Here's something non-dinosaur-related and something non-Dexter's Lab-related. A thread on the making of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. As you know, this film trilogy, by New Zealnd-born filmmaker, Peter Jackson, consists of three live action fantasy epic films: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and Return of the King (2003) (often abbreviated to LotR, FotR, TTT, and RotK).

Y'know it's based on the three-volume book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. While the movies follow the book's general storyline, they also features some additions to and deviations from the source material (Some of which pisses Tolkien fans off!).

Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, they follow the young hobbit Frodo Baggins as he and a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron (shown only as an Eye on top of its HUGE tower, though he first appears as an armored warlord in the beginning of Fellowship). The Fellowship becomes divided and Frodo continues the quest together with his loyal companion Sam and the treacherous Gollum (Everybody's favorite character from the movies, or maybe, the book). Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf and Aragorn, heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, unite and rally the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, who are ultimately victorious in the War of the Ring.

They're co-written, co-produced and directed by Peter Jackson and distributed by New Line Cinema (now an asorbed part of Warner Bros., Inc.). Considered to be one of the biggest movie projects ever undertaken, with an overall budget of $280 million, the entire project took eight years, with the filming for all three films done simultaneously and entirely in his native New Zealand.

All three movies are great financial successes, with the films being the 14th, 7th, and 2nd highest-grossing film of all time, respectively, unadjusted for inflation. The films were critically acclaimed, winning 17 out of 30 Academy Awards nominated in total, as well as wide praise for the cast and for the innovative practical and digital special effects. Each film in the trilogy also had 4-disc Special Extended Editions, released a year after the theatrical release on DVD. Jackson is currently collaborating with Guillermo del Toro on two prequels, one of which will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, for release in 2011 and 2012. So let's with the development, shall we?

Yup, LOTR is definitely one of my fav's. I need to finish up reading the original books by Tolkien, I've been slacking. And it's quite obvious who's my fav' character from it.

Lord of the Rings was #2 on AFI's top 10 fantasy films and #50 of best 100 films.

Okay, you guys. Let's read The Development of the Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy, shall we?

Director Pete first came into contact with The Lord of the Rings when he saw Ralph Bakshi's 1978 film, which he found confusing. Afterwards, he read a tie-in edition of the book during a twelve-hour train journey from Wellington to Auckland when he was seventeen. Jackson's reaction was, "I can't wait until somebody makes a movie of this book because I'd like to see it!"
2 decades later, he was finishing The Frighteners and considered The Lord of the Rings as a new project, wondering "why nobody else seemed to be doing anything about it". With the new developments in computer-generated imagery following Jurassic Park, he set about planning a fantasy film that would be relatively serious and feel "real". By October, he and his partner Fran Walsh teamed up with Miramax Films boss Harvey Weinstein to negotiate with Saul Zaentz who had held the rights to the book since the early 1970s, pitching an adaptation of The Hobbit and two films based on The Lord of the Rings. Negotiations were then put to rest when Universal Studios offered Jackson a remake of King Kong. Weinstein was pissed off, and further problems arose when it turned out Zaentz did not have distribution rights to The Hobbit; United Artists (or, MGM/UA), which was in the market, did. By April 1996 the rights question was still not resolved. Jackson decided to move ahead with Kong before filming The Lord of the Rings, prompting Universal to enter a deal with Miramax to receive foreign earnings from The Lord of the Rings whilst Miramax received foreign earnings from the Kong remake.

When Universal put King Kong to sleep in 1997 against their wishes (Eventually, the remake will finally be released in December 2005 to great disappointment to some), Jackson and Walsh immediately received support from Weinstein and began a six-week process of sorting out the rights. Jackson and Walsh asked Costa Botes to write a synopsis of the book and they began to re-read the book. Two to three months later, they had written their treatment. The first film would have dealt with what would become The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the beginning of The Return of the King, ending with the death of Saruman, and Gandalf and Pippin going to Minas Tirith. In this treatment, Gwaihir and Gandalf visit Edoras after escaping Saruman, Gollum attacks Frodo when the Fellowship is still united, and Farmer Maggot, Glorfindel, Radagast, Elladan and Elrohir are present. Bilbo attends the Council of Elrond, Sam looks into Galadriel's mirror, Saruman is redeemed before he dies and the Nazgûl just make it into Mount Doom before they fall. They presented their treatment to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the latter of whom they focused on impressing with their screenwriting as he had not read the book. They agreed upon two films and a total budget of $75 million.

