This is the spirit: five adult males squeeze into a family station-wagon and travel the general Auckland area on a technical recce. (Reality check: it wasn’t always five, mostly it was four; and by ‘general Auckland area’ I mean from Mangere Bridge to Grey Lynn and some in between.)
You know those pics they show of directors squinting through a viewfinder? Got introduced to one today. They’re called a ‘chewey’ (phonetic – no idea how they spell it normally) (best guess from the pros on its etymology was that it helps the director and DP ‘choose’ lenses). I felt rather directorly as I gingerly held it and squinted through it.
Six hours of driving and looking and talking. But as Mr Forster pointed out, the hard yards that are put in during pre-production means less headaches, surprises and drama during actual production. Being the lazy-arse that I am, I just wish someone else could do it on my behalf.
I don’t remember any of this kind of stuff being shown in the making-of shows of my distant youth. You just saw the director arrive on set in a supercar, given a coffee as he strolled to the set-up where everyone’s dutifully waiting, taking his personalised seat, and yelling ‘action!’.
Maybe on the next production.
