Cinefex magazine recently sent us a cover scan of their April edition. Well, now we have the magazine itself, and the story behind the movie’s production is a breath-taking look at New Zealand’s Oscar-winning ingenuity.
Orlando Bloom’s fans might be interested to know that Cinefex is also revealing the secrets behind the special effects of “Black Hawk Down”, the other major motion picture in which Middle-earth’s hottest Elf actor recently appeared. But Cinefex is about special effects, ladies, not actors. So, this magazine is probably one for the techno-wizards and optical effects gurus.
Our first scan is of Rivendell. Unfortunately, the two-page spread was too large for our scanner, and we’re not adept enough at this to be able to take out the fold in the middle of the book-sized magazine. When Cinefex sets out to tell the story behind a movie’s production, it goes all the way.
Gandalf the Grey arrives at Bilbo Baggins’ front door after one of the more light-hearted and entertaining scenes in “The Fellowship of the Ring”. Although many visual effects went into the presentation of Peter Jackson’s Shire, the landscape itself proved to be magical and endearing to audiences.
Don’t peek if you don’t want to know how that spectacular battle sequence for the Last Alliance was created. In the top view we see tens of thousands of Orcs rushing toward a line of Eldarin warriors standing at the ready with their deadly blades. In the lower shot, we see there were relatively few actors involved in filming the shot, which made extensive use of computer technology to amplify the visual magnitude of the scene.
Dawn breaks out over Minas Tirith, which is here represented by a breath-taking miniature set which is described as huge. Some of the miniature sets used in the movie were larger than houses, according to Cinefex. Throughout the 18 months camera crews worked on location, they took every opportunity to film New Zealand’s legendary sunsets and skies. Many of the images were incorporated into digital footage to enhance the movie’s visual beauty.
The Lord of the Nazgul is unmasked in this image of a blue-screen shot. The ghostly apparition which appears in the movie at Weathertop is revealed to be a man in costume after all. It’s almost like butter. Oscar-winner Richard Taylor explains that for years Weta Workshop made many of its puppets out of hard table margarine. “We’ve had to learn how to make silk purses out of sows’ ears,” he tells the magazine. But on LoTR, they had the budget to buy enough silk for everyone.
The Nazgul were handled by more than one group. Digital Domain was given responsibility for creating the realistic flood effect in which the nine Black Riders were swept away on the outskirts of Rivendell. Recreating Tolkien’s enchanted stream required numerous special effects and a real-world dam, not to mention a trip to Niagra Falls. “…it still came down to me looking through the viewfinder,” Brian Van’t Hul tells Cinefex. “…standing waist deep in water, a grip behind me, spotting me to push everything out of the way in case the horses got too close.”
Before Elrond could settle down for a long age in his quiet mountain retreat, someone had to build it. Since the Elves weren’t around to advise the Weta technicians on how to recreate a traditional Elvish cottage community, they took a few liberties, starting out with a large model. Built in modular fashion, the Rivendell model could be disassembled and its parts moved around on rollers to allow different camera angles. Sometimes the model was photographed in layers.
Look closely! Is that really Sir Ian McKellen, or a cleverly disguised double standing in for him? The Mines of Moria were created through the magic of movie illusions. Doubles for the principal actors sometimes stood in for them, and a full-size set was digitally blended with a miniature set in the background. The result was a painstakingly detailed underworld such as movie fans have seldom seen before.
Get ready to be shocked. Sometimes, those stand-ins for the principal actors were…digital images! That’s right, the actors were scanned and digitized (shades of Captain Power!). Samwise Gamgee and Gimli demonstrate just how detailed the digital imaging could be. In one scene, a digital Merry and Pippin leaped onto a troll while a real-life Legolas (Orlando Bloom) aimed his deadly bow at the creature — which was itself digitally imagined.
Got a Balrog on your tail? Better keep your trusty wizard handy just in case. Balrogs favor dark places under the Earth, delight in fire, and cast long shadows. Oh, yes, they have wings…sort of (or, is that, soot of?). But are these real actors or just another dab of margarine splattered across a miniature set? You make the call, and then pick up a copy of Cinefex magazine to see what a big budget film has to resort to when bluescreen footage doesn’t work out.
Lothlorien glimmers in the imagination of Weta’s magic-makers as “a city atop the trees.” Paul Lasaine tells the magazine that “Lothlorien was like the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, combined with a grove of sequoias, combined with the Ewok village.” Hm. Some members of the audience were more reminded of the famous Gunga City under the waters of Naboo. All that was missing as Celeborn and Galadriel came down the steps to greet their guests was Captain Tarpals buzzing Jar Jar Binks. How wude!
Isengard may have been one of the most ambitious and complex locations to film. Saruman’s successors refused to admit camera crews to the fortress, which is now in ruins, so Peter Jackson’s trusty handymen built several miniatures, including a massive 60-foot diameter set, complete with miniature trees and digital skies and mountains for the background. Hoom, how did they get those crows down into the caverns beneath Isengard? We’ll never tell, but Cinefex reveals it all.
Have foot, will stand for thousands of years. This statue of an ancient Gondorian king little resembles Viggo Mortensen. But that’s okay. Aragorn admitted, in the book, that he didn’t much resemble Isildur and Anarion. The two statues of the kings were real. They just weren’t quite as large as the movie makes them out to be. The eight-foot statues were made from black urethane. The rocks behind the statues were real, too. And the actors we see paddling their canoe past the massive movie statues were the real actors, too. Special effects make it all work so smoothly, one forgets the actors didn’t really have to worry about going over those falls.
Thanks to Cinefex Magazine for the heads up on a great issue! They also cover the visual effects of “The Time Machine” and “Black Hawk Down”.
Psst! Don’t forget to click on the images!