Courtesy of Electric Artists, we’re able to bring you this special Behind-the-Scenes sample of the making of Into…
Continue ReadingCourtesy of Electric Artists, we’re able to bring you this special Behind-the-Scenes sample of the making of Into the West, as well as the opportunity to have a listen to the song!
Annie Lennox – Into the West
Annie Lennox – Into the West: Behind the scenes
This video gives a behind the scenes look at the process of creating Into the West.
Ringer Spy nel writes: As you’re probably gonna receive lots of reports about the fantastic RingCon of this weekend, I just want to share with you some elements I very much appreciated. Mind you, there’s some minor spoilers!
Panel with Sala Baker (Sauron):
He spoke from some scenes that were filmed, but cut out and may make it in an hypothetical EE of the Whole trilogy in some years… For example, the Forging of the One Ring was much longer, with Sauron mixing his blood to the gold for the One Ring. Or other scenes in which PJ just gave more details about the characters (Aragorn being from a Line of Kings).
To the topic Wounds, he mentioned that as a stuntman he got many times wounded (broken leg, knie, ankle, fingers). Once he got his head “splitted” from a sword, he had to go to the hospital and get “recut”.
The Armour of Sauron was “amazing” but very heavy (about 50 Pounds, 25/30 Kg) so it was hard for him to move his arm and drink anything: it was very warm under the armour!
About PJ being a very precise director, telling exactly what he wants.
Some spoilers about the EE of TTT and his general impression: the EE feels shorter than the Theatrical Version; because of the details for the characters, it flows much better and its deeper.
On days off, he would hang around and learn much stuff about lighting, blue screens, paintings, Assistant Director etc. One day for example, he found the Treebeard-set so he helped manipulating the walking “animatronix” (or whatever the name is lol): we can see him on the DVD in the blue suits.
Last words about RotK: he plays three characters (orc, orc-lieutenant and didn’t catch the last). But he warned us: “folks, for the RotK-Screening, take lots, lots, lots of tissues”!!
Panel with Nathaniel Lees (Ugluk)
After 4 and a half hour Make-up, it was weird for him to see his face so “ugly-looking”. With the prosthetics (teeth etc) it was impossible for him to speak audible, so all his lines has been made in ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording). His fave line : “Meat back on menu boys!”
His make-up was very hard to wear, very hot: so physically exhausting. He would collapse on chair during the pauses.
Panel with John Leigh (Hama) and Bruce Hopkins (Gamling)
Bruce Hopkins arrived 9 months after shooting began. He knew already John Leigh and they enjoyed working together.
Both re-played the Warg-attack, it was very funny!
The scene where Gamling and Theoden get ready for the battle (speech from Gamling), the sons of Bruce Hopkings are sitting at the entrance of the room, their backs to the camera, as Refugees.
As Bruce Hopkins came on the last week of shooting in Helms Deep, he did no sword-fighting. But he had to learn Horse-riding with John Leigh during two months…this year for the pick-ups (Gamling is in RotK!) he had to ride a horse again, after about two years without any horse-riding: it was very epic for him!
He mentioned the danger in the word-fighting; for exmaple, Theoden (Bernhard Hill) got his earlob wounded by an Uruk-Hai.
Weta-Workshop: Rogier and Carola, the Make-Up Artists
They made a three-hours demonstration of transforming someone into an orc with all the prosthetics and dressing. It was very impressive. One detail: as the orc have black blood, they would give each orcs before almost each take some black melasse (mixture of black jelly) so that mouth, teeth and tongue would look black.
Panel with Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz)
In RotK he plays the Witchking of Angmar, Gothmog and an orc: was weird for him to play his boss and the boss of his boss….Especially in one scene where Witchking and Gothmog have a little chat (…) he would speak one role to a pingpong ball. He’s very excited to see himself on screen: two characters in one scene.
When watching FotR in a theater, at the death of the Balrog and the Cavetroll, all the audience was quite calm. But when Lurtz got killed by Aragorn, all the audience would cheer and Lawrence Makoare would sink into his seat.
