Ataahua writes: These snippets come from the live coverage of two television news channels in New Zealand:
The tickertape parade was huge, with perhaps 100,000 people lining the route. Liv and Orlando were in one car, and kept getting swamped in tickertape. Orland wore a red shirt that said ‘ I(heart)NZ’.
Liv took her shoes off for the red carpet so that she could run from fan to fan and not miss anyone out.
Quote from an entertainment reporter who had interviewed the stars on the red carpet: “They honestly seem blown away by this.” She also said that the biggest cheers from the crowd were reserved for Peter Jackson.
Royd (sp?) Tolkien turned up to the premier and was interviewed, saying the premier was a great excuse to visit New Zealand.
Helen Clark, New Zealand Prime Minister, wore a chain-mail cape designed by WETA head Richard Taylor. In another warrior-inspired piece of clothing, Ian McKellan wore a chain-mail tie.
During the parade, Peter Jackson was filming the crowd with a small hand-held video camera, and during the speeches he was taking still photos of the people on the stage.
Orlando Bloom said of the parade: “This is like the most exciting thing ever to happen in my entire life.”
Elijah Wood: “Oh my god! I think there are 100,000 people here today, which is extraordinary. I don’t think I will be at a premier again that’s anything like this. I expected it to be massive but I don’t think anything could prepare you for something like this.”
Quotes from the official speeches:
Prime Minister Helen Clark: “To Peter and all of the talent of LOTR, the movie has done New Zealand very proud and we’re really proud of you. May this premier and this film launch you to more fame and more rewards.”
Barry Osborne: “I think New Zealand should reinstate knighthoods and give Peter one, then cancel them again.”
Peter Jackson: “We made the movie but you guys (the public) have given us the party. These movies are made for people to enjoy them and it makes us incredibly humble and proud that so many of you have turned up today, so thank you very much.” He mentioned that 23,000 New Zealanders were employed on the films, then went on to say: “I’d like to thank Mark Ordesky for the promise he made a year ago to get this premier here, so thank you very much Mark.” He gave his biggest ‘thank you’ to his wife, Fran Walsh. “(She’s my) absolute collaborator, my support – she’s directed, she’s written songs, she’s edited … she’s my other half. Fran, thank you so much.” He then invited the stars onto the stage to say a few words: “We had a group of actors who came here and fell in love with the city: they enjoyed the bars, they enjoyed the café’s, they enjoyed the women….”
First up was Elijah: “I think there are 100,000 people here – it warms my very heart.”
Ian McKellen: “Yes we enjoyed the bars of Wellington, the café’s of Wellington, the women of Wellington, and also the MEN!” (That met a round of appreciative laughter from the crowd.) “Tolkien put many creatures into Middle-earth – the ents, the elves, the hobbits, the wizards – but he missed out on one creature: the Kiwi! Peter Jackson has put the kiwis into Middle-earth.”
Liv Tyler said “Hello Wellington” in her lower Arwen voice.
Viggo Mortensen (who received a HUGE cheer from the crowd): “Kia ora! Thank you for not only making us feel welcome (during the filming) but for making us feel encouraged, for making us feel that Peter could pull this off. Kia ora, tena koutou, tena koutou.” (The Maori phrases are ‘hello’, both informal and formal, and he nailed the pronunciation.)
Sean Astin came on stage with his daughter Alley, who he introduced as being Elanor at the end of the third film, saying she was 2 years old when filming started and she’s just turned 7 now.
John Rhys-Davies: “I based my character on my distinguished director here. Don’t forget us! We go home with great sadness in our hearts because we will miss you so much.”
Bernard Hill: “Nobody could have done it like they did in New Zealand, and nobody could have given us the reception that you did today.”
Then the TV coverage cut away, just as Billy Boyd was coming on stage, but TV3 then interviewed, live, our own Tehanu. Reporter John Campbell asked her if she was the biggest fan of the films, and she had a great response: “I’m the biggest fan of the Lord of the Rings fans. I love communicating with them on the net.” She expected the chatroom and discussion boards to be bulging after this premier, and also kindly refuted Campbell’s idea that there would be more men on TORN than women – although Tehanu did say that there were more men before the films were released, and more women after the films came out. John also asked Tehanu for the web address – so expect an influx, ladies and gentlemen.
Posted in:
Share:
New: Another Wellington based radio station is occasionally reporting from the red-carpet premiere. [newstalkzb.co.nz
Live Audio a NZ radio station (streaming real audio) is covering the events in Wellington. They’re still playing a lot of music, but there’s been some good segments so far (talking to crowds) [audionet.co.nz]
Richard has setup webcams all over the Wellington Premiere site near the embassy theatre to capture all things Rings for the ROTK Premiere set for later today (December 1st in NZ). Follow all the links according to your connection speed.
