X Marks the Spot (1977ish)

A fellow local tv enthusiast's discovery in the ngataonga.org.nz catalogue of a Spot On report about a mystery TV production leads to an international hunt for one of the stars from the show and the background to a lost piece of local tv history...

A crew went into the depths of Fiordland to shoot a first for Dunedin, a serialised children's drama entitled 'X marks the Spot'. Considerable references to this production were to be made over the years, and it is yet to be seen by the public except as a very condensed version in 'Spot On' many years later.
Garbutt, Russell "It's O.K. Leaving Here" (1988)

Gregory (aka Greg) Dwyer, who played one of the main characters recalls 

For a 13 year old on his first feature film it was a great. Did get flown around a lot as the filming in Hollyford valley and other parts of Fiordland had some helicopter only access to locations. So the beautiful landscapes were going to be a big part of the whole feature. The location was very special and the water sequences (river crossings, getting swept down river etc) were freezing. 

Some wonderful helicopter pilots involved. Learnt a lot about the flying. Even when filming other scenes around Dunedin was great. 

We had to re-dub a lot of the audio as it had got misplaced (I believe between labs in Australia and NZ). Then during the redubbing, my voice broke, and we had to go back to redo stuff again.... Funny that I have come back to voice work in my now third career, as dubbing is a genre such work is available.

It was never screened as far as I know. Mainly because it was to be the first major children's television production and then they launched the new 2nd channel with the children's series,  'Hunter's Gold' (I think that show was called). So disappointedly X marks the Spot was simply shelved.

The last I saw of it was when I was working as a floor manager for TVNZ in Dunedin for a short time around 1980 (including Spot On).and someone was practicing editing using the footage. I heard my squeaky voice and looked into the editing suite to see them chopping some footage up of the packs floating away down the river out of our reach.

Gregory provided KiwiTV with the photo (right) of the inside page of his copy of X Marks the Spot. A few of the names are familiar, But then other things happened and didn't stay in touch with many.

TV1 adventure series set in Fiordland

By Ken Coates

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34091, 2 March 1976, Page 4

While TV2’s prestige drama. ‘’Hunters Gold,” goes ahead at considerable cost in Central Otago, TV1 is quietly pushing on without fanfare with its first children's adventure series being filmed deep in Fiordland. A four-part television version of a children’s book written by a Dunedin writer. Joan de Hamel. X Marks the Spot will hardly rival the 13 twenty-minute episodes of “Hunters’ Gold” in size and scope. But TV1’s programme manager in Dunedin. Hal Weston, has high hopes of a quality production, filmed against the spectacular surroundings of mountains, virgin bush, lakes and fiords. There is a world-wide (interest in ‘kidult’ material- family entertainment of the Beauty and the Beast, Treasure Island’ variety. Weston says. We have: specialised in children’s and family programmes in Dunedin and under the stimulus of the new set-up have produced an incredible number of programmes, considering we have only one fully-equipped studio.

The series is based on the story of an eccentric South American millionaire who wants to capture the last kakapo for his exotic bird collection. Its producer is Murray Hutchinson. The 15-man TV1 crew and actors are based at Cascade Creek in Fiordland National Park and filming begins today. We are working to a tight budget, and the party is staying in huts, says Weston. We are, however, using helicopters extensively and the film will include shots of spectacular mountain scenery, hanging valleys and so on. A call froth for three child actors to take part brought 260 applicants from all over Otago. Three secondary school pupils, two boys and a girl, were selected. Hal Weston says there were no problems about the children getting off school. Their teachers considered the experience would be most valuable educationally. Filming is expected to take about a fortnight, with some of the final work to be done in following week-ends. The series is likely to be ready about July. 

An interview with Joan de Hamel

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 14

Tikumu: — Mrs de Hamel, I understand that you were involved in the televising of your book, “X Marks the Spot.” Could you tell us something about this involvement?

Mrs de Hamel: Involved? I was certainly involved, and in more than one sense. You can’t help being involved when your work is being pulled to pieces, scrutinised, and every detail questioned. I was positively grilled by Murray Hutchinson, the producer-director. . . Why did I call the uncle “Cop” and make him sound like a policeman? Well, because he had a heliCOPter, actually, but all right, all right, call him Mr Coppard if you must. . .

And while we’re on helicopters, how about those technical details, the collective lever, the cyclic stick? Was I sure? Yes, I was sure. I’d tracked down a reliable chopper pilot and heard it all firsthand. Murray nodded, unimpressed. Next day, a chopper pilot arrived by appointment to assist in the enquiries. “No,” he said. “Impossible. It’s against regulations to carry four people in a chopper with three seats.” Murray looked at me reproachfully. “It’s the combined weight,” I cried. “Three children weigh the same as two adults,” I suggested. “Exceptionally light children,” I begged. A check with the small print in the regulations. That was correct. And so it went on. I really had turned all possible stones and, after that cross-examination, I always will before going into print.

As for being involved with work on the actual film — I helped with the adaptation and the re-organising that has to be done to change a written plot into something with visual impact. Eventually I wrote the actual “words” of the script, but during filming and editing everyone had a go at these, ad-libbing, altering, and cutting. The whole thing was very much a team affair.

