‘Adrift’ is a survival drama where a woman is stranded at sea after a Category 4 hurricane capsizes her boat. She and her wounded partner have to use all their knowledge of the sea and sailing to keep themselves alive. While they struggle with the seemingly insurmountable challenge, we also get a look into their life before the tragedy. We witness the beginning of their romance and all the events that eventually led to them finding themselves in the middle of the ocean. If you want to know where ‘Adrift’ has been filmed, here’s the answer.
Adrift Filming Locations
The story of Tami and Richard starts in Tahiti and, at the end of it, she comes back there to properly say goodbye to him. For filming the story, the crew set camp in Fiji, using numerous locations on the island to give an eye-pleasing aesthetic to it. In some cases, the stages were used to give the intended effect to the story. For this purpose, the crew also spent a few weeks in New Zealand.
Fiji
While some scenes take place on land, a major part of the film was shot at sea. A location off the Pacific Harbor was chosen to film all the days that we see Tami and Richard on the sea. While the crew could have used green rooms for the entire film, director Baltasar Kormakur wanted the experience to be as real for the cast as it had been for Tami in real life. He also wanted the actors to be informed by their surroundings and polish their performances accordingly.
“I happen to like the ocean. I was a sailor when I was younger. I feel at ease in the ocean. And water in the tank doesn’t look anything like the sea, you know?” he said in an interview. “To create the whole film in that environment wasn’t interesting to me. [At sea] The actors get more real and more connected. It helps and informs their performances. We spent almost as much time on the ocean as the real people did, and it’s done to prepare them physically and mentally. And we pretty much shot in sequence as much as possible, because among other things, they [actors] start to lose weight. If the weather changed, the shooting schedule could change, too, to accommodate the weather. What I had done with the actors and the crew was to prepare them for anything. You bow your head to Mother Nature and take what she gives you.”
Some pictures from the set of "Adrift" in Fiji and New Zealand pic.twitter.com/aFHV71IKUN
— Shailene Woodley Updates (@PlanetShailene) September 24, 2017
When it came to the locations on land, the production used various spots on Viti Levu, Rakiraki, and Suva. From the remote locations of the place to the busiest spots in the city, the crew made use of as much variety as the island provided them with. The scene where Tami and Richard go on a hike and then indulge in cliff jumping was filmed at a gorge in Navua River. Tami and Richard meet each other at the dock where she has taken a job and he arrives in his boat. These scenes were filmed on location at the Royal Suva Yacht Club.
📸 | When Tami Ashcraft met Sam Claflin and Shailene Woodley while filming “Adrift” in Fiji. Shared by Tami. pic.twitter.com/aqSidYxnpY
— Shailene Woodley Updates (@PlanetShailene) January 20, 2019
(2/2) That time when @shailenewoodley convinced the pilot to let her fly the plane while filming #Adrift in Fiji. pic.twitter.com/fJT72mDuQg
— Film Fiji (@FilmandFiji) September 22, 2017
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