"The Lord of the Rings" has become one of the most notable film epics of recent times. For fans of the picture, a film was even shot, which told the story of the creation of a film masterpiece.
Location for shooting
Initially, the choice of location - New Zealand - was determined by two factors. First, the film's director, Peter Jackson, was not only born in this country, but also shot several films there at his own studio, Wingnut Films. Thus, filming in New Zealand gave Jackson much more power to make his own decisions than he would have in Hollywood.
Secondly, the choice was determined by the specifics of the film. "The Lord of the Rings" required not only highly professional work of computer graphics specialists, but beautiful, wild natural landscapes. The nature of New Zealand gave the picture an additional flavor: since the shooting of large-budget films in this country takes place infrequently, the landscapes shown in The Lord of the Rings looked fresh and original.
The filming process itself took place both in the pavilions and in the open air. Separate scenes, including battle scenes, were filmed on the territory of New Zealand national parks - in places with specially protected flora and fauna.
After filming in nature reserves, conservationists criticized Peter Jackson for the damage caused to one of the national parks.
Working on the script
Before filming "The Lord of the Rings", it was necessary to prepare a script. It took Peter Jackson over 2 years to work on it. The initial version meant that based on Tolkien's three books, 2 films would be shot, each about 2 hours long. A number of heroes, as well as some storylines, have been removed or reworked. However, at the stage of preparing for filming, it turned out that the initial budget was too small.
The studio Miramax, together with which it was planned to shoot the film, proposed a new version of the script, in which all the events of the three books fit into one film. Jackson opposed this decision and canceled the contract with the studio, which delayed filming for several years. As a result, a compromise was found, but with another studio - New Line Cinema. The final script was even more detailed than the first - Jackson decided to follow the structure of the trilogy, allocating one film for each book.
Filming the picture turned out to be much more expensive than originally planned, but the costs were fully paid off at the box office.
Makeup and special effects
The work of make-up artists gave the film a special realism. Actors playing orcs and gnomes were required to wear custom-made masks. For each scene, the hobbits were made up not only for the face, but also for the legs, since according to the plot they had to walk barefoot.
But the image of Gollum demanded the greatest skill - the actor who played this character was dressed in a special suit with sensors, which later made it possible to accurately copy the movements of a person and give the animated version of Gollum an unprecedented realism.
