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LOCATIONS ON THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD
Finding a typical Maori marae proved to be a tricky task for location manager Harry Harrison.
Although there are plenty of maraes on the coast of the North Island where the film is set, many were either too far away from Auckland, or just not suitable.
“I spent a lot of time looking for maraes and marae interiors because we knew there were a lot of potential issues in some of the scenes we wanted to shoot in a marae.
“For instance there is a funeral scene in the marae and certain maori committees thought it was inauspicious and had the potential to bring bad luck if the filming was done in their marae, because you are dealing with death and the language you would use in the ceremony to invite the spirits to move on.”
The marae which appears in the film is actually a school marae, which lent itself perfectly for the role, with it carvings and grandeur. The bonus was that the children were on school holidays, so it was available to use.
“It was the first school marae to be built in Auckland. The founder is still alive and gave his blessing for us to film there.”
The crew were careful to observe Maori etiquette when filming the funeral scenes. There was a blessing before and after the filming to cleanse the marae.
“According to Maori protocol a stone was placed in the coffin. So when the blessing in the ceremony took place it was focussed on the stone, so when the spirit world is asked to open and receive, there is something to receive, and it is not a physical human entity, it is a stone.
Harry also had the challenge of persuading Auckland museum to open its doors to the film crew for the interior and exterior scenes of the British Imperial Museum, and the wedding scenes.
“The Auckland museum was very helpful. To get permission to film there we had to run it past the Maori trust board of the museum.
“They loved the story. They said it was their story too, and that they were keen for it to be told because it was faithful to certain events that have happened.
“Normally it is quite expensive to shoot in the museum. But they did a really good deal for us because they wanted to support the story. They also agreed to allow us to fly the Union flag from the building instead of the New Zealand flag while we were filming there.”
Harry also had to find ramshackle beach houses among the minimalist, designer homes along the coast near Auckland.
“We needed to find a rugged and remote house for Martin’s character Ian to stay in, and a simple, shabby house for Lollie. A lot of houses on the coast near Auckland are glass boxes; really cool minimalist architecture.
“But we eventually found two houses in two different locations, Huia and Bethells Beach, which had the right look and community feel.”
New Zealand’s first motor camp site, built in the 1930’s and now disused, just ten minutes drive from the centre of Auckland was transformed into the village of Otakataka. The exterior of the marae was specially built, using the skills of expert maori carvers. The leafy glen, known as Tui Glen, provided the perfect backdrop to capture scenes of village life.
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