Creating Waimoana
Gavin Strawhan takes a look at how the world of Waimoana was made reality - from the concept to the final execution on screen.
Creating the look and feel of Waimoana was really up to our wonderful designer Tracey Collins who was in charge of design AND costume. Usually in television series these roles are split but Tracey really wanted to do both and who were we to argue? It meant she worked her butt off and there were probably times she questioned her sanity, but the results were fantastic and I don't think there's any doubt that Waimoana looks like the result of one strong vision.
To be honest, both Rachel and I would admit to being somewhat visually challenged especially in terms of spatial awareness. We have a pretty clear sense of the characters we create and their stories but where and how it actually all plays out in a physical sense, well, we can be a bit vague on that side of things. Which is why it was so great to have Tracey onboard. She took the world we had written and made it real and tangible and so much more wonderful than we could have imagined.
She worked closely from the get go with our two clever and talented Directors, Rob Sarkies and Peter Salmon. Early on we had what came to be called a 'boot camp' where as many of the key heads of departments as we could wrangle (design, location, photography, direction, production etc) got together with us writers to talk about the look and feel of the series.
We wanted viewers to know, the moment they switched on to our show, that it was our show. It had to have something that set it apart from other local shows on telly. And it had to look classy because it was competing, genre wise, with much bigger budget American stuff.
(Rachel was watching an early cut of the one episode and her son, who was supposed to be doing his homework, wandered by and asked; "Hey, what's that chick from Go Girls (ie Tania Nolan who plays Doctor Collins) doing in an American show?" Which we took as an indication we were on the right track at least in terms of our production values!)
Having created a world (on paper) called Waimoana, which was eco-friendly and, on the surface, safe and happy, we decided early on that the sense of danger in this world would arise out of the lightness and brightness. Rather than darkness and shadows as in the traditional thriller, the problem Alec has in Waimoana is there is nowhere to hide. Everything is out in the open and he feels exposed.
After the boot camp, Tracey began creating a series of 'mood
boards' where different scraps cut from magazines, photos, material
samples, whatever, could be pasted up to give a sense of each of
our key sets and locations. She and the Directors could use
these mood boards when discussing the show with other crew (like
the Director of Photography) before any sets had actually been
built.
We also knew that trying to create a mystery thriller on our budget
would be a real challenge, so that as much as possible we had to be
able to find what we wanted in the real world and not have to
create everything from scratch. This where the unsung hero of
our series comes in to his own.
Benny Tatton is a Locations Manager. It's his job to work with the designer and directors to find and secure the right locations, houses, buildings and other spaces required by the scripts and those pesky unrealistic writers. It was Benny who was responsible for finding Omaha and persuading residents and officials to let us shoot there. It was Benny who secured the North Shore Bus station that we used as the heliport in episode 1. And Smales farm where Waimoana Water and Wellness are located.
Benny also has to try and keep good relations between the production and the people whose houses we use. So when the crew ploughs up the front garden with a truck badly parked, it's Benny who has to try to smooth the waters. And he is bloody fantastic at it. Although he may have found This Is Not My Life one of his more challenging projects..
So, back to the mood boards. Gradually Tracey built up a picture of the world of Waimoana and began designing the sets. At the same time she had to design the kind of clothes that our characters might wear. The costumes had to be both specific to the characters AND consistent with the world of Waimoana. And again, although some of the clothes had to be made, we couldn't afford to dress everyone that way, so we had to be able to dress the extras and so on 'off the rack'. Tracey felt that pastels in natural hemp looking fibre would be right and so it was.
There was also a great deal of technical discussion that went on that, frankly, was over my head. Decisions had to be made, for instance, on the level of technology in Waimoana, and how that would be realised. The PEC (personal entertainment and communications device) had to be designed, along with the computers that were to be used. Somewhere along the line it was decided that these would all be clear Perspex to be filled in by Special FX in post-production.
(I'm not sure how many people know that none of the stuff you see on computers or PECs is actually there - it was all done in post-production by the wonderful Peter McCully and his team at Albedo. A journalist rang Rachel to discuss the show and Rachel mentioned the special fx. The journalist, who had seen eps 1 and 2 asked "what special fx". And I don't blame her; I think they are pretty damn seamless.)
Through this process Rachel and I, as creators of the show, poked our noses in and made comments and entered into the general discussion. There was one very important discussion I remember, where the directors (blokes) wondered if women in Waiomana would have handbags? After all, with a PEC and no paper, what would they need to carry? Tracey and Rachel were having none of this nonsense. They patiently pointed out that the directors were missing the point. Women in Waimoana were still Women. End of discussion!
In the end, it seems to me, that the sets and look of Waiomana reflects that fact that Tracey is a true artist, no matter what medium she might choose to work in.