Special thanks goes out to Positively Wellington for the connections, bandwidth, doughnuts and coffee, the kitchen sink and everything else they helped Richard out with! [Positively Wellington]
The live video from the event can be viewed by clicking on the links below. 5 bit rates are available to suit connections speeds. The exact URL of each stream is also provided in case of difficulty. Paste these URLs into your windows Mediaplayer, if you have difficulty making the connection.
Embassy Cams:
Main Cam Page
NOTE: There will be two new webcams going in shortly. There will only be test patterns on them as they are powered from the van and so will only be live when we are there. BUT they have cool images. The images will only be available when staff are “on site”
Cam 1 It will be pointing at the “stage” and be about 10 meters away.
Cam 2 Will be the other and will be looking up the carpet from the Embassy to Readings. So you will get “full frontal” shots of the stars as they walk to the theatre. Maybe thats a poor choice of words……
Other webcams brought to our attention:
citylink.co.nz Overlooks the red carpet and the embassy, updates every 15 minutes.
palantir.citylink.co.nz Looking northwest up Courtenay Place towards Taranaki St. updates every 5 seconds.
Posted in:
Share:
With The Return of the King just around the corner the LOTR castmembers are once again all over the small screen doing interviews on chatshows and entertainment news shows all over the dial. Here is a rundown on who, what, where and when you can catch them all.
December 1st:
Viggo Mortensen is set to be interviewed in a segment on Entertainment Tonight. ET airs at different times all across North America, check your local listings. [ETonline.com]
December 3rd:
Elijah Wood is scheduled to be a special guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The Tonight Show airs on NBC at 11:35PM ET. [NBC.com]
December 4th:
PrimeTime Thursday on ABC will air a ‘Making of ROTK’ special at 10:00 PM on ABC. [More]
December 5th:
Orlando Bloom is scheduled to be a special guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The Tonight Show airs on NBC at 11:35PM ET. [NBC.com]
December 6th:
Elijah Wood will be one of the guest stars in the Germany’s most popular saturday evening show “Wetten dass…”. [More]
December 13th:
Elijah Wood will be the special host on Saturday Night Live. SNL airs on NBC at 11:30 PM. [NBC.com]
December 14th:
Several LOTR related shows will air Bravo: Inside the Actors Studio – Sir Ian McKellen, Profiles – Cate Blanchett & Page to Screen – Lord of The Rings. [bravotv.com]
Posted in:
Share:
Matthew writes:
REPORT ON THE WORLD PREMIERE OF “THE LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY”, COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY HOWARD SHORE – Saturday, November 29, 2003
It is currently 11pm on Saturday night, and I am sitting at my computer at work, having come in to write about the event that I have just experienced.
And hopefully make a lot of people that I don’t know jealous.
Over the past couple of years, I have heard about various live concert performances of Howard Shore’s music for the Lord Of The Rings films, and I’ve always been jealous of those who have been to those concerts. But I can now say that I have been to the best concert – short of a live performance of the complete score synchronised to the movie. The world premiere of the LOTR Symphony, six movements for orchestra and chorus, created from the twelve hours of music composed for the three LOTR films, performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO). While I understand some of the movements have been performed previously, this was the first performance of the complete piece.
And it was great.
I won’t say much about the music, because we’ve all heard the scores for the first two films, and we will all be very familiar with the third film score very soon. I’ll just try to write about my thoughts and experience.
Peter Jackson was there, looking terribly casual (as you would expect) and completely out of place. As he tried to casually walk in, people saw him, and started clapping. This rapidly became a well-deserved standing ovation. I was, however, a little embarrassed when the people around me then spent a considerable amount of time turned around, just watching him. My gosh, people, give the man a bit of privacy. If I was PJ, I probably would have felt a bit uncomfortable.
Howard Shore walked out, huge applause. He gave a short speech that was interrupted every time he mentioned a recognisable name. When he talked about how much of the music was inspired by and written in Wellington, applause. When he acknowledged Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, applause. Richard Taylor, applause. When he mentioned how the NZSO did the first recording of the mines of Moria, applause. I was amazed he was able to make it to the end of the speech with all the interruption. But eventually the music started.
There really is something about hearing music performed live, by a full orchestra and two choirs, apparently 200 people in total, that you cannot experience listening to a CD or in a cinema or home theatre system. It really is unique. The wall of all enveloping sound that surrounds you at times is something to experience. I have pretty much thrashed the FOTR and TTT soundtracks since they were released, and so I thought I knew the music pretty well. But hearing these pieces performed live, you become very aware of the different textures, the subtleties that were hidden from you. The complexity and brilliance of the compositions cannot be overstated. Hugely enjoyable.
The first two movements covered FOTR, then came intermission. Cue more people just watching Peter Jackson. It was a bit creepy actually.
