My time this week has been dominated by searching for properties for the film, scouring second hand and antique shops, trolling websites and on-line auctions for properties which will look right in the film.

Of all the properties for Amiri & Aroha, by far the most important is the Soothsayer’s crystal ball. It significance to our story is something akin to the one ring in The Lord of the Rings.

Our Matakite (a Māori soothsayer) sees everything in her crystal ball, she sees what will happen to Aroha. I want to experiment with shots which will show the action as she sees it in her crystal ball, experimenting with compositing techniques in Apple’s Final Cut Pro editing software.

So finding the right crystal ball was my top priority on the buying list. I eventually found the prefect crystal ball on Trade Me, New Zealand’s popular on line auction site and made a successful bid!