He spoke from the enthusiasm of PJ during the filming of the battle-scene of Aragorn-Lurtz: after rehearsing each move many weeks so that they were sure of they movements (Lawrence Makoare had contact-linses so he was pretty much blind), PJ was looking for new ideas. When Aragorn planted his knife in the leg of Lurtz, the idea of LM was to take the knife out, leck it and throw it back to Aragorn. At this, PJ would cheer and enjoy this idea: “yeah!yeah!!!!”
Well, that’s a very short report, just to encourage people to try and get to Bonn for the next edition of the RingCon 2004!
Namarie, nel
Some of the people that attended Ring*Con 2003 last weekend wrote in with their thoughts and highlights about the event. Check out the first batch of reactions here and be sure to keep sending me your thoughts, pictures and other Ring*Con related stuff!
Ringer Spy Frank writes:
I attended RingCon 2003 and I enjoyed it very much. For me a convention is not about panels or huntig autographs but about showing off my costumes and having fun with the other fans. This year I was dressed as Boromir and the reactions were a bit scary. The following are absolutely true: I was asked to “die” four times. Someone wanted me to sign his copy of LotR – as Boromir! So I did. A little girl asked me in a timid voice: “May I touch you?” And finally about a dozen elves or so kissed me. Oh yes, I was interviewd by some people making a documentary for an obscure (editors note: !?! ) website. I’m not sure which one…
This is just a brief glimpse of the fun you can have on a convention. A lot of people complained about the money they had to pay for merchandise or official fotos but I did not spent one single cent and had the time of my life!
Gondowyn had fun as well, although she did not dress up…
I really had an excellent weekend at the Ringcon! I had heard stories before about how well organized their parent-convention Fedcon was and how big an event it would be, but when I arrived on Friday I wasn’t quite prepared for what I got into. At first I felt a bit overwhelmed by the size and diversity. Fortunately the visitors were given lots of information from the start and I soon got adjusted into full Ringcon mode. The fun could begin!
What made it enjoyable for me was that there were lots of other events besides the ‘usual’ panels and signings with actors (which were great too). The Orc make-up session was one of the highlights, as well as being able to chat with Michael & Alan Perry at the games workshop booth and take a look at some of the new ROTK models that will be released in the future. I also had a lot of fun trying out the game itself; alas my noble Minas Tirith warriors were defeated by the Orcs – this time.
The dealers room held some pleasant surprises, although unfortunatley most stuff was in German (well, not so strange when you’re in Germany). There were quite a lot of new items for sale and I managed to buy a copy of the “weapons and warfare of middle-earth” book, which I hadn’t yet seen anywhere before. With all the people in beautifull costumes, I almost felt a little underdressed for the occasion in my jeans. Maybe I’ll try to find something more suitable to wear next year.
It was all just fun fun fun: the activities, the actors, the other visitors, the parties… And my compliments to the staff, who managed to run a tight schedule with only a few minor flaws and still maintain a leisurely atmosphere throughout the event. With the risk of overcrowding: all who have a chance should visit Ringcon 2004!
Ringer Spy Walter also noticed the new Games Workshop miniatures, here’s his thoughts!
First of all ringcon was a fantastic event! I am also a big gamesworkshop fan and to my surprise I saw the newest models standing behind glass, including the new war-trolls and the army of the dead! Here are some of the models! The news was also that the Mumakil will be 9 inches high and there will be an army of haradrim coming! But it will be (next?) november… There will be also a set with the witchking, eowyn and merry!
[Check out Walter’s pictures of the Games Workshop-miniatures on display!]
