The Reef marks Andrew Traucki’s second stint in the directors chair, and with it he has achieved something quite remarkable. Despite working within the restrictive ‘shark movie’ genre, Traucki has delivered a genuinely innovative and tense thriller.
The Reef tells the true story of four holidaymakers who – after becoming stranded in the ocean – find themselves stalked by a great white shark. The film bears a striking resemblance to Traucki’s previous movie, Black Water, which tells the similar true story of holidaymakers hunted by a giant crocodile. Obviously there’s something about this kind of story that appeals to the Australian director…
‘I like true-life survival stories,’ Traucki tells The Hollywood News. ‘I like wondering what I would do in a life-threatening situation, whether I would have what it takes to survive.’
And it seems the director isn’t afraid to put his curiosities to the test, as he was on hand to personally shoot the great whites.
‘Of the shark footage you see in The Reef I shot about half of it,’ says Traucki. ‘Shooting sharks, as with any wild animal, was incredibly random. One minute they’d be there then you wouldn’t see them for hours.’
As dangerous as it sounds to The Hollywood News, Traucki insists that shooting sharks over human actors has its plus points.
‘Actors are lot easier, although sharks don’t have agents and you can get them for a great rate.’
Despite the efforts gone to secure footage of real-life great whites, Traucki used the minimalist approach when it came to editing the picture. Whereas Spielberg’s Jaws features less shark footage than originally intended, this was mainly due to technical difficulties – such as the shark (Bruce, to be precise) not working properly and looking… well, pretty unrealistic. But this was far from an issue for Traucki – there are no concerns over the shark looking naff when it’s nothing short of the real deal.
‘The shark in The Reef is 100% real shark – no 3D or animatronics,’ the director says. ‘I wanted my film to look and feel as real as possible. To do that the only solution was to use a real shark.’
And Traucki insists the lack of shark footage actually used was purely a creative decision – a sure-fire way to build tension from a largely-unseen aggressor.
‘It was a deliberate decision to not flood the movie with shark footage,’ says Traucki. ‘I am a big fan of the old-school thriller directing where it’s all about the anticipation. I think it’s much scarier when you know there is danger but you don’t know where the danger actually is.’
In addition to the piscine villain, the locations used in The Reef are also completely genuine, as Traucki resisted the more comfortable approach of using a tank.
‘It was extremely difficult,’ says Traucki. ‘We were in the water for five weeks, ten hours a day, six days a week – the human body really isn’t built for that. Also, due to the changes in weather the schedule changed every day. It was far more difficult than a conventional shoot.’
There were other problems too, such as Tourism Tropical North Queensland, who raised concerns that The Reef may damage the local tourist trade. But Traucki insists that this wasn’t the problem it could have been.
‘The old saying that any publicity is good publicity seems to be true, if anything their protests has helped promote the film.’
One of the major issues faced with a film such as The Reef is surely comparisons to previous movies, in particular the well-publicized Open Water. Despite depicting a relatively similar story, Traucki is adamant that The Reef is a different kettle of fish altogether.
‘Personally I think it’s a very different film to Open Water,’ he says. ‘I was following a true story so I had to try and keep to that as much as possible. That was what I was exploring – I didn’t focus on trying to be different to other shark films. The fact that I had a large shark, that I showed its attacks, and that the people in this story were actually trying to save themselves not just floating around means that The Reef is very different.’
So what next for the Aussie director? Is he keen to build on the familiar themes of the The Reef and Black Water? A giant duck-billed platypus perhaps?
‘I’m working on several other thrillers,’ Traucki tells The Hollywood News. ‘However I am also working on other types of films including a sci-fi western. I like thrillers but I also like action, fantasy, sci-fi, and good drama.’
And when asked if he’d like to travel elsewhere for future projects, Traucki confirms that he’d be interested in broadening his horizons.
‘It would be great to work in either the US or the UK. Currently all the projects on my slate are Australian, but yeah, I’d love to work in the US.’
And for the time being he seems more than happy working within the Australian movie biz, an industry with its limitations and perks.
‘It’s a smallish industry so, you have to work hard to get a film financed,’ he says. ‘But the crews, facilities and locations here are wonderful, so when you do get your movie up it’s great working here.’
The Reef is available on DVD and Blu-ray now.