During mid-1997, they began writing with Stephen Sinclair. Some woman named Philippa Boyens, was a major fan of the book and joined the writing team after reading their treatment. It took 13–14 months to write the two film scripts, which were 147 and 144 pages respectively. Sinclair left the project due to theatrical obligations. Amongst their revisions, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are caught eavesdropping and forced to go along with Frodo. Gandalf's account of his time at Orthanc was withdrawn from flashback and Lothlórien was absent, with Galadriel attending the Council of Elrond. Denethor, Boromir's father, also attends the Council. Other changes included having Arwen rescue Frodo, and the action sequence involving the cave troll. Arwen was even going to kill the Witch-king (not Eowyn). Most significantly, there was an all-new sequence. A Ringwraith p'wned Saruman and attacks Gandalf at Orthanc. Seeing this from the Seeing Seat, now at Emyn Muil rather than Amon Hen, Frodo puts on the Ring and draws him all the way to the Seat on his Fell beast. Frodo manages to save Sam and stabs the wraith in its heart.

Trouble struck when Marty Katz was sent to New Zealand. Spending four months there, he told Miramax that the films were more likely to cost $150 million, and with Miramax unable to finance this, and with $15 million already spent, they decided to merge the two films into just a single movie. On June 17, 1998, Bob Weinstein presented a treatment of a single two-hour film version of the book. He suggested cutting Bree and the Battle of Helm's Deep, "losing or using" Saruman, merging Rohan and Gondor with Éowyn as Boromir's sister, shortening Rivendell and Moria as well as having Ents prevent the Uruk-hai kidnapping Merry and Pippin. Upset by the idea of "cutting out half the good stuff"Jackson was pissed off at this, he screamed at Weinstein and went out the door (Man, What a Bastard! :evil: ), and Miramax declared that any script or work completed by Weta Workshop was theirs. Pete went around Hollywo

Next, let's read the production design of the Film trilogy, shall we?



The film trilogy, you know, began its production design in August 1997. Peter Jackson required complete realism and plausibility in his vision of Middle-earth, and hired Weta Workshop to create the various pieces of armour, weapons, prosthetics and creatures seen in the trilogy, as well as aged costumes and historically influenced sets.

Jackson began storyboarding the trilogy with Christian Rivers in August 1997, effectively creating a rough black and white 2-D version of the film. Jackson showed excerpts of the "animated" storyboards (filmed images with voices and a temporary soundtrack) to allow potential cast a view of the film's style.

To plan his visual effects sequences, Jackson also utilized a lipstick camera for the models of sets and computer animatics (learned from Industrial Light and Magic), planning the battle sequences like a real general and giving a sense of direction. This would often allow room for him to improvise for action sequences, such as the Moria staircase collapse (which was never in any script draft). He also bought 40,000 toy soldiers to play with. Pre-visualisation would continue throughout production, such as the late addition of the the Ents attacking Isengard, and the siege of Minas Tirith in February 2003.

The design of the trilogy began in August 1997 with the storyboarding, and in November, famed Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project. Up until then, concept artists had primarily been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons in their designs. Jackson himself wanted a gritty realism and historical regard for the fantasy. Some of their famous images of Bag End, Orthanc, Helm's Deep, the Black Gate, and John Howe's Gandalf and the Balrog made it into the movies. The last one inspired the opening of The Two Towers. Jackson sometimes replicated some shots from famous Tolkien illustrations as a nod to fans.

Lee worked on designs for architecture, the first being Helm's Deep, as well as the Elven realms, Moria, Edoras, and Minas Tirith, and although Howe primarily designed armour and the forces of evil, he contributed with Bag End, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol and the Barad-dûr. Lee also applied a personal touch by painted imagery in Rivendell, such as the one of Isildur removing the One Ring from Sauron, as well as tapestries in Edoras. There are real life influences to Middle-earth: Rivendell is "a cross between a Japanese Temple and Frank Lloyd Wright", and Minas Tirith takes influence from Mont-St-Michel, St Michael's Mount and Palatine Chapel in Aachen. The City of the Dead takes after Petra, Jordan, and the Grey Havens were inspired by the paintings of J. M. W. Turner.

