From: The NZ Herald Weta flat out with Lord of The Rings Weta Digital Effects has deployed NetApp…
Continue ReadingFrom: The NZ Herald
Weta flat out with Lord of The Rings
Weta Digital Effects has deployed NetApp F840 Filers with a total of five terabytes of usable storage capacity for use in the making of New Line Cinema’s The Lord of The Rings. Weta says it has already scanned more than a million images for the first of the three films and these are being worked on by its 143 graphic artists. A single frame can take up to 12 megabytes of storage.
Thanks to Ataahua for the tip!
Ringer fan Arvelo sends in these scans from the Brazlian Magazine Veja. For the latest news and information concerning Tolkien and his works, make sure you check out Valinor, our newly redesigned Portuguese community member.
![[ Click for Larger View ]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/070801_veja01_sm.jpg)
![[ Click for Larger View ]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/070801_veja03_sm.jpg)
![[ Click for Larger View ]](http://img-www.theonering.net/images/070801_veja04_sm.jpg){kind=small}
Thanks Arvelo!
From: GALAHAD
I’ ve got great news for Croatian LOTR fans! I just found out from a VERY reliable source that the film will be shown in January, but they don’t know the exact date yet. And, this is where it gets really exciting, there will be a premiere one day before the movie hits the theatres. It is very probable I will be attending it! Wow… If that really happens, I’ll be the luckiest man alive… One more thing, there was a special report in a new Croatian magazine called “Klik!” about the filming.
From: Gothmog
I spotted an article in the UK magazine Now dated July 11th 2001. Their entertainment guide section has a two page spread on TFOTR. It has some ‘slightly misinformed’ text and seven pics in all, including a very nice one of Galadriel in her Swan barge. I think they’ve all been seen before but its nice to see coverage in a popular, ‘none-genre’ magazine that will have a potentially wide readership.
Anyone with scans of the article send them along
The following report came to me by way of a very reliable source that has contributed things in the past that have come proven to be right. It seems that WETA is going to shop out some of the effects work on the trilogy to some other (big and small) special effects houses around the world.
It seems that the entrance of Jim Rygiel as Visual Effects Supervisor for the “Lord of the Rings” changed things a bit more than expected.
In order to keep up with the December deadline for “The Fellowship of the Ring”, it seems WETA Digital has had to farm out a part of the shots they were working on to third party studios. The biggest chunk went to Digital Domain (www.digitaldomain.com), one of the biggest houses in the U.S., known for award winning work like “Titanic”, “Apollo 13” or “The 5th Element” (as an interesting note, Digital Domain was the studio where Mark Stetson – the former VFX supervisor of Lord of the Rings – did most of his recent work).
Also involved now on the movies are Animal Logic (www.animallogic.com), the Australian leading visual effects company, which did ground breaking work for “Matrix” and the recent “Moulin Rouge”, and a lesser known company based in New Zealand, called Oktobor (www.oktobor.co.nz), specialized more in commercial and interactive design, rumored to be doing a couple of key sequences of the movie.
I have been working to get confirmation from all three SFX companies, they’ve all responded to my general inquiries, but I’ve only heard back from ‘Animal Logic’ on this topic so far. Their response was a ‘We cannot comment on this right now’, which is as close to a yes as you can get.
More on this as soon as I can get further confirmation.
Ringer Spy Kimi sends along news from NZ regarding the casting of another character from LOTR.
I heard an interview on National Radio this afternoon with veteran Kiwi actor Martyn Sanderson. In it he mentioned that he has a small role in The Lord of the Rings. He said it involved a couple of days’ filming and only a few lines of dialogue. He didn’t name his character, but said he played a human gatekeeper, and that he worked with the hobbits. This sounds as if he might be Harry Goatleaf, the gatekeeper at Bree.
