ON LOCATION BY SHORES OF TAUPO

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 22, 18 September 1931, Page 3

ON LOCATION BY SHORES OF TAUPO

NEW MAORI FILM TEN THOUSAND FEET SYNCHRONISED PICTURE WORK NOW COMPLETED The largest and most comprehensive motion picture enterprise yet • attempted in New Zealand has just ; been concluded at Tokaanu, where three weeks ago, an Ameriean producer, Mr. Alexander Marky, completed a 10,000 feet Maori film upon which he has been working for the, last two and a half years. With a ; plot woven about an appealing Maori love theme, and cast amid the pic- - turesque settings of Maori life a century ago, before the coming of the pakeha introduced the disturbing influences of civilisation, the film;, makes the first determined excursion ' into a field of motion picture material which has hitherto.been very seldom'i explored. \ Maori tribal customs in their orig- " inal settings, the "korsro" within the pa after the day's work was done, the war dance of the warriors, and the busy domestic labours of the native villagers, all find their place on ground which in truth a century. ago might have staged a similar human '* drama to the one which Mr. Marky, 100 years later, has manufactured* for the screen. On Location The production of a film of this' size "on location," is a very considerable task, and Mr. Marky and his assistants had'many months of pre-'" paration before they were ready to begin "shooting" their scenes. Suitable Maori types had to be selected,' and what was even more difficult, persuaded to play1 their parts, camps" had to be established, old Maori pas erected, traditional Maori costumes manufactured, and a thousand and one details finalised. Seven miles from Tokaanu, on a secluded point on the shores of Lake Taupo, Mr. Marky established his: camp, combining in an incongruous mixture, the paraphenalia of a screen studio, a modern Maori-Pakeha encampment, and an ancient Maori pa. Here were to be seen command-.-ing warriors who might well have marched under Hongi Ika, rubbing shoulders with their modern counterparts in slacks and jerseys, venerable tohungas who might have orated at tr;bal councils, smoking a gasper after their day's work was done, and. impressive tattooed chieftians who' might have led ancient tribes in war and peace, discussing the. latest raeing news by medium of a newspaper a week old. It was perhaps the strangest mixture of the old and the new which has even been compounded in New Zealand. Maori Screen Stars One hundred and fifty Maori men and women, drawn for the most part from the Wanganui and Uruwera dis-' tricts, made their first debut before the camera's eye, and the task of controlling and directing this raw material was in itself something to tax the resource of any producer, Every now and again, some. stalwart warrior, exhausted by an energetic representation of his athletic ancestors, would decide that a period of rest and recuperation was due to him4 and would disappear into mysterious haunts from which he had to be retrieved with all dispateh. Contin? ually there were mo.dern influences interjecting to disturb the even tenor of the old order, when Maori gentlemen with grievances, could settle them with patu and mere • instead of through their solicitors. But in spite of the small hitche§ inevitable to an undertaking of such complexity, the cheerful Maori spiritpredominated and under Mr. Marky'g direction, all the strangely assorted units fell into their allotted places and performed their allotted parts in the drama. Story of Film • ' The story of the film is centred round the love story of Manui, ' & young Maori chieftain and Mara, th0 daughter of his ancient foe, and around their adventures before they finally reach that blissful "close-up" without which no film is really complete. There is a stirring canoe race across the waters of Lake Taupo in which 11 war canoes pursue the single craft in which Manui flies with his stolen bride; then comes a stern pursuit through eleven miles of rugged lake country, terminating in thd

storming of Manui's pa, and a savage Maori tribal battle in which the warriors of both factions participate. On the screen all this will make a consecutive story but in its construcr tion, it entailed weeks of revision and careful selection. The canoe race, for instance, although on the film it will appear as a desperate and thrilling pursuit over seven miles of lake waters, in reality only occupied a distance of 200 yards with the camera man, at one stage, standing up to his neek in water "shooting" the scenes. Similarly, the 11 miles of relentless bush-tracking across country, was actually performed in a few hundreds of yards, while the very realistie gore in which some of the stricken warriors wallowed as they stormed the pallisades of the pa, was created by hurling at them balls of cotton wool soaked in black paint. But it would be unfair to reveal all the secrets behind the screen, for in front of it, the film will appear perfectly connected and as a consecutive story. Faithful In Detall Before undertaking the production, Mr. Marky spent a considerable time in perf ecting his- knowledge of' Maori customs, dress, and habits. • Careful attention has been given to all this important detail, and when it is completed, the film will represent a very interesting picture of ancient Maori life, in addition to an appealing screen story. The final work in connection with the film was completed just over three weeks ago, and the camp which had become almost a local permanency, was disbanded. On Tuesday, Mr. Marky will sail for America in order to under the sound synchronising work at Hollywood; when that is completed, the picture will be sold to a distributing company for release in different parts of the world. A point which will add further New Zealand interest to the film,. is the fact that Mr. Alfred Hill, the wellknown New Zealand composer, has specially written the music for it.