Grant Major was charged with the task of converting Lee and Howe's designs into architecture, creating models of the sets, whilst Dan Hennah worked as art director, scouting locations and organizing the building of sets. The army often helped out too, building Hobbiton almost a year before filming to give the impression of real growth and age, and moved 5000 cubic metres of earth, and creating roads to the Edoras location during six months of building, although there was some controversy over their pay. Sometimes sets would be reshaped: the caverns of Isengard became Shelob's Lair, and Helm's Deep became a Minas Tirith backlot. Sets would also occasionally employ forced perspective to save budget too. Despite a large amount of safety involved, there were still fires on a Rohirrim village location and the Morgul Road set, and Alan Lee fell off a Lothlórien miniature. Yikes! :shock:

The Art Department was careful to respect nature, considering its importance to Tolkien, such as taking plants from the Edoras location into a nursery. They would sometimes mould shapes from real rocks and bark too, and take branches into a steel structure with polystyrene for more convincing prop trees. Brian Massey led the Greens Department, and even wrote a booklet on tree growth when he bitched about the props "being too coney" for Lothlórien when time came to for Fangorn forest. The numerous props within the trilogy are all originally designed at different scales, and many craftsmen were hired, most notably Jens Hansen to create 15 replicas of the One Ring. Statues were sculpted out of polystyrene, although some thrones seen in the trilogy are in fact crafted out of marble, stone and wood as they would be. A former bank worker named Daniel Reeve was hired to write the numerous books, spines, documents, maps, diagrams and even Orc graffiti that appear in the trilogy.

Chest piece! In yo face!

Next, We will read about Weta Workshop.



Pete hired longtime collaborator Richard Taylor to lead Weta Workshop on five major design elements: armour, weapons, prosthetics/make-up, creatures and miniatures. Notable among the concept artists were Daniel Falconer and Warren Mahy, who enjoyed creating the forces of good and evil respectively. Jamie Beswarick and Mike Asquith also helped with the maquettes, as well as Ben Wooten with his extensive zoology knowledge, amongst many others.

John Howe was the supervisor on armour, having studied and worn it. Stu Johnson and Warren Green made 48,000 pieces of armour from the numerous molds of plate steel, as well as a small group who spent days linking plastic chain mail (eventually wearing their thumbprints away). Peter Lyon also forged swords, each taking from three to six days, creating spring steel "hero" swords for close-ups, aluminium fight swords and rubber versions too. Weta also created 10,000 real arrows and 500 bows. Howe even created a less crude type of crossbow for the Uruk-hai (the first army approved), based on a 16th century manuscript.

Weta created numerous pieces of prosthetics, and would have to monitor them on set too. They created 1800 Orc body suits to go with 10,000 Orc heads, lasting six days and one day respectively. Weta also spent a year creating Hobbit feet that would look like furry feet yet act as shoes for actors. In total, 1800 pairs were used by the four lead actors during production. Actors would also go in for face casts to create pointed ears and false noses. Most extensive was John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, who would spend four-and-a-half hours in the morning to apply Dwarven prosthetics. Gino Acevedo also worked on created realistic skin tones for the actors, such as Bernard Hill's possessed Théoden and a younger Bilbo. Peter(s) King and Owen also led the make-up department in making numerous wigs and creating general dirt on the actors. As well as applying make-up, at the end of the day there was an hour of carefully removing the make-up and prosthetics. As well as the prosthetics, there were also numerous corpses of actors and horses.

Weta's first completed creature was the Cave Troll, and originally wanted to make the Orcs totally animalistic before the switch to prosthetics. They gave specific designs to the Moria Orcs, Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs so as to give variety to the characters. They also spent time making creatures biologically believable, rooting them sometimes in real creatures: Shelob's body is a funnel web spider, and the Wargs are a bear/hyena/wolf hybrid. Howe lent himself for Beswarick to study when shaping Gollum, and he also took inspiration from Iggy Pop due to his skin-muscle ratio. Whilst most creatures were destined to exist in the computer, Weta did create a 14 feet tall Treebeard puppet (which needed 5 people to operate), a single dead mumak (Whoa! Do I say Mumak?!) and later on, a "Phoney Pony" for close-up shots of riding actors. Designing continued throughout production, such as Gollum's redesign in May 2001 and the Great Beasts in early 2003.




Frodo (Elijah Wood) holding Sting. Sting is depicted as vaguely leaf-shaped, with gentle curving edges. Engraved on the blade and cross-guard are letters in Sindarin that read "Sting is my name, I am the spider's bane" in English. Sting is 23 inches long and 3 inches wide at the hilt. Several cultures' backstories had to be shown through only subliminal glimpses on screen, as are the miniatures, and for the Elves and Gondorians, fictional histories had to be presented within the changes of armour. The Elves have an Art Nouveau influence that involves leaves and flowers, whilst the Dwarves have a preoccupation with geometry that is supposed to remind the audience of their digging nature. The Hobbits hark back to 18th century England, the Rohirrim have numerous horse and sun motifs and draw visual inspiration from Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon artifacts found in the Sutton Hoo burial ship, and the Gondorians reflect 16th century German and Italian armour as well as tree motifs. The evil Haradrim hoodlums take influence from Aztecs and Kiribati after Phillipa Boyens bitches about 'em being African. Most of the Orc armour is sharp, reflecting secateurs, and have runes written on them to reflect a worship of Sauron.