On location, my only possible use was to identify birds. I became convinced that no-one else would have noticed a moa if one had strolled past. In desperation I persuaded Greg Dwyer (Peter) to learn the birds that -would need to be filmed. He agreed with alacrity — and gave me his French homework to do in fair exchange.

So I was involved as a writer and a naturalist, but not with the actual filming or production.

Tikumu:— Can you tell us one of your most interesting experiences?

Mrs de Hamel:— My first expedition into deep bush — real, unmapped rain forest, with no tracks and millions of sandflies, was certainly an interesting experience. More than that, it had terrific impact and gave me the “shock of discovery” from which the idea of writing “ X Marks the Spot” emerged.

We went in behind the Keppler Mountains, my husband and I. Soon, I learned what it’s like to be so tired that you drop your .pack and then are incapable of picking it up again; and so hungry that you’d willingly eat raw deer steak. I walked in the traditional circle when I was lost and literally found my own foot-prints, like Man Friday’s, in the sand by the creek; and was hauled in, like a giant salmon, by my husband after I’d been swept away downstream just above a waterfall.

We laugh about it all now. Things you laugh about most afterwards are often nightmares while they are happening.

Tikumu:— I think, from reading your book, that you must have a deep interest in the bush. Can you tell us a little about this interest?

Mrs de Hamel:— I was taught the hows and whys and wherefores of natural history as a very small child, and asking questions becomes a habit which you never lose. Coming to New Zealand presented a whole new series of puzzles. Nowhere are there more hows and whys to be asked — and sometimes answered — than in the bush. . .

What is a tui singing when it opens and shuts its bill, making sounds too high for humans to hear? Why do blue duck converse in duets? Why do lancewoods, for instance, have completely differently shaped leaves when they are young from when they are fully

As well as the sheer interest of the birds and botany, there is the emotional impact of the bush: to me it’s a primeval, unexplored underworld — immense, lonely, beautiful, and dangerous.

Tikumu:— What can children do to help preserve our bush?

Mrs de Hamel:—l wish everyone would take their interest in the bush further than just becoming efficient trampers and survivors. Bashing though at high speed with your eyes on the ground, chopping down trees for fire-wood, and dumping rubbish is not the idea or the ideal. You have to learn to see what you are looking at and listen to what is going on all around. The more you ask questions and learn, the more you value the bush and the more you realise what might be lost through not caring. The film version of “X Marks the Spot” presses this point.

Tikumu:— Are there particular writers who have influenced your work?

Mrs de Hamel:— I read a lot of current literature and I don’t think anyone can help being influenced by what they read. Surely everyone is influenced by the adjectives of Dylan Thomas, the style of Patrick White, the sensitivity of Saul Bellow? You are influenced, however, by people whom you could not hope to, or even want to. emulate. Some authors are “Awful Warnings” on how not to write and how children do not behave. I enjoy, and try to write, books that have an authentic setting and accuracy in detail as a bonus over and above the mainline story.

Tikumu:— If you had a quiet holiday in the bush, and could take a selection of books from a wellstocked children’s library, what would some of the titles be?

Mrs de Hamel:— I cannot imagine a “quiet holiday” in the bush, or even wanting to read there, since in daylight you are active — or busy swatting sandflies — and at dusk you go to sleep with no bedside light. I might take as reference books a couple of paperbacks, say, “How to Survive” by B. Hildreth, and the Auckland Museum Handbook called “Native Animals of N.Z.” by A. W. B. Powell. At home I do enjoy reading children’s books by, for instance, Mary Norton. Lucy Boston. Peter Dickinson, Philippa Pearce. Among my friends are Church Cat and Mv Naughty Little Sister, as well as Pooh and Paddington and other celebrities. From the New Zealand scene I have a special regard for “Young Jane” by Eileen Soper.

Tikumu:— What advice would you give to a child who wants to be a writer?

Mrs de Hamel:— Firstly, if you want to write, you must read, thousands and thousand of books and never stop. Secondly, you must write, thousands and thousands of words, and eventually they will be worth re-reading. And all the rest of the time you must look . . . and listen. . . and remember. . .

Tikumu:— What advice would you give to a child who wants to be a television actor?

Mrs de Hamel:— I only know that the three children in the “X Marks the Spot” film were chosen from a large number of applicants, and they are all intelligent, adaptable, and extremely hard-working. They had to cope with long hours of often boring and repetitive work to perfectionist standards. Some of the tears and tempers that were filmed were genuine reactions of despair, and not sheer acting ability. In other words, acting for television is not a laugh and a bit of a joke, nor a glamour occupation. It is serious and vocational.

Tikumu:— What do you most enjoy doing in your spare time?

Mrs de Hamel:— I like “Reading” and “Riting,” but not “Rithmetic.” Also I like drawing, watching birds and being with children: and doing difficult crosswords, studying the history of art, hunting up obscure references in libraries, snipping, sticking, and making things. I even like knitting. I didn’t much like answering these questions. . .