The making of Storm Boy

Training the pelicans

Sandwich, Carpenter and Dum Dum - the three pelicans who played Mr Proud, Mr Ponder and Mr Percival in Storm Boy - were raised from chicks by a dolphin trainer, Gordon Noble. They couldn't hire a pelican trainer because there were none; pelicans had never been trained for a film before. The first pelicans they tried to train flew away, so they had to start over again. Noble lived with the pelicans for nine months in the lead-up to the shoot and taught them them tricks (such as catching a ball) which they repeated for fishy rewards. In the excerpt below we see Noble at work.

Excerpt from The Crew, 1976. Courtesy SAFC and AFTRS. NFSA title: 5140

Sets, props and make-up

Excerpt from The Crew, 1976. Courtesy SAFC and AFTRS. NFSA title: 5140

Production designer David Copping says of his role, 'Personally I accept responsibility for just about everything visual'. We see stand-by props person Ken James at work, and Jennifer Zadow talks about the wardrobe challenges on the film. Director of photography Geoff Burton explains the importance of make-up, even for a film like Storm Boy that requires a very natural look.

To see a clip showing Greg Rowe (who played Storm Boy) working with his dialogue coach, legendary stunt advisor Grant Page shooting pelican point-of-view flying sequences and behind-the-scenes of the shipwreck scene, visit the Storm Boy curated collection.

There you'll also find more behind-the-scenes materials, interviews with Greg Rowe and David Gulpilil on The Mike Walsh Show, and a 2016 interview we conducted with Greg from his home in Toronto.