And once again I missed my wakeup-call and woke up only four hours after some Elf threw us out a hotel room. With the fantastic music from Schelmish still buzzing around in my head we evacuated the room and made our way down to the convention area for the last day of Ring*Con. After wandering around at the autograph-session and the WETA-demonstration for a while it was time to get started on what would take up most of our day: doing fan-interviews for “Ringers”! This was interrupted only because of a short visit to Bruce Hopkins’s panel (I love that guy, really), and an interview with the guy that played pretty much every extra in the movies: Jorn Benzon. By that time however the hangover from the nights before had finally kicked in and I am afraid it got rather silly at one point, but you’ll have to wait and see how silly exactly because I will not tell how it came that we walked around the convention like two Egyptians…
We also caught a glimpse of the joined Sala Baker and Lawrence Makoare-panel which looked like it was a lot of fun and missed out on interesting lectures such as Marcel Bülles’s (one of the co-organisers) Interesting Interpretations of Middle-earth, a workshop about writing Elvish and a lecture about collecting Tolkien. I would have liked to see that as I am somewhat of a collector myself (send me all your stuff so I can collect faster, heheh). Filming was more important however so hopefully she’ll be back next year. Once again we wrapped up before John Rhys-Davies’s panel because there was no point in finding fans anymore as everyone was gathering in the main hall again.
Much like Saturday’s panel John Rhys-Davies enchanted the crowd with his musings about various subjects. And whether he was talking was talking about Galileo (one of his passions), western culture or Star Trek everybody listened intensely. There were some good moments when he talked about how he would give out Orlando Bloom’s phone number to everyone if he would have it and how he sent his stunt double to get tattooed in his place because that is what actors do when they are faced with a dangerous stunt (although that might have been from the Saturday-panel as well, my memory is a bit hazy on that). Over the weekend his panels were without any doubt the most interesting ones to attend which is not to say that the other ones weren’t any good because they were. John Rhys-Davies however speaks in such a way that you are unable to do anything else than listen and reap, if that makes any sense at all. His attendance was a highlight of the convention and the organisers should be congratulated on managing to get him.
After the panel it was time for the closing-ceremony and the end of the convention and much like the opening-ceremony it was great fun. It started of with two people playing one of the card games based on The Lord of the Rings (I am sorry I’m not very good at those things so I can’t tell you which one). While the two guys on stage were playing the game at a table the cards and characters they ‘played’ appeared on stage and followed the actions taken in the game. As if that wasn’t cool enough when the card of Ugluk was played Nathaniel Lees appeared on stage which led to a huge applause! The “evil cards” had no problem taking out the “good ones” and things were starting to look very ill-fated for the forces of good until the winning card was played: the Marc B. Lee one! After doing so Marc appeared on stage and knocked everyone over that stood in his way which led to more cheering and applauding from the audience. I have to say last compared to last years closing ceremony (which was pretty much the same as the opening ceremony at the time) this was a huge improvement and congrats to whomever came up with these ideas!
The act was followed by performances from the Orcs and Eve and the Breeze again and Marcel Bülles handed out some prizes to the winners from the video contest (a very funny clip in which someone edited himself in as Gollum) and the art contest (a miniature Hobbiton-set) but for the highlight of the closing ceremony Bruce Hopkins and someone from Air NZ appeared on stage. In all their kindness Air NZ had given the organisers from Ring*Con a return flight to NZ, five nights in a hotel and two tickets for the world première of The Return of the King on December first which were to be raffled amongst all the visitors of the event. One could hear a pin fall on the floor while Bruce drew the winning number from a huge bowl. And here I am afraid I have to be somewhat critical again. You see my card (the one you need to get into the convention) did not have a number on it, so I was not included in the draw. That’s not fair, I want to go to NZ too, heheh… No in all seriousness, the winner was a young woman that must be very, very happy now because she gets to go to the coolest event in all the history of cool events. I envy you but congratulations anyway!
And then it was time to say goodbye. Goodbye to all the Tolkien-lecturers, collectors and workshop-teachers, goodbye to the Games Workshop-designers, to Colleen Doran, to Rogier and Carola from WETA and of course to all the actors as well. As they appeared on stage on by one they thanked the audience for the good times, for having them here, for asking them all kinds of questions and it all was very sincere. On a special side note: John Leigh had left earlier that morning so he was not there to collect his share of the applause which was there nonetheless. I looked like everyone on stage had been having a great weekend, most of them had said during the weekend that Ring*Con was the best convention they had attended so far (and John Rhys-Davies even said that Ring*Con had the prettiest girls he had seen anywhere, so Orlando Bloom and Elijah Wood should remember that when they get asked for next years Ring*Con) and with guys like Craig Parker, Bruce Hopkins and Sala Baker there (who must’ve seen dozens of conventions by now) that’s probably saying something. And because all things have to end sometime so did Ring*Con 2003 after that.