The next two movements covered TTT. Then came the bit I was really looking forward to. The final two movements were music from ROTK.
You see, I knew the music in the first four movements very well. But, other than the 30 second samples available on Soundtrack.Net, and Into The West. I haven’t heard the ROTK score yet. So this music was a real surprise. I had no idea where any of the music was going, and as a result, every note was a constant surprise. The other great thing about hearing this music in a concert? When I first heard the FOTR and TTT soundtracks, I had the track listing sitting in front of me, and I would learn that this track was called “The Black Rider”, or “Lothlorien”, and I would start imagining what was happening on screen. Without this, I could just enjoy the music as pure music, and it was great. There is some great music coming up, and I’m looking forward to it.
The NZSO performed brilliantly, as I expected. They really are a very good orchestra. The choirs were excellent. The soloists were very good, with one exception. My biggest disappointment was with Gollum’s Song. I really love this song, and one of the things I loved about it was the way Emiliana Torrini gave the song an almost alien feel to it. It was quite spectacular, and I adored it. Sadly, the performance tonight was much more as an ordinary song by an ordinary (but very good) singer. It didn’t quite have the twistedness of Gollum that I really felt Ms Torrini brought out. But credit where credit is due, when the same singer sang Into The West, I loved it. Great performance. So I have nothing against that singer. But hopefully, on any CD release, Emiliana Torrini will be used for Gollum’s Song.
Biggest surprise? Viggo Mortensen singing in Movement Six – I think it was a coronation song. No-one was expecting that, and so when the spotlight shone of him, you could hear the surprise and delight in the crowd.
The programme states that Howard Shore will also conduct the symphony in the USA, Europe, Australia and Canada. If you should happen to go to one of these concerts, be careful where you sit. Howard Shore arranged for the inclusion in the presentation of images from either Alan Lee or John Howe (the programme and all publicity state repeatedly Alan Lee, but an insert claims John Howe, so who knows). The images weren’t constantly showing, the screens spent quite a bit of time blank, but the images were frequent. The screens showing these images were behind the orchestra, so sitting where I was in the stalls, I sadly couldn’t really see them – well, I could just see the very top of the screens. So if you go to one of these concerts, try to get a seat on an upper level if possible, to see the images that Mr Shore intends to be part of the experience.
How long was it? I think each movement was approximately 15 minutes long, except for Movement 2, which would have been closer to 30 minutes. The whole thing was probably between 1.45 and 2 hours long.
What pieces were represented in the symphony? From the programme:
Movement One
The Prophecy * Concerning Hobbits * The Shadow of the Past * A Short Cut To Mushrooms * The Old Forest * A Knife in the Dark
Movement Two
Many Meetings * The Ring Goes South * A Journey in the Dark * The Bridge of Khazad-dum * Lothlorien * Gandalf’s Lament * Farewell to Lorien * The Great River * The Breaking of the Fellowship
Movement Three
Foundations of Stone * The Taming of Smeagol * The Riders of Rohan * The Black Gate is Closed * Evenstar * The White Rider * Treebeard * The Forbidden Pool
Movement Four
The Hornburg * Forth Eorlingas * Isengard Unleashed * Gollum’s Song
Movement Five
Hope and Memory * The White Tree * The Steward of Gondor* Cirith Ungol * Anduril
Movement Six
The End of All Things * The Return of the King * The Grey Havens * Into the West
It will probably never happen, but I am really hoping for a DVD release of the Symphony. Imagine it. The music, in DD 5.1 and DTS 5.1, with concert footage of the orchestra performing, along with the video presentation of the paintings (by whichever artist), trying to really create the experience as Howard Shore intended. There will probably be a CD release of the Symphony, but to have a DVD that can retain the visual element, that would be wonderful.
To conclude, it was a great and thrilling evening, better than I could have hoped for. Wonderful. If you get a chance to see another performance of this, take it. You won’t regret it. There are a lot of things planned for Wellington as part of the celebration of the premiere, but I think ultimately tonight will be my favourite.
Posted in:
Share:
Unfortunately this article needed to be removed at the request of Ross Plesset.
Posted in:
Share:
Click to enlarge
John Howe writes: “The Lord of the Rings: From Imagination to Image” will open at the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris in two and a half weeks. The exhibition will run from December 14th 2003 to February 15th 2004, and is composed of 120 concept drawings and paintings by Alan Lee and I from the film trilogy.
I’ve never even set foot in the National Library in Paris, (I’ve always felt much too scruffy and uncultured to even walk past in front of the building) so this is going to be a real treat.
This is also the FIRST time the artwork has been shown in Europe with the exception of the little show at the Geneva Book Fair and the few pieces that are in the show in London. The artwork has been selected to take the viewer from Bag End to the Grey Havens and points between.
Posted in:
Share:
