A correspondent was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some WETA coolness at this SGI seminar. And then they bothered handing out mousepads and mints and pens, as if anyone cared after that. [more]
Month: August 2000
This arrived to the in-tray of one of our correspondents (via the Herald’s reporter Russell Brown, at a guess):
“SGI to open training suite with Rings preview.
$100,000 central Auckland suite marks a dual first for SGI
Silicon Graphics has lined up preview footage from Lord of the Rings to mark the opening of its new training suite in Auckland tonight. The company announced this week that Weta FX – a long-term SGI customer – had bought 16 dual-processor SGI 1200 servers running Linux as it builds capacity for post-production work on the Peter Jackson-directed films of Tolkien’s trilogy.
Weta has provided work from the project – although it’s not clear whether it will be the same six-minute package shown to an industry audience at the recent ShoWEST trade show in Los Angeles, or new footage.
The $100,000 central Auckland suite marks a dual first for SGI – in that it
contains eight Linux workstations alongside another eight running the company’s flagship Irix OS, and because it is the first of a planned string of training bases ..” Sorry the rest was just tripped my boredom overload so I cut it.
An alert local went and reported on this softwarefest:
For my $7 parking fee I got a Silicon Graphics mouse pad, a Silicon Graphics yoyo, Compaq mini-frisbee (“for the office”), highlighter and ballpoint pen, drinks and food, and lots of good info on using Silicon Graphics O2 systems for digital video. Not too bad for the opening of a training suite that wasn’t going to have technical info like that at it.
(yeah, but nothing beats my cherished shirt from one of these things that says ‘The power of a laptop, the personality of a thinkpad.’ Whoever thought that up had the personality of a carpet tile. -T.)
[And from the seminar this morning I got a free Sky City ballpoint pen that keeps on stopping (figures), a small pad of paper, and two plastic-wrapped mints that I was told tasted really bad (and so haven’t eaten yet).]
But in the “world premier” of what they showed (basically an interview about technical details on how many computers Weta uses and how much data they’re pushing around) we DID see a computer generated horse in wire frame and shaded forms, and we can theorise on the implications of _that_ for the next one and a third years. And there’s talk that PJ may apply a “Middle-earth” filter on the whole movie to make it look more “Middle-earthy”.’
Avid mousepad collectors may like to check out Amyd’s SFX site for the details on SGI and Octane and all that stuff, if you’re still curious.
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We’ve got updates on the Wingate set over in Spy Reports. Looks like they’re using bluescreen technology at Wingate to film the Dead Marshes. They filmed a bit around the real swamp of the Kepler Mire near Te Anau last Christmas, but when I saw it it seemed like a jolly nice place, as swamps go. They might get better gloom and doom with CGI.
“Hi Tehanu, a report on the Wingate set from The Watcher in the Water.
The Wingate set has been converted into a swamp, yessss it hass. There iss a great black and gray cover over the blue screen, which gives the set a dark gloomy appearance, and there are weeds and clumps of long grasses in the large pool. Is this the Dead Marshes? We wonderss, yess we doesss.”
And another report along the same lines came in today:
“Filming of what is believed to be the Dead Marshes scenes was happening at Wingate today. Frodo and Sam were seen on the set, and there was a lot of smoke that could be seen from quite a distance. Great secrecy surrounds the set, and a lot of trucks are parked to block the view from the street.”
This reporter also checked in a few days ago to say:
“I went down to the Hutt River after they had removed all the sets, and I believe they were doing scenes of the Anduin. The locations were very nice.
Here is something for the ‘Silly LOTR rumour’ file:
Word has it around Wellington that some scenes for Russell Crowe’s “Gladiator” movie were shot at the Helms Deep set at Haywards Hill. As the HHelms Deep set is of an ancient fortress, and looks nothing whatsoever like anything from any scene in “Gladiator” (Which I believe was filmed in the Mediteranian area), I don’t know where or how this rumour started.
Cheers
Robbit the Hobbit”
The Wellington Reporter-hobbit sent us a grainy scan from Wellington of a huge item in tonight’s Evening Post. Apparently the paper is planning to compile some of the stunning images from the local press (like the amazing Edoras picture into a high-quality poster. It’ll be A2 size, that’s twice the size of a normal sheet of everyday paper, and they’re planning to sell them for $2 plus postage. Whether they’re expecting overseas buyers I don’t know, but we’ll keep an eye on that and let you know.
Hullo All!
The next Hall of Fire topic for discussion is up. Check it out and head on over this weekend!
Middle-earth and Human History: Comparisons and Contrasts
Being the epic work of literature that it is, The Lord of the Rings has been analyzed through a variety of lenses. One of the appealing qualities of LotR is the historical depth and underpinning present throughout the narrative. We are fortunate indeed to have the Silmarillion chronicling the history of Arda’s creation; no doubt Tolkien fans would love to read about the Fifth and Sixth Ages as well.
Which leads to our topic….. How does Middle-earth compare to the history of humanity? At first blush many may focus on European history, although this is surely only part of the conversation. We will discuss both how Middle-earth’s history is similar to ours, and how it is different. So bring your thinking caps and history trivia and come chat this weekend!
Time: Saturday, August 26, 5:30 p.m. EST (10:30 p.m. GMT) AND Sunday, August 27, 6:00 p.m. GMT (1:00 p.m. EST)
Any thoughts on future topics? Please send ’em here. Thanks!
For details on how to participate, click here.