Tracker
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 41