From: Daniel P

I thought you might want to see some information taken from the UK computer arts mag ‘3D World’ concerning The Lord of the Rings movie (in particulart he 3D animation). I shall type up the small article in the magazine here (it basically details specs on the rendering of the CG for the three movies.)

Article in full:

ONE RENDERFARM TO RULE THEM ALL

“New Zealands WETA digital effects company, currently working on New Line Cinema’s ambitious Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has bought 16 dual-processor SGI 1200 severs to cope with the sheer amount of rendering and data-handling in the production. WETA anticipates that something in the dauntingly large region of 100 Terabytes of data will be created and stored throughout the trilogy’s production, scheduled for completion in 2003.”

This was taken from the November 2000 issue of 3D World, published by Future Publishing (www.3dworldmag.com)

I thought you might like to put this information up for people on your site, particularly as it points out the hardware to be used and the volume of data being stored over the entire trilogy.

If you find this useful, I will continue to scour 3D mags for other information as I come across it.

‘Lord of Rings’ workers say they were not exploited
12 October 2000

A Geraldine couple who worked as extras on the set of The Lord of the Rings say they had the time of the lives and certainly were not exploited. [More]

Thanks to Cristtos for the tip!!

Ringer Spy ‘3T’ sends in the following!

I work in the promotional field and sent you some images from promotional materials for Lord of the Rings a few months back. Anyway, I don’t know if you know this, but New Line is planning to release each film on DVD before the subsequent comes out theatrically, and the DVD will contain a preview for the next film. Now that I think of it it seems obvious, but this is the first I’ve heard of it, so thought I’d pass it along. Very exciting for us DVD heads!

So it seems we won’t have to wait until all three films are out of theatres to watch them on DVD!!

Our newshound friends at Scoop have compiled their year of LOTR news here….and they don’t carry the name ‘Scoop’ without good reason.

Hullo Hall of Fire fans, it’s time to update you on some changes with The Hall of Fire. Thanks to your great suggestions we’ve put our thinking caps on and have come up with a few new things, including a new time for our Saturday chat. But first… our next topic!

Fate vs Free Will in Middle-earth

In the work of JRR Tolkien, one can argue that fate plays a part in everything and is the driving force behind the history of Middle-earth. One can cite examples throughout The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings: Turin’s doom, the prophecies of Mandos; the finding of the Ring by Bilbo; the forsight of Elrond and Gandalf that beings weaker than themselves would end up dealing with the One Ring; Malbeth the Seer’s little ditty that predicted Aragorn would walk the Paths of the Dead.

On the other hand you could argue that it is free will which dominates the history of Middle-earth. Again, from the Silmarillion to the Return of the King, one can site examples where free will plays a decisive roll: the actions of Feanor in not healing the Two Trees and compelling his sons and followers to desert Aman; Bilbo’s resolve to enter Smaug’s lair and discover his weak spot; Frodo volunteering (volunteering!) to take the Ring, and Sam’s groundshaking determination.

So what do you think? Is it Free Will or Fate which drives the history of Middle-earth? Come over to The Hall of Fire this weekend for the great debate, and argue your case or decide for yourself. Please feel free to bring references, and arm yourself with quotes!

Our talk will be at 7:00 EST, a new time. Please note this change so you don’t miss our talk. A special thanks to Melian for the topic suggestion.

Saturday Chat: 7:00 EDT [12:00 GMT] +++NOTE THIS IS A NEW TIME+++
Sunday Chat: 6:00 GMT [1:00 EDT]
Place: #thehalloffire on theonering.net server; come to our chatroom Barliman’s and then type /join #thehalloffire. If you are unable to reach our chats, or have topic suggestions or feedback, please email us here

You can be a Hall of Fire Moderator!

That’s right folks, you can run a Hall of Fire! How you ask???

Send us your topics! If we pick your idea for discussion, you will be our guest co-moderator for that weekend. You can help us run the Saturday or Sunday chat, or both! Of course, you will not be required to work the chat; this is our way of honoring those of you who take the time to put a topic together.

Questions? Topics? Send ‘em here!!

I’d like to personally thank the following folks for their replies to the mailing list inquiry: Leon, Orome, Leowyn, N.S., master_toe, Melian, and Vaire.

On this day one year ago, principal photography began in Wellington for the Lord of the Rings trilogy after months of mysterious preparation both visible and invisible. We’d spent almost a year already following news of the film as it was revealed. But no cameras had actually rolled, and we didn’t know where they were going to start.

We’d like to celebrate the story of the film as it’s appeared to us since that first day, including some of the most memorable images. So take some time and relive this exciting year. [more]

!!!MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!