Rings | Training 5 | Reference Material & Stories

Master Reference document

 

 

 

Route: Valley first

• Welcome everyone on board, introduce yourself and outline the tour itinerary
• Cover the H & S messages for the tour
• Advise that the drive to the Hutt River/Te Awa Kairangi River for the first location (River Anduin) will take between 20-30 minutes depending on traffic. Before leaving for the Valley circulate the lunch menu and ask people to tell you of their selections at the next stop

 

Driving from the City to Upper Hutt: Introducing Wellington (the Capital of Middle-earth) and Sir Peter Jackson (“Yes he is from here..”)

Wellington – The Capital of Middle-earth

• Welcome to Wellington, the Capital of New Zealand, the most southerly Capital in the world, and the Capital of Middle-earth

 

• ‘Wellington’ is named after Arthur Wellesley the Duke of Wellington. The victor at Waterloo, he never actually stepped foot in the country (or even the Southern Hemisphere). He was far too busy and important to visit the Antipodes. It is a common Colonial convention to name places after prominent people, patrons and sponsors back in the ‘Motherland’. This is what the founder of colonial Wellington – Edwin Gibbon Wakefield - did. He was a right scallywag, selling land that wasn’t his and that kind of thing..

 

• There are two much more interesting Māori names for Wellington. The Māori language (Te Reo) originally was an oral and literal language. Māori names tell you a lot about the geographical features of a place and whakapapa/genealogy of people, their ancestors - where they come from (right back to the original seven mythological waka/canoe that arrived here):

 

• Te Whanganui-a-tara is the first Māori name for Wellington: which means the Great Bay/Harbour of the Chief Tara: Tara was the first resident of Wellington in the 13^th century. Tara was the son of Whatonga, a Chief from the Māhia Peninsula (who arrived in Aotearoa from Hawaiki on the Kurahaupō one of the first great migration canoes), who told his son to travel south, to find more fertile lands to settle.

 

• Te Upoko-o-te-ika-a-Māui: While a bit of a mouthful, this name for Wellington draws directly from Polynesian mythology. Māui the great Polynesian demi-god (think Disney film Moana) is said to have been sitting on his waka (Te Waka -a-Māui/Te Waipounamu/the South Island) and fished the North Island up out of the sea; which if you look at the map of New Zealand, it does look a bit like a stingray upside down – with Wellington being the mouth of the fish). He was said to have done this with his Grandmother’s jawbone – now isn’t that a much cooler origin story for Wellington!

 

• Wellington is only the third Capital of NZ. The first was a small town near Russell called Okiato. The British first set up a capital in the Bay of Islands in Northland for two main reasons:
  • 1) there was a political vacuum: while the British had a presence through Governor Hobson (directed out of NSW, Australia), 13 Māori chiefs had already petitioned King William IV for protection from the French who were threatening annexation of NZ, and also the U.S. had a sizeable whaling and economic interest in the area, so it was only a matter of time before NZ was claimed by a foreign power

 

• 2) civil unrest: at that time, the area around Kororarareka/Russell was considered the ‘Hellhole of the Pacific’. There were all sorts of scallywags up there “rogues, riff raff and drifters” (sailors, whalers, pirates and escaped convicts from Aussie) again causing havoc for the local Māori tribes. So the British set up a temporary capital in 1840, the year the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and then the capital moved to Auckland from 1842 to 1865.

 

• Wellington became the Capital because in the early colonial period most of the population, wealth and power was actually in the South Island (particularly wealthy Scottish merchants in Dunedin – the Edinburgh of the South - who had a made a fortune from the Otago Gold Rush like in California and Australia) – what we refer to as the ‘Mainland’ (slightly larger than the North: 56% vs 44%) . The South Island politicians got sick of the long sailing journey to Auckland when the house was sitting and threatened to set up their own independent nation. So it was agreed that three independent Australian Commissioners would decide where our capital should be located, with the only stipulation being that it had to be somewhere around the Cook Strait (north or south). And so in their wisdom they chose Wellington (over Nelson and Palmerston in the SI) with its large-sheltered harbour and being pretty much in the centre of the country. Wellington’s City’s motto is “Supreme in Situ” (well almost perfect: we are a tad breezy and shaky).

 

• Wellington has a metropolitan population of 220,000 (so more like a large village=Hobbiton, than a large city), and the region/county is made up of four cities totalling 440,000.

 

• Wellington is officially the world’s windiest city (not Chicago). It is naturally windy in Wellington due to our position in the Roaring 40s with the wind swirling down through the Cook Strait and being forced through the relatively narrow strait between the Islands and the towering wall of the Southern Alps. The average wind speed per day is 18 mph (30kph), often gusting up to 60 kph (gale force wind). There is an upside, as Wellington is the least polluted capital city in the world (all the bad stuff blows away). We are also often rated one of the most liveable cities in the world (due to overall safety, education, hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation, political-economic stability, and public transport ratings).

 

• Driving up the highway to the first location offers an opportunity to introduce the group to Peter Jackson’s back story

(Sir) Peter Jackson – back story to a local hero and homegrown film-making genius

 

 

• So let’s talk a little about Peter Jackson – our favourite son. Peter Jackson was born on 31 October 1961 (Halloween) in Pukerua Bay (a small seaside suburb) north of Wellington City. He was from humble beginnings, the only child of Bill (a postmaster) and Joan. At the age of 9 one Friday evening in 1971, he was sitting in the living room with his parents watching the classic black-and-white version of King Kong (1933). And he was “totally swept away on this great adventure”. Quite apart from there being a giant gorilla and dinosaurs, Peter liked that it was quite a simple story, yet loaded with strong, poetic themes: beauty and the beast; love and death. It was pure escapism, yet it created a totally believable fusion between the real and the fantastical, and that really appealed to him. The story is set in the real world, then you throw in giant gorillas and dinosaurs, and you make the leap to the fantastical. This is very important because the fusion of the real and fantastical has always been Peter Jackson’s ultimate goal as a filmmaker: you must believe and connect in order to become involved (this vision is ultimately why LoTR won 17 Academy Awards©! – the first ever ‘fantasy’ movie to win Best Picture)

            

• His other early influences were Thunderbirds (he loved the dramatic story-lines and the incredible handmade models and puppetry) and the epic (1950s-1060s) fantasy movies such as the Seven Voyages of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, both with ground-breaking stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.

