What if? Making the Bounty Story – Part 2
What if? Making the Bounty Story – Part 2
In an ambiently lit Ferny Lane Theatre in February 2025, a handful of guests patiently await the first showing of The Bounty Story. Nearly two years in the making, thousands of hours work, thousands of miles travelled, lots of head-scratching, and a little blood sweat and tears. Dim the lights. Cue the music…
They were the first guests to embark on an 80 minute cinema journey with ‘Voyager‘, a fictional all-knowing character that connects the infamous Bounty mutiny with your modern-day Norfolk Island experience in a way never told before. With beautiful visuals, ambient music, stunning cinematography and spectacular lighting effects – both on the screen and in the theatre – it’s been an amazing project to be involved in. It’s easy to get lost in the depth of a project of this scale, but a delight to hear that those first guests, and all those since, have truly been captivated by this telling of the world’s most enduring ocean-going saga.
In Part 1 of this article (published in Discover Norfolk Volume 7 Issue 2) I explained a little bit behind The Bounty Story project and the intriguing ‘What if?’ questions the saga presents. Those ‘What if’s?’ will always resonate with the viewer, just as they have done with me, but the next question I was faced with in this production was, ‘How?’. ‘How?’ was the
big one.
Once I committed to the project I quickly learned that the journey from concept to screen is – just like the Bounty Story – full of twists and turns. It was fun, but there was a lot of learning to be done on my part and lists of seemingly endless tasks work through. I had a concept, but needed to write it. I had a visual style in mind, but I needed to make it work. I had and actor on my shortlist, but needed to make sure she was interested in the project and available. And so, like most productions, that’s how the Bounty Story continued for some time.
Voyager, tells the Bounty Story on board the Morayshire, en route to Norfolk Island in 1856. From a production point of view this is a contained and fixed shooting environment, but I was conscious of viewer fatigue. To prevent this and keep the flow of the show engaging I planned to carefully balance Voyager’s screen time by cutting away to external shots throughout the show, as well as the animated graphics and maps I had conceptualised for illustrating the story. To finish, I had envisioned a filmed ‘wow’ Norfolk Island section in order to create a visual crescendo of sorts, and tie the entire story together.
The show was mostly recorded in the United Kingdom in a studio I set up to look like the inside of a ship. I also travelled to Greenwich in London and Whitby in England, and I used the historic harbour in Hartlepool, England, as 1780s Portsmouth. I then travelled to Sydney and Northern Queensland in Australia to film on the water to really bring the show together.
From casting to lighting, props to sets, camera equipment to costumes, sound equipment to locations and weather, this project was vast. Every decision has a consequence for the production, and so budgeting and planning became crucially important. Despite all of the equipment and organising, I had to always be mindful of the fact that to get the best result possible I needed to create a comfortable working environment so the actor can properly channel the character and tell her story authentically. The intangible nuances between ‘okay’ and ‘great’ are minute, but I’m sure they are found in an actor that is given the tools and the opportunity to shine – so that became my main focus. As a director, it’s also imperative to continually remember the people that will be sitting in the theatre and focus on their experience of the show – it’s the audience that counts after all.
I would imagine it is very easy to get lost in all the logistical challenges of a production and allow them to work against the creative process. Some of those challenges included sourcing cameras and lenses suitable to capture 6k footage, sound recording equipment, high speed memory cards and digital storage for hundreds of hours of RAW footage, dolly sliders and stabilisers for camera movement, Arri Lighting, LED tubes, specialist lighting software, editing software, microphones, costumes, batteries, backdrops, crates, chests, sacks, rope, pulleys, some breadfruit, and even an 18th century bible. I sourced a replica vintage lantern made by a company that supplies props for the hit TV series Outlander, and even had special naval buttons sewn onto authentic costumes which then only ended up with about 3 seconds of screen time.
Luckily with the Bounty Story, I had a one of the greatest stories of all time to rely on and be a guiding light for the production. Amber Lipman came on board to play Voyager and was excited by the challenge of the role. She immersed herself in the character and books of the story and asked me hundreds of questions to help define and bring Voyager to life. Gradually, we tested filming angles and lighting and audio set-ups. We then proceeded to work through the script over a series of weeks of around 2-3 shooting days. I interspersed the shooting days with editing and made sure we had clean takes.
Amber was so much fun to work with that it never felt like a chore. She is also a very accomplished flute player, and so one day I asked whether she would be keen to try and play ‘The Pitcairn Anthem’ and ‘In the Sweet By and By’ on flute, so that I could consider using them to lay over the soundtrack I had put together. I wasn’t really sure how they would sound. I had tried listening to both pieces on piano and organ, and I knew I wanted something more ambient. Amber turned up the next shooting day with her flute and after we had broken for lunch I presented her the music sheets. She had never played either piece of music before. I set up the recording equipment and she proceeded to play me the Pitcairn Anthem. The first take we recorded is the one used in the show. It was beautiful, eerie, harrowing and soulful all at the same time. Every hair on my neck and arms stood on end. Anyone who has lived on Norfolk for a length of time knows the power of that piece of music and what it means. It brings back emotional memories for almost anybody that has been lucky enough to call Norfolk Island home. Amber looked up at me after playing it through and casually asked, “Was that okay?” She was completely unaware of just how powerful and evocative it was. Her playing of the music turned out to be one of the most unexpected triumphs of the project and I really think it ties the whole show together perfectly.
Once all of the filming was completed, the editing, animations and effects took considerable time to complete. Meanwhile my son Zander – a keen theatre technician – worked with all the specialist lighting equipment and software I had purchased for the show to set up sequences and effects that compliment each part of the story. I was lucky for his knowledge of the lighting process, as much as I was with his patience with me. I knew what I wanted but didn’t really understand the specific language needed to convey that properly. However, we got there in there end and the 20+ lights and effects units you see in the theatre today work seamlessly with the show sections – Discovery, Drama, Destiny.
The final challenge was finding a venue and installing the show on Norfolk Island. Working with the show’s distributors, Pinetree Tours, was great fun. Owner Phil Langley shared my excitement of a new project and problem-solving the location and installation challenges. We ended up deciding that the Ferny Lane Theatre would be the ideal location and theatre owner Monica Anderson was particularly receptive. Soon enough work commenced on installing the show, with the caveat that it needed to be done in a way that worked around the theatre’s existing Trial of the 15 show, church events, and other community commitments. We ended up creating a modular setup and retractable curtains that worked with the theatre’s pitched roof. For want of a better phrase, ‘The show must go on’ and Pinetree Tours’ resourceful mechanical engineer created an amazing custom rig that supported our lighting and curtains. When looking at it all now it seems so naturally fitting, but it was incredibly complex.
There’s really no way of fully imparting the magnitude of work involved in creating the Bounty Story without putting together an encyclopedic list, but all that would do is overshadow the way in which ‘What if?’ became ‘How?’, and ultimately posed the question, ‘Why?’
The ‘Why?’ is simple, and it is summarised in the show itself: Stories must be told.
The only question that remains then is for the viewer: Have we made something worthwhile? I hope that’s a question you get the opportunity to answer for yourself. Dim the lights. Cue the music… and enjoy the show.
Image credit: Robin Nisbet
The Bounty Story: Shown at Ferny Lane Theatre Every Sunday at 7:30pm and weekdays on demand. Bookings at Pinetree Tours or tickets at the door. Pinetree Tours Booking Office located in the heart of Burnt Pine on Taylors Rd. Ph. (+6723) 22424 www.pinetreetours.com