Several liberties were taken in adapting Tolkien's weaponry and armour to the screen. While plate armour is used in the films, it is unmentioned in any of the author's writings (except for vambraces), where scale and especially mail predominate. Some swords, like the broken royal sword Narsil, are also interpreted as two-handed longswords. These design choices help evoke the Late Medieval and Renaissance periods, whereas Tolkien's original atmosphere is generally more akin to the Early Medieval period. In a private letter he compared Middle-ear

We_Are_Siamese, It's just Elven armor!

Anyway, on to the costumes! Ngila Dickson was hired on April 1, 1999 to handle the numerous costumes. She and 40 seamstresses worked on over 19,000 costumes. Due to the large shooting schedule, 10 versions of each costume would have to be made, and then 30 more for stunt, scale and other doubles, all in all meaning each design would have 40 versions.

Due to Jackson's requirement of realism, the costumers took great pains to make costumes look "lived in", wearing away colour, stuffing pockets and dirtying costumes for the likes of Gandalf and Aragorn due to their terrain crossing nature. Like armour, there would also be acid etching and some overdyeing of colours. Dickson decided to give the Hobbits shorts due to their barefeet, and specifically worked on long sleeves for the Elves for a gliding impression. Dickson also took great pains to distinguish the Gondorians (silvers and black) and the Rohirrim (brown and green).

You got that?

Okay's here's the filming part:

Principal photography for The Lord of the Rings movie was, at long last, conducted concurrently in New Zealand from October 11, 1999 through to December 22, 2000 for 274 days. Pick-up shoots were conducted annually from 2001 to 2004. The trilogy was shot at over 150 different locations, with seven different units shooting, as well as soundstages around Wellington and Queenstown. Jackson directed the whole production, while other unit directors included Alun Bollinger, John Mahaffie, Geoff Murphy, Fran Walsh, Barrie Osbourne, Rick Porras. Jackson monitored these units with live satellite feeds, and with the added pressure of constant script re-writes and the multiple units handling his vision, he only got around 4 hours of sleep a night.

Peter Jackson described the production as the world's largest home movie, due to the independence and sense of family.[3] Barrie Osbourne saw it as a traveling circus. Fran Walsh described writing the script for the production as laying the track down in front of a moving train. Jackson also described shooting as like organizing an army, with 2,400 people involved at the height of production. Due to the remoteness of some of New Zealand's untamed landscapes, the crew would also bring survival kits in case helicopters couldn't reach the location to bring them home in time. Ain't I a stinker? :lol:

The first scene filmed was the Wooded Road sequence where the Hobbits hide underneath the tree from a Ringwraith. The focus was generally on The Fellowship of the Ring when the Hobbits try to reach Rivendell, such as a single night in Bree exteriors. Second units also shot the Ford of Bruinen chase and the deforestation of Isengard. Liv Tyler generally came to New Zealand for stunts, and spent five days on a barrel for Bruinen whilst riding double Jane Abbott got to ride on horseback.



During the first month of filming, an immediate event took place: Stuart Townsend was deemed too young to play Aragorn, and within three days Viggo Mortensen became his replacement, just in time to film the Weathertop sequence. Mortensen, who decided to take the role in part because his own son was a book fan, became a hit on set, going fishing, always taking his "hero" sword around and applied dirt to improve Ngila Dickson's makeshift look to his costume. He also headbutted the stunt team as a sign of friendship, and bought himself his horse, Uraeus, as well as another horse for Abbott.

Sean Bean began filming in November for most of his scenes. It was during this time shooting became focused on the battle of Amon Hen. Despite the focus on Fellowship, floods in Queenstown forced the crew to shoot mountain interiors from The Return of the King for Wood and Astin: a single day (November 24) of Astin's coverage from a pivotal scene. This would become a general failsafe measure if the weather disrupted the shooting schedule. Wood's coverage wouldn't be done until November 30, 2000.

PO-TATE-OES

LOL

I... like... potatoes...

