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FEATURES IN PRODUCTION
Postcard fromNewZealand
SET IN 1903, TRACKER TELLS THE STORY OF AN EX-BOER WAR GUERRILLA (RAY WINSTONE) SENT OUT TO NEW ZEALAND TO BRING IN A MAORI (TEMUERA MORRISON) ACCUSED OF KILLING A BRITISH SOLDIER. GRADUALLY THEY GROW TO KNOW AND RESPECT ONE ANOTHER. DIRECTEDBYIANSHARP, TRACKERWASPHOTOGRAPHEDBY
Could it have worked
out any better than
“this? My wife Sally and
I were going on holiday to
New Zealand from the end
of November and over
Christmas and the New
Year, when my old mate Ian
Sharp gave me a call and said
that he was going to shoot a
picture there in October
through to December. Well, of
course, I was immediately
interested and when I read
the script I was just bowled over by the story.
We arrived in NZ towards the end of September for five weeks prep and recces to be followed by a seven week shoot. Most of the locations had already been found - the first three weeks in and around Auckland and the last four weeks around Queenstown and Glenorchy.
When I arrived, Ian showed me all
the locations and we very quickly knew exactly how we were going to shoot the picture.
We wanted it to be shot like an old western, as it is that type of a story... a Boer - the Tracker - hunting down and capturing a Maori, who has been accused of murder.
We decided to shoot on film. I’m a film man through and through. Although HD had been mentioned, film was, as far as I was concerned,
the only format for this type of story.
I shot with a Panavision
Millennium camera, Super 35, Primo prime lenses, absolutely no zooms, just tracking and big crane shots, and chose Fujifilm for the reason of NZ having such a wonderful big country that I felt the Fujifilm stock would do all the
wonderful landscapes justice with its rich intensity of colour.
I used three different stocks - ETERNA 250D for all the day scenes, ETERNA Vivid 160T for Day for night and evening scenes, and the new ETERNA Vivid 500T for night scenes and interiors. I wasn’t disappointed. The weather conditions were interesting to say the least; we had everything thrown at us, but the film handled my interpretations absolutely perfectly.
I used HMI lighting with straw filters for all the day exteriors with some use of mixed gold and silver reflection; for the day for night, evening and night scenes, I just used incandescent lamps with a mixture of CTO filters, especially as there were a lot of camp fires.
The NZ crew, some of whom I had met before when I used to shoot commercials in NZ in the 70s and 80s were absolutely terrific, very experienced with a great work ethic
and that
wonderful
and totally
unique
Kiwi sense
of humour. I was never bored - not that any of us had any time to be.
Special mentions go to my 1st AC Peter Cunningham, Gaffer Grant McKinnon, Grip Tony (Spotty) Keddy and all their teams.
I feel that we have a great picture (I have still to grade it) and that goes down all the way from Ian Sharp, the producers (Trevor Haysom. David Burns and Emma Slade), Ray and Tem, who worked so well together without any star temperament, the crew, equipment suppliers and Fujifilm which, with NZ itself
gives Tracker such a great look.
”
Photo top: Temuera Morrison and Ray Winstone in Tracker;
left: DP Harvey Harrison (behind the camera) and Director Ian Sharp (right)
36 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE
HARVEY HARRISON BSC. HE WRITES...