I’m an assistant propmaster, and have been working on features, tv-movies and television series since 1991.
By the by, the “telegraph” device that Tehanu described (on her set visit) could almost only be the antenna that the sound department uses whenever an actor is wearing a body microphone. The cable-puller will take the aerial and maintain a direct line-of-sight with the actor to ensure premium reception. The antenna requires it to be held, and aimed, in a specific manner. The best sound mixers will jump through hoops to get a CORDED connection because it is SO much more of a guarantee that no interference will enter into the recording. They take pride in preventing ADR work (looping).
Spoiler Content:
If she saw a scene with actors on a moving horse-drawn cart, then there’s no question that the actors were wearing body-mics.
One other bit of trivia: I worked with a fairly young Elijah back in 1994 on the film “The War” (with K. Costner) and Elijah was the most professional guy there. A few years later my friend was the propmaster on the movie “Flipper” with Elijah and again he was a trooper. It is a comfort to hear that he hasn’t lost his enthusiasm and willingness to “get the shot”. Who can blame him, he gets to be Frodo!
I just received the latest issue of SFX Magazine (Feb #61) and behold! I great article about the production!
Lord of the Rings Hobbit Burrows!
As The Lord of the Rings production rolls on into the new millennium, SFX has secured these fine set photographs for your edification and enlightenment.
Behold! Freshly minted pictures from the New Zealand set of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Ring. Clearly presented here, and not fuzzily shown on the web (grrr, Xo) it’s quite easy to make out the burrows of Hobbiton, where Bilbo and Frodo Baggins reside. As you can see, the hobbit holes look rather good, fitting well into New Zealand’s lusher than lush landscape. These pictures were taken before the recent catastrophic floods, although it’s understood these sets were those damaged. To raise money for victims of the inundation, Jackson auctioned signed memorabilia from the film. Decent bloke.
While I love the folks at SFX, they do seem to have been mistaken, the Hobbiton sets were in fact quite safe from the flooding, and Peter Jackson auctioned off a signed copy of LOTR, not any film memorabilia. Fuzzy pictures indeed…
SFX has scored another LOTR related article, this one concerning Christopher Lee (Saruman) and his TV adaptation of Gormenghast. This is what they say of Lee:
“Working with (Christopher) Lee was great!” exclaims (Alan) Wilson “But, I mean, he really hurt himself. There was a sword fight scene where he fell down a flight of stairs. But he carried on. If you want a definition of the word trooper, then Christopher Lee is it.”
Lee, on his way over after an intense and grueling interview session, interrupts.
“They all thought I was dead,” he says in his trademark sepulchral tones, “but I only bruised myself.”
Lee, taller than you’d think (and he looks pretty damn tall on screen)…
Gandalf zapped this bit of info straight into my mind (zen-mail) here is this week-ends Hall of Fire Chat topic:
The Silmarils: What would have happened if Feanor had given the silmarils to the valar for the healing of the two trees? Would Morgoth have made war on the valar? Would he have had just counted his losses and got to some new evil?
Bring your copies of the silmarillion and get ready for another round of The Hall of Fire! Join Gandalf, Balin, Tookish and Gamgee Saturday January 29th at our new time: 5:30 EST. Special thanks to Berendir for this weeks topic..couldnt have done it with out ya man!
While preparing for his own Mordor Walk, alert fan Leo found this in the Ruapehu Bulletin, January 19th:
“LOTR crew reconnoitre for Baggins.
Tongariro National Park is likely to provide landscapes for hobbits for one of the biggest budget Hollywood movies ever….” The paper reports that PJ and the crew flew up from Wellington to look around and are in negotiations with the Dept. of Conservation for a permit to film. They may be somewhere on the Tukino skifield side of the mountain.”
Xoanon here, I’ll be posting more info on these locations when I do a little digging 🙂 Tehanu might be able to tell you what the ‘Big Day Out’ event is.
From: Marvin D
Last week in New Zealand we had the Big Day Out. I travelled to this from Wellington to Auckland (a 7 hour drive). On our way up I happened to stop into the army camp in Waioru to visit my Uncle there. Interestingly enough he told me that on the next day they were receiving some people for LOTR who were to fly around and scout possible filming locations in the Rangipo Desert.
The desert is a pretty desolate area and is not far from the speculated locations of Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mordor)
I just received the latest issue of 
