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Kit & Stills Cast Biographies Filmmaker Biography Director's Statement Birth Of A Colonel Production Notes |
Production Notes
Despite a strong script, based on an internationally-published short story, the film was rejected by local funding bodies and seemed doomed to sit on a shelf forever until an unlikely source came on board as a principal sponsor in early 2010 – the Mental Health Foundation’s Out Of The Blue programme. “Boris Sokatrov, who manages Out Of The Blue, had been very taken with one of our previous films, Teddy,” says director Christopher Banks, “After reading the script for The Colonel’s Outing he thought it fitted really well with the messages of Out Of The Blue, which works to encourage men to seek help for depression and improve their mental wellbeing.” With a green light for funding, casting and location scouting could finally begin. There were several challenges in meeting the requirements of the story, as producer Andy Jalfon notes, firstly in casting: “We needed to find a pool of actors in their mid-to-late seventies, which is difficult in a small country like New Zealand. Casting young actors and making them up to look older was always going to be a last resort.” Casting director Amanda Rees, who worked on the previous Number 8 Films production Communication, found the right people. “It all happened really quickly,” director Christopher Banks remembers. “In little over half a day, we’d seen a number of enthusiastic and talented actors who were in the right age range, and it was also clear that we’d found a wonderful, thoughtful Tristan in Tyl von Randow and a beautifully nuanced Colonel in David Fitchew.”
“Although we’d seen some great actresses for Matron, we didn’t want to leave any stone unturned, and Andrea has a great reputation so we scheduled another half-day.” By this time, Tyl von Randow had already been cast as Tristan, so Andrea was reading with the real Tristan, in a pivotal scene Involving Matron. “Straight out of the box, she was fantastic,” Banks recalls. “She had just the right amount of aggression, passive-aggressive malice, and childlike vulnerability that we needed for the character.” Another casting joy came in the form of Shirley McNeill, who came to read for the minor role of rest home resident Mrs Pleasance. McNeill, in her mid-80s, has had a number of television appearances but appears on film in The Colonel’s Outing for the first time. She has been acting since her teens. “There can be a tendency for actors to ham it up in roles like this, but Shirley displayed a wonderful comic touch by playing Mrs Pleasance’s confusion completely straight,” Banks says. With a great cast in place, the next problem was where to put them – the evocative rest home setting is carefully described in Steve Attwood’s original story, which is set in Nelson. “Taking the production to Nelson wasn’t an option on our budget. We knew there were homes like that described in the story in Auckland, but the question was would anyone let us film there?” Jalfon says. “We were looking through real estate listings to see if we could shoot in private homes, but most people were understandably reluctant to let a crew of complete strangers come in and take over their home.” The eventual solution – Auckland’s historic homestead, Alberton – had been under their noses the whole time.
In fact, the home has quite a pedigree in New Zealand cinema, having being used for scenes in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning film The Piano. “They had a wedding on the weekend we wanted to shoot, but thankfully we could plan around it,” says Jalfon. The crew took to the historic home on Friday and Sunday of the three-day shoot, with the Saturday being reserved for the “outing” scenes at Auckland’s famous landmark One Tree Hill – immortalized in the U2 song of the same name – and its Cornwall Park surrounds. The final piece of the puzzle was transport. In Steve Attwood’s original story, the Colonel has an old 1930s Rolls Royce, which is his prize – and perhaps only – possession, a relic from his past glory days. “We knew it was going to be a very tough ask trying to find a car exactly like the one described in the story, so we settled for finding something similar from the era,” Jalfon remembers.
Boag came on set to drive, as did Ade Szabo, who lent his quirky Hillman Superminx to the production for Matron to drive. “Matron’s car is not specified in the original story,” Banks says, “but I always imagined her in something sturdy, compact and practical, like an Austin 1100 or perhaps even a Riley Elf. As the shoot dates got nearer, we sent out a blanket call for classic car enthusiasts and waited to see what came back. When Ade Szabo emailed through a picture of his Hillman Superminx, we knew it was just right for Matron.” Many of the crew from previous Number 8 productions Teddy and Communication returned for The Colonel’s Outing. The 16-minute film was shot in just three days with no major mishaps. “The feeling of a producing a third film in three years is very satisfying,” Jalfon says. “There is a real sense of interest and anticipation from people both here in New Zealand and internationally who have enjoyed our previous work.
Pictured above: Producer and first AD Andy Jalfon directs extras on location at Galbraith’s Alehouse in Mt Eden. |
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(C) 2011 Number 8 Films Trust. All rights reserved. |
