April 24, 2015
Drama aims for war impact
The director of a new World War 1 television drama series says getting the huge scale the era demands was a challenge for a New Zealand production.
When We Go To War, which starts with a two-episode special on Sunday night, tracks the experiences of six young Maori and Pakeha men and women whose lives are changed by the war.
Pete Burger says getting to recreate the Gallipoli landing is a once in a lifetime achievement for a director, and it took some sleight of hand.
All the budget could afford was a couple of boatloads of soldiers.
"Then the clever digital people created hundreds more people off in the distance who are not the main focus of the shot, maybe they are a little out of focus, but they give that sense that this is not just some soldiers arriving at a beach in Whangaparaoa, where we shot it, but this is an invasion, which it was," he says.
Pete Burger says drama is a way to give people an emotional sense of what it may have felt to be there.
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