TV ‘Adventures’ In Pacific

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30936, 17 December 1965, Page 18

TV ‘Adventures’ In Pacific

"The Preen” Special Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 16. South Seas adventures that teen-agers—-and many older folk—would enjoy are being experienced by three young Australians. They are actors in a film being made by Roger Mirams, formerly of the New Zealand National Film Unit, who is producing the first colour television film to be made on location for Pacific Films, of Melbourne.

Entitled “The Adventures of the Sea Spray," the films consist of half-hour stories. Twelve or 13 of them have been filmed around Fiji, half a dozen will be taken in New Zealand next month and the rest wMI be set in Australian and New Guinea waters.

Although photographed in colour, the series can also be shown in black and white and has already been sold in in this medium in the New Zealand and Australian markets. It is planned to show the films in colour in the United States. “We use local talent round the nucleus of the actors in the series,” said Mr Mirams. “In all there will be 75 persons in the 26 half-hours.” He expects to be in New Zealand shortly to make initial arrangements for the films he will shoot here in January, using local scripts and local actors. Already New Zealanders have had a hand in the story. A fortnight ago a Royal New Zealand Air Force Sunderland from Lauthala Bay "bombed” a submarine off a coral reef outside Lautoka, Fiji. “One of the New Zealand Air Force men offered to row a rubber dinghy in a scene and as the dinghy reached the Sea Spray, an SSfoot topsail acrooner, the American co-pro-

ducer, Eddie Davis thrust a piece of paper into iris band and said, ‘Say that,' ” said Mr Miriams. “Hi* expression at this unexpected rote alone was worth catching.” The Sea Spray is in real life a Nelson boat, the Fitheach Ban, sailed by Mr A. Tregida. of Nelson, and his son Rick Slim and graceful the ship seems in its rightful place in the vivid blue waters around Fiji. The ship is the centre of life for Gary Gray, aged 16, and Roddy Pearlman, aged 14, both of Melbourne, and Susanne Haworth, of Sydney, three veterans of actionpacked television films aimed at younger viewers. The star of the adventure series is Walter Brown, a New Zealand-born actor from London. Leoni Lesinawai, Fiji Inspector of Police, adds a genuine South Seas touch with his traditional uluvakaviti (high warrior hair style). Gary Gray said the young Australians had to polish up

their accents “because the Americans couldn’t understand us,” but now the unit is well under way and producing a half-hour fllm in a mere five days. There is an international touch about the produetion. Mr R. E. Davis, of Hollywood, works as codirector with Mr D. Baker, of Melbourne. Mr Davis, from Screen Gems, the televirion section of Columbia Films, has directed television Aims for tbs last 15 yean. "I stopped counting the films when I had made 400,” be said. "But I still entarft and find each one a challenge. If the public could ocly know the work involved to give them a half-hour of entertainment l am sure they would be less critical. “Every one, from Westerns on, brings a different problem. Here for instance, the boat persists tn swinging the wrong way round just at the critical moment and wind and ’ tide have to be watched each moment"