Here's the good part. A Christmas holiday break followed, and filming resumed on January 17 in the year 2000 (the first year of the New Millennium). Ian McKellen, fresh from filming X-Men (2000), arrived to film scenes in Hobbiton and the Grey Havens. McKellen didn't become that close to the lead actors due to generally working with their scale doubles, but when Christopher Lee arrived in February, they became very friendly. Shooting the fight sequence in Orthanc interiors without air conditioning (for atmosphere) and with heavy wigs and robes was described by the actors as "murder". What? Murder?!!! :shock: The Grey Havens sequence, which takes place at the end of The Return of the King, was shot three times due to, firstly, Sean Astin forgetting his vest after lunch and secondly, an out-of-focus camera. :lol:

While the Hobbit leads had scenes in Hobbiton and Rivendell exteriors in Kaitoke Park with new arrival Ian Holm, Mortensen, Bloom and Rhys-Davies filmed scenes involving the Rohirrim countryside. Mortensen broke his toe kicking an Orc helmet on camera, screamin' his head off! :lol: Bloom fell off his horse and broke his rib, and the Gimli scale double, Brett Beattie, dislocated his ankle :lol: They spent just 2 days as the injured for the hunting sequence seen in the second film. Soon after, they spent a month of day shoots at Helm's Deep and another three months of night shoots handled by Mahaffie, in Dry Creek Quarry outside of Wellington. Mortensen himself though would get a tooth knocked out and Hill was hit on the ear with the flat of a sword. :lol: The extras insulted each other in Maori and improvised stunts, primarily as those dressed in Uruk-hai prosthetics got extremely cold. :lol: Ain't I a stinker?

The production gets larger and larger and larger and larger, with Wood and Astin shooting scenes in Mount Ruapehu for Emyn Muil and Mount Doom. On April 13, 2000, Andy Serkis joined the cast. During this shoot, cross coverage was used for a pivotal scene in The Return of the King. In the meantime, prologue scenes and the Battle of the Black Gate were shot, during which Sala Baker was puttin' on the Sauron armour. The latter was filmed at a former mine field in the Rangipo Desert, and soldiers served as extras. The Fellowship then reunited with the return of Sean Bean, as they proceeded to shoot the Moria sequence and the Rivendell interior, including 5 days of dull coverage for the Council of Elrond.

In July they began shooting scenes with Cate Blanchett on soundstages for Lothlórien, as well as a week of exterior shooting for the farewell scene.

Edoras was built on Mount Sunday, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was shot in Twizel with 250 horsies.

As filming ended, the nine actors portraying the Fellowship got an Elven 9 tattoo, bar John Rhys-Davies, who sent his scale double. Jackson and Bernard Hill got an Elven 10, and Hill and Mortensen founded the C-Bago club, the c standing for 'cunt'. What? :shock: Originally, the cast members promised each other they would not show the tattoos on-camera. However, Sean Astin shows his (on his ankle) on an Oprah appearance, justifying the move by pointing out Elijah Wood showed his to Jay Leno and Orlando Bloom accidentally shows it in Pirates of the Caribbean . :lol: Ain't I a stinker?

TATERS!

The first year of the new millennium was 2001. 2000 was the last year of the 20th century. You don't start counting at 0.

I don't want to sound like a prick, but I can just pop in my super-duper extended edition LOTR DVDs and watch how they did all the fantastical things in the trilogy, instead of reading through large posts and dealing with plate mail in my face.

It's good that you're practicing your writing, though.

Practice makes perfect.

Well, I'm back from a hiatus and I may continue with the Pick-ups from what they left off of principal photography of Lord of the Rings. Anyway, these pick ups were conducted from 2001 to 2003 for six weeks every year to refine the edit of films 1, 2, and 3. For the first two films they often returned to sets; for the third, they had to shoot around the clock in a car park full of set parts. Pick-ups provided a chance for cast and crew to meet in person again, and during The Two Towers pick-ups, Mr. Sean Astin directed a short film entitled The Long and Short of It. You can see it on the theatrical edition DVD of the Two Towers.

Notable scenes filmed in the pick-ups included The Two Towers Extended cut's flashback with Boromir, and the reshot Witch-king scenes with his new helmet design for Return of the King, the latter with improved Orc designs and the new character of Gothmog. Théoden's last scene was reshot just after he finished; He was still in New Zealand. Andy Serkis also had to shoot a scene in Jackson's house during post-production.

The very last and only pick-up in 2004 were shots of falling skulls in The Return of the King as part of an extended Paths of the Dead scene. Jackson joked that "it's nice to win an Oscar before you've even finished the film."