thanks DEBBIE JAMIESON
Last updated 11:53, December 28 2014
'WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE': Queenstown film location scout Dave Comer passed away on Christmas Day.
Dave Comer, the man who helped redefine New Zealand as Middle-earth, lost his battle with cancer on Christmas Day.
A still photographer with a huge love of Fiordland, he was instrumental in selecting the spectacular locations for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
Comer, who may be considered New Zealand's first film location scout, was involved in numerous Kiwi and overseas commercials and was the director of celebrated Fiordland film Ata Whenua - Shadowland .
Dave Comer was instrumental in selecting New Zealand locations used in Sir Peter Jackson's films, such as the Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Crossing and the Anduin Reach and Mt Tolkien in Fiordland National Park.
The 58-year-old passed away on Christmas Day after suffering a rare form of cancer.
His wife, Peta Carey, said Dunedin-born Comer called Queenstown and Fiordland home after studying fine arts and photography at Canterbury University.
He was "sidetracked" into wilderness guiding and jet boating in Fiordland but continued work as a freelance photographer. He moved into shooting stills for commercials in the 1980s, and eventually sourcing locations, a job previously undertaken by directors.
It was his photographer's eye coupled with a logistical and geographical sensibility that worked for filmmakers, he told Pro Photographer magazine earlier this year.
"I knew the terrain, but I also had a curiosity. What seemed to be useful was a beach-combing mentality; finding treasures."
Thanks to his advertisement for car company Jaguar in 2000, he was credited with developing a technique to convert still frames to motion picture film, creating a dream-like effect with the car crisp and in-focus and the background motion blurred.
The advertisement went on to win the prestigious Kodak AICP Award for Cinematography in New York, and the commercial took its place in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art.
It became a much-lauded piece of film and the techniques were "borrowed" thereafter by directors of photography around the world. Comer's stills graced the pages of Vanity Fair, Esquire, Vogue and billboards throughout North America.
Other examples of his work include the Mainland Cheese commercials, Toyota "Crumpy", National Bank and BNZ advertisements in New Zealand as well as numerous overseas assignments in South America, South Africa, Europe and Asia.
He is credited with selecting much of Middle-earth for Sir Peter Jackson's Tolkien narratives.
"I loved it. I'd stored away a whole array of locations, previously glimpsed, and it was a wonderful excuse to be able to pull them out and investigate them further," he said.
The making of the 35mm cinematic film Ata Whenua - Shadowland was perhaps his greatest challenge and a deeply personal one, capturing the aesthetics and physical enormity of Fiordland.
He had been associated with the area since the age of 17, working in the venison recovery industry and on jet boats. His family owns a house in remote Martin's Bay, which 9-year-old daughter Billie refers to as "home".
It was his first role as director and the 32-minute film still attracts thousands of tourists every year to the Te Anau cinema it plays in.
"That was the acme of Dave's work. It combined his extraordinary visual creative skills with his love of the most beautiful place in New Zealand," Carey said.
"He is still considered the most respected and qualified location scout in the country."
Carey said he was also a "good, concerned citizen generally".
"He always made submissions on things that affected the wilderness and affected Queenstown."
Film Otago Southland Trust executive officer KJ Jennings said he had worked closely with Comer while Comer was chairman of the trust.
"I think it was a part of him that wanted to give back to the industry and that he had such a wealth of knowledge that he wanted to pass on and was also just really passionate about seeing things done right. He was old school."
The pair shared a belief that filming could be a completely sustainable industry and worked together to increase access for filmmaking in the Department of Conservation estate.
"The outcome of that now is that the industry and DOC now have a fantastic relationship."
Jennings said Comer was held in extremely high regard in the film industry.
"No matter where I went or who I met, everybody held him in such high regard. He had such an incredible wealth of knowledge, not only of the region but the mechanics of film. A good location only works if it works to film in it and he just inherently knew that."
Comer will be farewelled at Paradise under the Iconic Mt Earnslaw, near Glenorchy, at 2pm on Tuesday.
- The Southland Times
