Adrift director doesn’t mind filming on ocean
Kormákur connects actors to roles by taking them out to sea
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/06/2018 (3002 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It’s a truism of moviemaking that if you want to maximize the stress of the filmmaking experience, you should go to sea.
Some of the most stressful films ever made have involved big bodies of water, including Jaws, Titanic and The Abyss.
But the prospect didn’t put off Icelandic film director Baltasar Kormákur, who shot much of the survival drama Adrift primarily on location around Fiji, with a few weeks on stage in New Zealand.
The film tells the true story of Tami Oldham, who was just 23 years old in 1983 when she and fiancé Richard Sharp took an offer to sail a 13-metre yacht from Fiji to San Diego. Three weeks into the voyage, the couple was hit with a category 4 hurricane, the trip became a gruelling, 41-day battle for survival.
The ocean scenes were filmed by Kormákur over 49 days.
Kormákur, who shot the 2015 survival drama Everest under conditions that required actors to endure the same hardships as hardcore mountain climbers, felt no hesitation in deciding to shoot the bulk of the film on open ocean.
“I happen to like the ocean,” he says in a phone interview. “I was a sailor when I was younger. I feel at ease in the ocean.
“And water in the tank doesn’t look anything like the sea, you know?” he says.
“To create the whole film in that environment wasn’t interesting to me.”
Hence the process put additional responsibility on actors Shailene Woodley and Sam Clafin, who play Oldham and Sharp.
“The actors get more real and more connected,” Kormákur says. “It helps and informs their performances.
“We spent almost as much time on the ocean as the real people did, and it’s done to prepare them physically and mentally.
“And we pretty much shot in sequence as much as possible, because among other things, they start to lose weight,” he says.
If the weather changed, the shooting schedule could change, too, to accommodate the weather, he says.
“What I had done with the actors and the crew was to prepare them for anything,” he says.
“You bow your head to Mother Nature and take what she gives you.”
Adrift is now playing at Kildonan Place, McGillivray, Polo Park, St. Vital and Towne cinemas.
randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Advertisement Advertise With Us
Advertisement Advertise With Us
