I was wondering if there is anyone out there from Wellington, NZ and can post some pictures of some of the locations where The Tribe was filmed.
I would love to see pictures of what was used as the front of the mall, Ebony/Ram’s hotel. Also is the Cloud 9 Studio still standing?
Any and all information and pictures would be appreciated.
All the best.
Hey there, here's a photo I took for my photography class of the Centre City Plaza which was the mall used. It's black and white and totally not a good picture at all, it's scratched and stuff too because I'm horrible at developing them.I'll get way better photos and in colour next time! Hopefully I remember.. http://i39.tinypic.com/maih53.jpg
shareThat is great!
Thank you so much for sharing your photograph with us. Would love to see more.
All the best.
I live in Wellington. I was an extra a few times. Great fun! I really wish I can find the episode(s) I was on.
There was one scene where the main character(Forgot his name) walked up to me and said something then I turned around and pointed somewhere. I wish I can find that clip! The episode also featured this truck driving down a wellington city street with a guy in it throwing grenades or bombs or something like that.
That is so Cool!
That would have been at the beginning of series 4.
Series 4 begins just as the Technos are starting their invasion. They possess advanced technology and the Mall Rats are helpless against them.
To help you find the scene could you please tell us if your a male or female?
What was your age at time of filming?
Do you remember your costume?
Was the main character LEX, a guy with dark long hair, that walked up to you and said something?
If you can answer these questions ether here or send me a private message I'll do my best to post your scene online so you can see it and show all your friends and family.
Do you have any personal photos of your time as an extra on the set of 'The Tribe"?
Do you have any personal story's you would like to share with the rest of us?
Thank you for your time.
All the best.
Alright I'll try my best to remember!
I'm male.
I was 17-18 years old, one of those.
It could have been LEX. It was a guy with dark hair. He wears glasses off set.
My girlfriend at the time told me about how the Tribe producers or someone else high up had been asking around a few schools in the Wellington/Lower Hutt region if folks would like to be extras. I had never been a follower of the series at all, I've seen a few episodes, but never really stuck to it. I knew it had something to do with Adults not being around and the filming locations were all local, like Avalon studios where Cloud 9 was(I remember when there was a huge Tribe logo painted on the side of the stage buildings) and Central City Plaza in Lower Hutt city, I live in Lower Hutt, I see that building all the time.
Anyway, she signed her and I up and our two friends who were also a couple. We met up on a Saturday morning at her high school in Wainuiomata(I believe the Tribe has been filmed there to) there were a handful of other people there too. We were picked up in vans and shuttled off to the location in Wellington city. When we got there, you see the usual film crew, trailers, camera cranes etc. The location was one street and it was full of junk, rubbish etc and fake graffiti was painted on the buildings. We were directed inside one of the buildings to get dressed up. This is the thing, I really can't remember what I wore..haha, I had bleached blonde hair though, which looked ginger as I have natural brown hair, I distinctly remember what my girlfriend was wearing, she was wearing these purple spandex pants which looked hilarious and made a lot of squeeky noises and an orange top and silver boots.
We were told to wait for awhile in the building so we met a few of the actors, I remembered being jealous at this one guy when he told me how much he was being paid($150 a day!) after awhile we were finally told to head outside. There we met one of the main characters, the guy with the dark hair, he was showing the set around to a separate camera crew, which he later told me they were filming a documentary for a company in Germany, he also told me how popular the series was outside of New Zealand, he was a nice guy, very upbeat and relaxed.
We waited around again for awhile longer then had lunch in one of the nearby buildings. After lunch, we were told what was going to happen. The pyro guy had to caution us on various explosives that will be set off along the sides of the street. What we had to do was walk up the street toward the center chatting away then a tank(or truck?) will drive down the road and a guy will be standing on top of it throwing bombs, we had to scatter off to the footpaths and run down the road while these mini explosions were going off. It all worked well, except well, I had no clue what to do next and I ran to the end of the road and stood in front of the camera crew and just sat there, the camera guy quickly told me to move out of the way, oops! haha. After that scene was done, one of the extras got a bit burnt from one of the explosions, she was fine so that was great.
After that we had to do the scene again, except from different angles, a camera crane was brought in and that filmed the tank coming down the street again. The camera operators cellphone fell out of his pocket and smashed all over the street..he didn't look happy. The director then asked my gf and I to do a quick shot, which involved us just running in a straight line. The camera was placed on the ground to capture our feet running past with a tiny explosion going off in the background, it worked great. We all waited around some more and that guy with the dark hair was in his trailer, he said hi and asked us to come in, we sat in his trailer and had a chat, about the usual, hows your day, how you finding it etc. I remember him wearing glasses.
