Ringer Celebriel reports: Calligrapher and mapmaker Daniel Reeve met with a warm and enthusiastic reception from fans at ORC. He presented a slide show with dozens of images of items he created for The Lord of the Rings: countless books, invitations, scrolls, labels, maps, and even props like the telescope in the library at Rivendell.
Daniel explained that the creating the actual film props turned out to be only part of his work. He went on to work with dozens of merchandising licensees, preparing a massive style guide for them to ensure uniformity in graphic presentation, and then also created the titles and graphics for the DVD releases in dozens of languages.
The scope of his work is pretty amazing: Every character and location in The Lord of the Rings has its own unique type treatment, a graphic style and look that helps communicate the essence of that character or place. Even individuals in the same culture were distinguished from one another – Daniel created different handwriting styles for Bilbo and Frodo even though they both wrote using the same hobbit alphabet. Daniel also trained the actors, like Elijah Wood and Ian Holm, who had to write on screen. Fan-favorite exhibits include Elijah’s calligraphy practice sheets.
After the Lord of the Rings, Daniel continued to work with WETA, creating maps and calligraphy for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and King Kong. If you saws these two films, you’d recognize his handiwork in Tumnus’ arrest warrant, signed and paw-printed by Maugrim, and in the map of Skull Island, which resembles a gorilla print, and the New York newspapers and posters.
In an informal Sunday morning breakfast, Daniel talked a bit about his recent projects. He was selected by the New Zealand government to work on a prestigious calligraphy project creating replicas of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), the founding documents of the New Zealand nation, consisting of nine documents recording agreements between the British Crown and over five hundred Māori chiefs. The materials are a central part of an exhibition on the treaty, called Treaty 2 U, that’s touring New Zealand in a mobile exhibition trailer from January to May 2006.
He also worked on Dead Letters, a short independent film shot recently in Wellington by Quarter Acre Pictures and directed by Paolo Rotondo. The film, shot in just six days, is a wartime love story set in 1943 involving piles of letters sent to soldiers serving overseas. Grant Major is working on the film’s production design, and Park Road Post is one of many Wellington area businesses supporting the project. Dead Letters was one of only nine films funded by the New Zealand Film Commission’s Short Film Fund in 2005. It will be released this year.
For the film Daniel created letters in different handwriting. Daniel, or actually his hand, makes its film debut writing on camera, in an extreme close-up because the letter writer is supposed to be a woman. Like many others working on this independent film project, Daniel donated his time and talent.
He’s also created a set of illustrations for game cards for Hasbro’s upcoming game based on Pirates of the Caribbean (Reminder: Orlando Bloom fans can see their man in action as Will Turner starting July 7 in the US).
For ORC, Daniel had brought just under a hundred handwritten copies of Bilbo’s birthday party invitation to personalize for attendees and sell. They all sold out Friday, with lines forming at his table immediately after the presentation.
Daniel is a wonderfully talented, gentle, and unassuming artist. I found him standing in the back of the auditorium Saturday while Elijah and Sean were speaking and had to tell him more than once to go up and take an empty seat in the front so they could see he was there.
More about Dead Letters.
Daniel’s website.
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Sue writes: Tickets for the Lord of the Rings Concert in Denver Colorado on May 19th, 20th and 21st are now available for purchase via ticketmaster.com. I already have mine and can hardly wait to reveille in sweet music by Howard Shore. The Colorado Adult choir and Children’s choir will be performing as well. Still lots of good seats but will be going fast as time gets closer. Spread the word! [More]
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Step into Alan Lee’s Dartmoor cottage, and it’s a bit like walking into Tolkien’s imaginary world. Alan lives and breathes the work of JRR Tolkien. It’s not just his job…it’s his life. Everywhere, there are paintings, drawings, and sculptures from The Lord of the Rings. On the coffee table, there is even a Lord of the Rings mug, from which the world-renowned artist sips his coffee. Most of the pictures on display are Alan’s own creations. [More]
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NEW YORK — The National Board of Review will present Jane Fonda and composer Howard Shore with 2005 Career Achievement Awards at its Jan. 10 awards ceremony, to be emceed by Paul Reiser. The event at Tavern on the Green will honor Fonda’s 45 years in cinema. Shore will receive a special 2005 Career Achievement for Film Music Composition. Three-time Oscar winner Shore (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy), with more than 65 features to his credit, launched his more than quarter-century scoring career with several films for director David Cronenberg, including “The Brood,” “Scanners” and “Videodrome.” He is next scheduled to score Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” due next summer, and is creating an opera for the 2007 Los Angeles Opera season based on Cronenberg’s “The Fly.” [More]
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Bastian Holze from DEAG CLASSICS writes: On May 28th, the Deutsche Entertainment AG organizes a big live concert named: “The Lord of The Rings Symphony” in the Kölnarena of Cologne, Germany.
A classical orchestra is going to play the original film music from Peter Jacksons trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, written by the Academy Award Winning Composer and Conducter Howard Shore.
This concert takes place in line with a impressive Multi-Media-presentation of the original Illustration from the Tolkien books. It’s a Must See for every LOTR-Fan or community member! For further information and ticket selling, please click our webpage. ]More]
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AICN writer Quint writes: Quint here with a chat I had recently with a man by the name of Michael Pellerin. Michael is the dude most directly responsible for those amazing LORD OF THE RINGS Extended Edition DVDs and has also recently contributed to that fantastic documentary on the 1933 KING KONG DVD as well as providing all those weekly (or bi-weekly as it was during the filming) Production Diaries for Peter Jackson’s KING KONG. I met Michael on one of my last days on the set of KONG. He’s a big fan of the site and even though the pressure of recording DVD material as well as cutting material for the online Production Diaries was obviously stressing him out I could still tell that he was in his element, doing what he loves. [More]
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