film and architecture section: Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Peter Jackson, architecture and film appreciation

category: Architecture and Film

film index: 60-62

relationship with architecture:

grandure architecture of the imaginary Middle Earth. The places and the palaces that are designed to portray the character of the countries or persons of the story are also at the same time shows strong homage to the landscape around. combines both beauty and mystcism.

study subject in:

film: Lord of the Rings Trilogy

director: Peter Jackson

writers: Novel: J. R. R. Tolkien, Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair (2nd film only)

production: USA, New Zealand

release: 2001,2002,2003

playtime: 558 min

visual: colour

Language: English

Subtitles:

Genre: Adventure

reference: www.foriegnmoviesddl.com, Avaxhome.ws, Taringa.com, warezws.com

Details and Download:

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy consists of three live action fantasy epic films: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). The trilogy is based on the three-volume book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, the three films follow the hobbit Frodo Baggins as he and a Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, and thus ensure the destruction of its maker, the Dark Lord Sauron. The Fellowship becomes divided and Frodo continues the quest together with his loyal companion Sam and the treacherous Gollum. Meanwhile, the wizard Gandalf and Aragorn, heir in exile to the throne of Gondor, unite and rally the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, who are ultimately victorious in the War of the Ring.

Jackson began storyboarding the trilogy with Christian Rivers in August 1997 and assigned his crew to begin designing Middle-earth at the same time. Jackson hired long-time collaborator Richard Taylor to lead Weta Workshop on five major design elements: armour, weapons, prosthetics/make-up, creatures, and miniatures. In November 1997, famed Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project. Most of the imagery in the films is based on their various illustrations. Grant Major, production designer was charged with the task of converting Lee and Howe's designs into architecture, creating models of the sets, whilst Dan Hennah worked as art director, scouting locations and organizing the building of sets.

Jackson's vision of Middle-earth was described as being "Ray Harryhausen meets David Lean" by Randy Cook. Jackson wanted a gritty realism and historical regard for the fantasy, and attempted to make the world rational and believable. For example, the New Zealand Army helped build Hobbiton months before filming began so the plants could really grow. Creatures were designed to be biologically believable, such as the enormous wings of the fell beast to help it fly. In total, 48,000 pieces of armour, 500 bows, and 10,000 arrows were created by Weta Workshop. They also created many prosthetics, such as 1,800 pairs of Hobbit feet for the lead actors, as well as many ears, noses, and heads for the cast, and around 19,000 costumes were woven and aged. Every prop was specially designed by the Art Department, taking the different scales into account.

The design of the trilogy began in August 1997 with the storyboarding, and in November 1997,famed Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee and John Howe joined the project. Up until then, concept artists had primarily been influenced by Dungeons and Dragons in their designs. Jackson himself wanted a gritty realism and historical regard for the fantasy. Some of their famous images of Bag End, Orthanc, Helm's Deep, the Black Gate, and John Howe's Gandalf and the Balrog made it into the film. The last one inspired the opening of The Two Towers. Jackson sometimes replicated some shots from famous Tolkien illustrations as a nod to fans.

Lee worked on designs for architecture, the first being Helm's Deep, as well as the Elven realms, Moria, Edoras, and Minas Tirith, and although Howe primarily designed armour and the forces of evil (see below), he contributed with Bag End, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol and the Barad-dûr. Lee also applied a personal touch by painted imagery in Rivendell, such as the one of Isildur removing the One Ring from Sauron, as well as tapestries in Edoras. There are real life influences to Middle-earth: Rivendell is "a cross between a Japanese Temple and Frank Lloyd Wright", and Minas Tirith takes influence from Mont-St-Michel, St Michael's Mount and Palatine Chapel in Aachen. The City of the Dead takes after Petra, Jordan, and the Grey Havens were inspired by the paintings of J. M. W. Turner.

Grant Major was charged with the task of converting Lee and Howe's designs into architecture, creating models of the sets, whilst Dan Hennah worked as art director, scouting locations and organizing the building of sets. The army often helped out too, building Hobbiton almost a year before filming to give the impression of real growth and age, and moved 5000 cubic metres of earth, and creating roads to the Edoras location during six months of building, although there was some controversy over their pay. Sometimes sets would be reshaped: the caverns of Isengard became Shelob's Lair, and Helm's Deep became a Minas Tirith backlot. Sets would also occasionally employ forced perspective to save budget too. Despite a large amount of safety involved, there were still fires on a Rohirrim village location and the Morgul Road set, and Alan Lee fell off a Lothlórien miniature. Also, during Bilbo's speech, the polystyrene birthday cake with 111 candles was actually on fire, but everyone kept acting while some of the crew tried to put it out. A similar instance of things occurring that weren't in the script was Ian McKellen knocking his head painfully on a beam inside Bag End, but he kept acting through it.

Architectures to watch:
Hobbiton
Helms Deep
Isengard
castle of the Rohirim
Rivendel
Gondor

Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_film_trilogy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_design_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings_film_trilogy

Details:

Film: The Fellowship of the Ring
release: Dec 19, 2001
playtime: 178 min
Cast: Elijah Wood,Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis
size: 694 mb
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.c0m/title/tt0120737/
WIki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring

Film: The Two Towers

release: Dec 17, 2002
playtime: 179 min
Cast: Elijah Wood,Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Andy Serkis, Bernard Hill
size: 694 mb
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.c0m/title/tt0167261/
WIki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Two_Towers

Film: The Return of the King

release: Dec 16, 2003
playtime: 200 min
Cast: Elijah Wood,Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Andy Serkis, Bernard Hill
size: 694 mb
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.c0m/title/tt0167260/
WIki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Return_of_the_King

pages

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Lord of the Rings Trilogy by Peter Jackson, architecture and film appreciation

0 comments:

Post a Comment

disclaimer