After a long wait, we did the final scenes of the day, one involved me and a couple of others standing in the middle of the street, the main actor had to walk up to us and ask us something then I had to turn around and point toward the stadium which is directly behind me but a few streets away, and the other scene was when one of the main female actresses said this little speech to a group of us then we walked off. And that was that. Overall a good day, I learned a lot and meet some good people.
Sorry for the long read! It was good to let that all out.
That was great!
Thank you for sharing your story. It was very detailed and very informative.
I will get to work and find the scenes you were talking about. I’ll post them online so you can see how the final scene was edited and made it on the air. Maybe much different then how you remember. I worked for a local TV station and got to film and edit local news and commercials. You could spend all day at a set, get an hour of footage and have to edit it down to 30 seconds. I also worked with a few film crews on small local TV shows. We would spent all day filming a 15 second scene. You would film it from one angle, tear it down and reset for another angle, then do it again for a 3rd time. A lot of time was spent waiting to work and while your working others are waiting around to work when your done. So your account of your time on the set is dead on.
Thanks again for your story.
All the best.
ps2,
I found the scenes you and your girlfriend were in. You were wearing a white fish net-like shirt.
Your scenes were on series 4, episodes 1 and 2.
You were talking to Lex (Caleb Ross) and Ebony (Meryl Cassie). There is a scene where you and a group of kids were facing almost all the Mall Rats and Ebony was giving you a speech about trusting the Mall Rats. I’d be willing to bet the Mall Rats were not really facing you but you were doing the scene with just the film crew.
When I get the time I’ll upload your scenes online so you can see them.
All the best.
Hey thanks for that. I just saw the episodes on Youtube. Wow that was funny, look at my hair!?
As for the part when we were being spoken too by all the mall rats, you're right, not all of them were there.
However Ebony and Lex were there with the camera crew behind them. She said her piece and Lex said his tiny part, the little guys with us extras said his too, maybe Ebony and Lex were there to possibly help with timing? I don't know. But I do remember both of them being there. We had to do that scene a couple of times when the little guy with us botched his lines.
I still can't find the part when I had to point behind me, I presume that was cut out. But that's alright!
Thanks for all your help. When I get the chance, I'll take some photos of some of the filming locations and Avalon Studios(cloud 9) for ya.
You’re very welcome. Glad you got to see yourself after all this time.
The little guy you’re referring to becomes a regular Mall Rat later on. His characters name is Sammy (Lucas Hayward) credited for 86 episodes.
I could be mistaken but I think after ‘The Tribe’ Lucas Hayward gets uncredited bits in both ‘Lord of the Rings’ and the live action ‘Peter Pan’ movie.
I’ll be looking forward to the pictures of how things look now.
Have you done any other acting?
All the best.
ps2,
I watched the scenes again and saw some interesting things. I have the DVD’s of the show so it looks very clear on my computer. It looked very cold that day and as I watched the scene with you, your girlfriend and the other group of kids facing the Mall Rats on episode 2 of series 4. Your girlfriend looks very cold with her hands inside her sleeves. Also, watching the girl on the far right of the screen as she walks up to her mark. She keeps her eyes on the mark as she walks up to it. You can even see the white tape on the street marking where she needs to stop.
I also spotted you by your colored paint running past as a flash pot goes off simulating an explosion. Very nice! I’m surprised they let you that close to the flash pot. I can see how that one girl you mentioned got burned or very hot as one went off.
Looks like you had a very memorable time on the set.
All the best.
It was cold that day, especially around the time when that scene was shot(it was near the end of the days filming) we also waited around quite a lot too, so the bodies couldn't get warmed up.
The street is very close to the harbor and Wellington is also known for it's unpredictable weather hence the nickname windy city.
Yeah that flash pot part was fun. It was shot really fast, the director just asked us quickly to run in a straight line. The pot itself was actually quite far away from us, so that was great.
The girl who got slightly burnt actually didn't take in the pyro guys orders very well, the trash and junk that lined the sides of the street had spaces purposefully made for us extras to run through safely then down the footpath. She didn't exactly do that, she tried to jump over some of the junk when one of the explosions went off, which got her right arm.
As for other acting? just an extra on the New York set of King Kong. The set was built across the road from my work. That was a brilliant set to look at, at night when all the neon lights were lit up.