French film crew in Golden Bay
The French film crew interviewing William Hunt at Tui Community last week. Presenter Antoine Mora on left. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
A three-man film crew from the Thalassa programme, France TV’s long-running “sea world” documentary show, was in Golden Bay filming last week.
They shot at various locations, including Tui Community, Tata Beach (where they caught the early morning gathering of some 800 shags), on Farewell Spit right out to the gannet colony, at Onekaka beach, in Collingwood and out to Whanganui (Westhaven) Inlet, where they visited a coastal farm. They filmed aerially as well.
Presenter Antoine Mora said the programme they were making focused on Golden Bay’s unique lifestyles as well as its relationship to the sea, in particular on those who lived and interacted with it.
“That link with the sea is sometimes strong, sometimes not so much, but it is what we are looking for. Our aim is to portray interesting characters, strong personalities, and connect them back to the marine environment. And we are very happy with how our filming went in Golden Bay.”
After finishing here on Wednesday, the crew flew to Hokitika, where they are making a second programme about whitebaiting, centering on the Cascade area, where they also filmed on that subject 10 years ago.
Antoine Mora is no stranger to New Zealand, having filmed here on seven previous assignments, on subjects as diverse as Maori fishing quotas, orange roughy fishing around the top of underwater volcanoes, green lipped mussels, Wearable Art’s marine creations, paua diving, and portraits of Sir Cliff Skeggs, James Cook, and a stevedore in the port of Auckland; plus both sides of the Rainbow Warrior story. Cont
Named after a primordial Greek sea goddess, the Thalassa show screens on France 3 every Friday evening at the prime-time slot of 8.35pm. Presented by Georges Pernoud and produced by France TV, the programme started on 27 September 1975 and is now one of the longest-running TV series in France, boasting around 6,000,000 dedicated viewers. It lists its main international marine themes as geographical, underwater, ecological, fishing, transportation and yachting.
Gerard Hindmarsh
