Production facts
PRODUCTION BACKGROUND
The 10-part miniseries begins shortly after the bombing of Pearl
Harbour on 7 December, 1941 and ends in 1946, several months after
Japan's surrender on V-J Day (15 August 1945).
Principal photography was completed entirely on location in
Australia, beginning 10 August 2007 and wrapped 16 May 2008.
Additional photography was completed in Los Angeles in December
2008.
Production began in Port Douglas in Far North Queensland for the
first two-and-a-half months of filming. The key locations were
Drumsara in Mossman, which doubled for the jungles of the islands
of Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, and where the production
recreated a coconut plantation common to the Pacific islands. Beach
landings at Guadalcanal (Part One) and Peleliu (Part Five) were
staged at Rocky Point, which was also the location for the
Alligator Creek battle on Guadalcanal (Part One).
Production continued in and around Melbourne, Victoria for the
remaining six-and-a-half months. Interior scenes were filmed on
soundstages at Melbourne Central City Studios, and several
large-scale sets were built at Hillview Quarry in Victoria's You
Yang's district, including the battlefields of inland Peleliu
(Parts Six and Seven), Iwo Jima (Part Eight) and Okinawa (Part
Nine).
The production was strongly committed to the environmental
restoration of the locations used for filming and implemented a
re-vegetation offset program to ensure natural resource
management.
Post-production was completed over a 20-month period.
CAST AND CREW
The production schedule was divided between two units that filmed
concurrently throughout production.
The crew totaled more than 800, including both units, for
pre-production, shooting and post-production.
There were six writers and six directors.
There were 138 speaking roles in the cast, and extras accounted for
more than 26,000 man-days over the course of the production.
The production was supported by 78 special ability extras who
attended boot camp along with the principal cast.
Cast and crew came from Australia, England, USA, Canada, New
Zealand, Ireland and Japan.
ART DEPARTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION
More than 90 sets were built.
More than 62,000 tons of earth were excavated to build the Iwo Jima
and Okinawa battlefields out at Hillview Quarry.
To create the black volcanic sands of Iwo Jima, a local company was
contracted to mine and refine 4000 tons of black scoria, a
pumice-like rock formed from lava. An additional 80 tons of white
sand was painted black.
A crew of seven utilised heavy equipment to plant 350 coconut
trees, each 12-14 metres long and weighing approximately five
tons.
The construction department sculpted 650 cubic metres of concrete
to create the Umurbrogol Hills of Peleliu and the caves of Okinawa,
as well as sculpting 750 pieces of coral for the Peleliu
sets.
Over the course of the show 250 tents were pitched, requiring
300,000 tent pegs.
The set dressing team used six miles of original period telegraph
wire. and constructed more than a mile of "safe" barbed wire, which
required that each barb be put on by hand.
WARDROBE
The costume department used more than 10,000 wire
hangers, which if laid end to end, would span two and a half
miles.
To create 3000 olive drab (OD) Marine uniforms, the costume
department used 20,000 square metres of herringbone twill,
specially woven in India on old-fashioned looms to replicate the
1940s weave.
At both major locations (Port Douglas and the Hillview Quarry),
there was a tent over 300 feet long that housed costume, hair,
makeup, webbing and armory.
