on the nearby island of Bora Bora. While scouting, they found their leading lady, Anne Chevalier, in a local cocktail bar. The production was originally supposed to be financed by a small production company called Colorart. By September, however, Murnau had only received $5,000 of the due money. After a series of telegrams asking for the rest of the money, Murnau got fed up and decided to fund it himself. To cut costs, Murnau sent the Hollywood crew home and trained the natives to work as the crew. He also scrapped plans to shoot the film in colour and changed to black and white. The film's script was rewritten and the title was changed to Tabu: A Story of the South Seas to avoid potential legal issues with Colorart. This was the start of a poor working relationship between Flaherty and Murnau. Flaherty disliked the new script, feeling it was overly plotted and Westernized. Production Production began in January 1930, with Flaherty directing the opening scene of the film. This would be the only scene he directed. Flaherty began having technical problems, as his camera was causing the film to rip. He called in cinematographer Floyd Crosby for help and the rest of the film was shot by Crosby. Murnau, Flaherty, and Crosby were the only professional filmmakers working on Tabu: A Story of the South Seas; the rest of the crew was made up of local natives. Flaherty worked on the story with Murnau during production, but he was not the co-director as he originally thought he would be. He spent most of his time on the film working in the lab developing the film. Flaherty disliked Murnau immensely because of this and the arrogance and selfishness Murnau displayed during production. Post-production Production finished in October 1930. Flaherty had been living on only $40 a week and was broke by the end of the shoot. A couple of days after the wrap, Flaherty sold his share of the film to Murnau for $25,000. Returning to Los Angeles, Murnau spent the winter editing the film and used the last of his money to hire Hugo Riesenfeld for the music scoring. The distribution rights were sold to Paramount for five years for a sum of $75,000, which helped Murnau pay off Flaherty. Release and reception The film had its premiere on March 18, 1931, a week after Murnau died, at New