Now it has been said that the third day is always the saddest one because, well, it is the last one (and everyone is hung-over and therefore not as bright and happy as they are the first few days, but that’s just a personal observation). Fact however is that the report about the third day is always the nicest one to write, because it is the one in which I get to tell you all what my thoughts were on the entire convention, which is exactly what I am going to do now!
I’ve been doing some thinking about it and I guess it boils down to the fact that I just love this convention. I’ve attended a few in my days but none seem to come close to the experiences I’ve had on Ring*Con. This is probably because there is no other convention around (or none that I have attended) that is only about Tolkien and the movies. When you walk around a Comic Con (which I have to admit I have never done, but I can imagine what it is like) or Collectormania you just don’t have the same atmosphere as a LOTR-only convention like Ring*Con. There is a sense of, well, fellowship that everybody has and it reflects on the entire weekend.
There were times when I was sitting up on the balcony and tears would almost come to my eyes. John Rhys-Davies’s standing ovation on Saturday night was one of them but also seeing the trailer of last years Ring*Con on the big screen in the main hall. Whenever the awesome Cameron Rhodes or lovely Sarah MacLeod (these people here!) would appear on screen there’d be a huge applause, even though they weren’t here this year. I’ve said it before but I think it is true; Ring*Con’s audience remembers. I’m not sure how many people attended this year but if they have doubled last years numbers I think that’s because a lot of people that were there last year came back this time around. I guess Gollum says it best in the Extended Edition for The Two Towers: “Once it takes a hold of us, it never lets go.” I know for a fact I’ll be there next year and I haven’t heard anyone all weekend who said they wouldn’t.
Of course I know of some minor flaws that the major part of the audience probably didn’t even noticed and I have tried to find some negative reactions on the Ring*Con message boards but they are all in German so I failed miserably. I don’t think anyone has a lot to complain about. The event was better then last years with the organisation not only learning from their mistakes (All the panels and most of the workshops and lectures were in English this year around, unlike last years Ring*Con and the schedule was clear and only on one or two occasions there were some delays) but also putting up a better show. The guest list was one that fitted the event with a lot of actors that felt right at home at Ring*Con. And as much as I would like to see an Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd or Viggo Mortensen at Ring*Con I do not think they would be hanging out in the hotel bar until 5 in the morning and the fact that these perhaps lesser-known actors like Craig Parker and Sala Baker did is what makes this event as special as it is. There’s no VIP-area where the stars hide all weekend, they are as down to earth as you and I are and that makes them perfect guests for such an event.
I also like the location. The Maritim is a fantastic hotel that might be considered a bit expensive but has an convention area which is perfect for this event. If there were indeed over 3000 people that attended I sure as hell didn’t notice. At times the main area’s were crowded yes, and when they main hall filled out it really filled out but over the whole it wasn’t harder to get around then it was last year. I guess the fact that there is just so much to do plays a huge factor in that observation. Ring*Con is for lack of better words the perfect marriage between the books and the movies. There is always something someone will enjoy whether it is hunting Lawrence Makoare down for an autograph or attending a Hobbit-dance workshop. And because there is, there’s no panel, lecture or workshop that’s not filled with people and no area that appears to be empty.
Of course there are some things that can be done better next year. I would consider tweaking the costume contest slightly and (but this is just a personal grief) I regret there not being enough time to get Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson in front of the camera. In fact there seemed to be too little time for anything, so how about making it a five day event next year, heheh… No in all honesty, I think Ring*Con 2004 has the potential to become even more popular next year if they hold on to the things that really stood out this year (the WETA-demonstrations, the excellent guests and a wide and varied range of lectures workshops) and manage to expand on that. I’d love to see bigger names but I think the ‘smaller’ actors have just an important part in making the event work. And I’d love to see things like WETA Digital-panels or workshops from renowned Tolkien-artists such as John Howe, Ted Nasmith or maybe even Alan Lee.
