Big Apple of the south for a day

Dunedin's Bond St is transformed into a 1950s New York fashion street for the Japanese TV drama. Photo / Otago Daily Times

A small part of Dunedin became New York for a few hours yesterday as a Japanese film crew turned a street into 1950s Manhattan.

About 200 Dunedin extras and car enthusiasts were warned it would be "a very long day of doing nothing", but that did not stop extra Juliet Fitzgerald enjoying her first time on a film set.

Dressed and made up in 1950s style, the Dunedin mother said it was amazing how the Japanese film crew had managed to turn Bond St into a street in New York.

Other Dunedin locations for the Japanese TV drama included the King Edward Technical College and the inside of the downtown Fabric Barn on Filleul St.

Filming has also been done in Queenstown and at Poolburn in Central Otago, and the crew will be in Oamaru today.

Dunedin location manager Lyn Herbert said about 150 extras were recruited from the city and about 50 car enthusiasts supplied vehicles - and drivers - for the day.

Ms Herbert said she had worked as a location manager for several film crews in Dunedin and the city had a reputation as being film-friendly.

As she was talking, pay-and-display signs were taken out and carried away, New York broadway posters went up and a film crew member wandered among the gleaming cars with a handful of ties for the drivers.

Ms Herbert said there was nothing glamorous about film sets, and those who got involved did it for the passion.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES