Behind the Scenes
The Privs Complex
There were some fantastic locations found for The New Tomorrow. Early on in the planning process the Locations Manager is hired to scout the area for great locations that can be used during filming. They are given a brief beforehand and in the case of finding somewhere to base the Privs – they had to find a dam!
Morton’s Dam in Wellington, New Zealand became the Priv’s Compound.
Once the location was decided then it was time for the Art Department to transform an otherwise ordinary looking dam into something that looked like the Priv’s lived in it!
These photos (above and below) were taken of the locations and conceptual bits and pieces have been added to the photos. One side of the dam was where the discards had their camp – it was rocky and desolate and the picture above shows what the Art Dept wanted the camp to look like.
This photo shows the other side of the dam. This is where the Privs have their gardens and vines and where the priviledged can take a nice walk or sit outside in the sun surrounded by fruit trees. There is a fountain on the left, and on the right are the vines and the sorting stands for the discards. They sort the fruit and box it up for the Priviledged.
The interior of the Priv’s dam is a maze of walkways and safes. There are big strong water-tight doors and ivy grows in amongst the large concrete pillars. It has big high ceilings and and you can definitely hear youself echo. Crows inhabit the darkest corners and fly around at night.
The interior of the dam is mostly filmed at the Cloud 9 studios. The walls have been made of hard foam and then “aged” to look like they’re hard and concrete. Each wall is actually on a set of wheels so it can be moved around the studio easily.