And after that? Will these guys be able to pull of an event like Ring*Con 2005 or 2006? I’d love to see it happen but they can only do so if we all keep attending and if the guests are still willing to show up. Nowadays it seems like money is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for the stars to show up at events like these and that is (although it is understandable) a pity. Money should not be the only thing. There should be some sort of a willingness to go out there and be amongst the fans, that should be rewarding as well. I’m sure John Rhys-Davies was amazed at the reception he got and it is good pr as well. Ring*Con has it in itself to become great and we can all help it become that. Wow that sounded a lot like something from the Harry Potter-books. Stop talking now leo…
Last but not least I will have to thank a few people, so bear with me. First and foremost of course the organisers: Stefan Servos from Herr-der-Ringe-film.de, Marcel Bülles from the German Tolkien Society and all the folks from FedCon that did an amazing job this year around. Keep up the good work! Marc B. Lee for being an excellent Master of Ceremonies, good buddy and all around nice guy, all the volunteers that worked during the weekend for doing what they were doing (even if that was not letting me up the stairs the first day, heheh), Tore Schmidt (my DP) for not snoring. Michiel/Gimli from TheFellowship for the same reason, the ever excellent Ian Smith for being there to rant and get drunk with, his good friend Reiner for listening to me complain from time to time and basically everyone that bothered talking to me for bothering to talk to me. I had a great time and it just wouldn’t have been the same without all you wonderful people! Hope to see you all back there in 2004!
Rachel writes: Here are the lyrics from Into The West. The only thing I’m unsure of is “Dawn will fade” or “All will fade”
Lay down
your sweet and weary head
Night is falling,
you have come to journey’s end.
Sleep now,
and dream of the ones who came before.
They are calling
from across the distant shore.
Why do weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
all of your fears will pass away,
safe in my arms
you’re only sleeping.
What can you see
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
a pale moon rises —
The ships have come to carry you home.
Dawn will turn
to silver glass
A light on the water
All souls pass.
Hope fades
into the world of night
through shadows falling
out of memory and time.
Don’t say,
“We have come now to the end.”
White shores are calling
you and I will meet again.
And you’ll be here in my arms
Just sleeping.
What can can you see
on the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
a pale moon rises —
The ships have come to carry you home.
And all will turn
to silver glass
A light on the water
Grey ships pass
Into the west.
Gosh the headache… I wake up an hour after my alarm was supposed to go off (which it probably did without me noticing it) only three hours and a bit after I found my bed in the first place. Conventions can be so much fun once you are up, but doing that is probably the worst part of a Ring*Con day. Without so much as a breakfast I wandered around the convention-area for a while before finally settling down at the first WETA-workshop. This was quite a remarkable thing. The Ring*Con organisation had managed to get two entire Orc-costumes, courtesy of Richard Taylor and his WETA-team, and Rogier Samuels and Carola Brockhoff had selected two people who were to be turned into an Orc, one each day. From what I gathered both demonstrations started quite early and lasted a good three hours but were absolutely packed each day! Rogier and Carola did some amazing work of not only applying the makeup and prosthetics to the selected member of the audience in what must be a record-time, they also answered questions and shared some great stories from being on set.
After that it was time to hook up with the amazing John Leigh for a short interview, look for it on TORn Digital in the near future! Another interview with Mark Ferguson did not happen because he had been having too much fun at the hotel bar the night before. It appears Mark Ferguson simply doesn’t want to get interviewed by us because it didn’t happen last year either. In all honesty I have to admit that we missed the rescheduled interview ourselves because the auction Mark was hosting at the time lasted a bit longer than planned. Not getting him on camera is turning out to become some kind of tradition I guess… Anyway, John Leigh turned out to be a more then excellent guy to talk to and made up nicely for the absence of Mark who will just have to miss his few minutes of fame on the site now, heheh…
Saturday was also the day John Rhys-Davies arrived in Bonn and we spent some time talking to him and Nathaniel Lees as well. Once again, look for it on the website in the (hopefully) not so distant future! Still without breakfast we went back to the WETA-demonstration to shoot some footage and general b-roll, something we were at for pretty much the rest of the day. Getting footage of the autograph-session was a very time-consuming but fun thing to do although it made us miss supposedly great things like the Team Pictionary Game hosted by Marc Lee, Colleen Doran’s hour of fame and some other great things. But to be honest there was just too much to do at Ring*Con this year and that is a Good Thing because there was something to everyone’s liking.
