His last film won him an Oscar and a Bafta for best editing.

But Wellingtonian John Gilbert is not a man to rest on his laurels. So his first project post his Hacksaw Ridge-success with Mel Gibson provided very different challenges to the World War II drama. 

Shot mostly in and around Fiji (with some in-studio work in Auckland), Adrift is an inspired-by-fact romantic drama about Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp's disastrous 4000-mile journey from Tahiti to San Diego, when they sailed right into the middle of Hurricane Raymond.

Starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, it is due in New Zealand cinemas on June 28. Stuff asked Gilbert to tell us, in his own words, how he and others piece the movie together: 

Shailene Woodley plays Tammy Oldham in Adrift.

READ MORE:
* Oscar-winning Kiwi John Gilbert 'totally bowled over' by victory, parties till 5am
* Gilbert and family glam up for the Oscars
* Adrift: The movie that brought Shailene Woodley to NZ already creating waves
* Actor Shailene Woodley professes love, 'crushing hard' for Auckland rugby player

"Adrift is almost entirely just two people on a boat. The potential is for it to be enclosed, claustrophobic, repetitive, and I'm really pleased with way it's turned out because it's none of those things.

A lot of the credit goes to our director Baltasar Kormakur and Director of Photography Bob Richardson who shot it in such a way that it is always engaging, and never feels like we're repeating ourselves. It previewed really really well. It's a very emotionally involving story, and people just get wrapped up in it. Shaileen Woodley is fantastic as the lead, in a very physically demanding role.

The film was shot mostly on the open sea on the north coast of Fiji, and I think you can see the benefits of a real ocean environment.  The temptation is to shoot the film on a green screen, on a controllable set and add the ocean later, but you can see the way the actors react to the sea, to the swell, the wind and the sails, it adds a realism that we would never have achieved otherwise. It was tough on the crew who were all really sick the first few days, throwing up between takes. I was in comparable comfort, editing in a little cottage in Suva.

We did use some visual effects (VFX) for a storm sequence, and those scenes were particularly challenging. Because the rest of the film is so real, there was a lot of pressure for the VFX to match that. We were still working on a few of these shots in the days leading up to the premiere [in Los Angeles last month]."

Supplied

Kiwi editor John Gilbert's last movie - Hacksaw Ridge - earned him a trip to the Oscars in 2017.

 - Stuff