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NEW ZEALAND FEATURE IN FOCUS
THEBIG COUNTRY
TRACKER TAKES US INTO THE GREAT KIWI OUTDOORS FOR AN EPIC MANHUNT ‘WESTERN’
Set 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 outcrops and steep scree slopes for some of the fight scenes.
“And, there’s no sign of modern civilisation – just big skies, big mountains 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.
Like several of the New Zealanders involved, producer Trevor Haysom originally 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 landscape certainly is a big part of it, but I was a little concerned when Ian arrived and said he wanted to shoot it like a Western.
“I had visualised it as a film in the bush, but Ian has seen things that a New Zealander doesn’t see, blinded by the everyday experience. 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
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