Then, as the clock almost reached 5 pm I finally had my very late lunch before being able to sit down for a while during Lawrence Makoare’s panel which for me turned out to be yet another highlight. Lawrence managed to keep the audience interested for almost an hour sharing his stories about working with Christopher Lee, the insane amount of makeup that his roles required, how much fun it was to kill Boromir and much, much more. One of the best bits was where he talked about how the fight scene between Lurtz and Aragorn came to be; it featured some excellent imitations of Viggo Mortensen and Peter Jackson and was pretty interesting as well. It basically came down to PJ listening to a lot of the input from the actors and getting very excited about ideas Lawrence came with such as the scenes where he removes the knife from his leg. Also Viggo Mortensen supposedly wanted to do all kinds of fancy sword moves which swords master Bob Anderson kept shooting down because it was ‘too Elvish’.
Unfortunately there was no rest for the weary (which I guess was my own fault) and we ended up doing another hour-and-a-half of shooting interviews for Ringers. Kudos to the guys from LaGarafa Productions who were gracious enough to let us use their stand (used to promote an upcoming fantasy movie called Kriegerherzen, German Ringers should keep their eyes open for that). While doing so we missed another great comedy-hour with Craig Parker and Mark Ferguson, although in the background we could hear all the noise coming from the main hall, which made missing it even worse, heheh..
We did wrap up before the highlight of the day started though; John Rhys-Davies’s first panel discussion. John’s panel on Saturday was probably the first and only time the entire main hall filled up and when he came on stage and got a standing ovation before he even said a word the roof came down. It was without any doubt a very intense moment to see the man on stage that was close to attending that last year but bowed out because of other commitments. He came back this year though and it looked like the audience remembered and thanked him for it. A great moment.
John Rhys-Davies kept the audience spellbound for a good hour talking about a wide range of subjects. Once he starts talking about something he tends to keep going on and on, but there was noone that really seemed to mind or even dared to interrupt him. And no matter what it was he talked about it was always interesting. Whether it was about his respect for Peter Jackson, his vision on the part of Gimli as a comic relief or his thoughts on the books themselves he had a very clear and sometimes enlightening vision on it and the audience seemed to be hanging on his very words. Sometimes funny, sometimes dead serious he acted like Gimli and Treebeard and informed the audience about the letter he will write to the Academy if they pass on Return of the King next year, even though members are not supposed to do that about movies they are in themselves. There were many more highlights but I simply cannot write it all down, though maybe someone else has by now…
After the panel it was time for the costume contest and here I fear I have to be slightly critical. I have like many others thoroughly enjoyed watching what must be like 70% of the visitors to Ring*Con being dressed up as their favourite characters. I think it is quite cool to do such a thing, although I wouldn’t consider doing it myself (I’m too tall really, I wouldn’t make a believable Hobbit). The costume contest however lasted too long in my opinion and not to mention the fact that some of the best costumes I have seen this weekend weren’t even in it. There was some good stuff, I liked the Elrond/Gil-galad costumes and scene they acted out and the winners (three Orcs and an amazingly looking Ent that adapted the Lumberjack-song for their act) were great as well. But I think it turned out to be more like a talent show which is okay but there would have to be something like a time limit on it I guess. Something to ponder about for the organisers because after all; they also learn from their mistakes.
Learning from our mistakes we did not though, because like the previous night we consumed way too much alcohol on the Saturday night. There was after all a Middle-earth party to attend with fabulous performances by Schelmish, Eve and the Breeze and the belly-dancing talents of Medeena. It is rather safe to say that the hotel lobby was a place that remained crowded until the early hours….
