In late-October 2004 Vincent Ward was removed from directing the film by the producers, and replaced by his cinematographer Alun Bollinger. Ward returned to the project when filming was completed.
Production Designer Rick Kofoed spent two years before
filming started in consultation with director Vincent Ward over the film's design style. Ward compiled
several large books of design references - photos, paintings and sketches from
the period 1860s-1880s - which became the production's "Bible". Kofoed says
the Whanganui River photography of the Burton Brothers was particularly useful
as reference and he was also inspired by the feeling of paintings of iconic 19th
Century artists Goldie and Lindauer.
The film's production designer Rick Kofoed said he felt from the beginning that this film is an important
movie "because it's part of us as New Zealanders. We've seen it in pictures, but I
don't think it's been defined that well in film, yet. The film is a good cross-section of New Zealand at that time and I hope it's
refreshing in that it shines a new light on living styles and the shape of the
country then. It's so different from anything else in its ruggedness and rawness.
The scale of the landscape is so immense that the people look like ants and
there's a feeling of struggle, of just holding on, almost slipping away off the edge
of the earth. There's nothing glossy about it."
Vincent Ward went to great lengths to obtain the opening and closing shots of diary pages in water, filming them by himself waist-deep in the River Thames in London during post-production.
The film was shot on the banks of the Whanganui River and its tributaries,
particularly the Manganui o te Ao at Ruatiti, as well as near the Rangitikei,
Mangawhero and Patea rivers - all, by the magic of film, made to look as if they
are parts of the same river.