 

• So not long after that first King Kong viewing he boldly informed his Mum and Dad that he was going to become a model maker, and later a filmmaker. That same year his Mum and Dad acquired a Super-8 movie camera, which Peter quickly commandeered. The first movie he made was a war movie he acted out with some school friends in his parent’s garden. The camera could only take 4-minute films and Peter put pinholes through each frame to replicate the gun firing – his first special effect!

 

• As well as his interest in special effects Peter has a great – macabre - sense of humour and was a big fan of physical comedy, particularly Buster Keaton. Keaton, was a physical comedy genius, best reflected in his classic movie The General. One of Peter’s favourite Keaton skits was when he is running in the same spot on an oil slick. As a homage to Keaton he replicated the gag in his 1992 movie Braindead, except the protagonist (Tim Balme) was running on the spot on a floor of zombie blood! He was also strongly influenced by Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

 

• Peter became obsessive about making movies and in 1982 he borrowed $2500NZD ($12,000 in today’s money – so, a lot!) from his parents to buy his first second-hand 16mm camera. He started making his first ‘splatter’ movie Bad Taste (at it truly was!). The plotline sees aliens invade the fictional New Zealand fictional village of Kaihoro to harvest humans for their intergalactic fast-food franchise (a loose translation of ‘Kai horo’), where they face off against a four-man paramilitary force. Jackson wrote, produced, starred in and directed the low budget independently movie, as well as created most of the absurdly gory special effects and stunts. His co-stars again were mostly old school friends. He put $25,000 ($70K in today’s money) of his own money into the film, and managed to convince the traditionally conservative NZ Film Commission to put $250,000 towards completing the film. One of the Commissioner’s in particular - the late Jim Booth (who later collaborated directly with Peter on his movies) - saw great potential in him and continued to support this film ‘Rebel’ doing things in a very hand-made kiwi way for a number of productions. An investment that has truly paid off for the New Zealand film (and Tourism) industry.. The movie is now considered a cult classic.

 

• He made two more bizarre movies Meet the Feebles (a grotesque puppet movie) and then Braindead in 1992 (retitled Dead Alive for the American cinema). His movie-making sophistication continued to be moulded through these two movies (with continued investment from the NZ Film Commission). Meet the Feebles is also significant because that was the start of an incredible film-making partnership with Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger. Budding prop/puppet/model makers who had been working on a TV series could Public Image caricaturing politicians and celebrity figures, which was modelled on the UK show Spitting Image. Later they also worked on the cult series Xena Warrior Princess and the Hercules TV series filmed in NZ), which led to the development of Wētā Workshop and Wētā Digital/FX.

 

• It should be noted that Peter was not a complete unknown in Hollywood by the 1990s. After his splatter phase there was some interest in him mainly as a scriptwriter. He was even considered to write a script for the Nightmare on Elms Street franchise, but it didn’t work out at that time. But he was gradually getting on the Hollywood radar (all be it at the fringes)..

            

• Then in 1994 Peter and his life partner Fran Walsh gained significant international attention, including in Hollywood for the stunning ‘Art’ movie Heavenly Creatures (based on a scandalous real-life murder committed by two teenage school-girls in conservative Christchurch in the 1950s). Peter and Fran received their first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay – showing that they were great story-tellers - losing out to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (they later became friends – with a similar sense of humour). Wētā were acknowledged for both the remarkable physical/practical effects and early CGI images. This movie is also notable for introducing the world to a soon to be A list actor in Kate Winslet (Titanic etc), and complete novice actor New Zealander Melanie Lynskey (plucked out of a classroom by Fran Walsh purely because of her look..) has gone on to star in U.S. television. Heavenly Creatures is dedicated to Jim Booth, who died just before the movie was screened at The Venice Film Festival and won the coveted Silver Lion for Best Direction. Peter was on his way..

 

• Then in 1995 Peter finally got a big break from Bob Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) to make a Hollywood financed movie entirely in New Zealand, The Frighteners. It starred big name Michael J Fox. While it didn’t do well at the box office, mainly due to being released at the wrong time of year for a horror-comedy (i.e., Halloween) it did get significant recognition for the special effects. With 500 shots it actually had the most CGI effects of any movie to that point. And all done in New Zealand with only 30 animators!

 

• While directing The Frighteners, Peter also completed another domestic project a ‘mockumentary’ for NZ television, which caused a lot of controversy in hood-winking the New Zealand public. Forgotten Silver was about a famous and long lost and non-existent pioneer New Zealand filmmaker Colin Mackenzie who had revolutionised epic film-making before anyone else (e.g., colour film; allegedly filmed the first powered flight by New Zealander of Richard Pearse before the Wright brothers and so on). Peter was playing on Kiwi’s mythology of being great innovators. Jackson engaged a number of Hollywood heavyweights and local prominent TV personalities to be part of the elaborate ruse, which was played on primetime in a slot usually reserved for serious television – we were all duped!

 

• Peter had been in line to do a remake of the movie that inspired him into film-making King Kong for Universal studios. But timing is everything in Hollywood and when it was known that two other rival studios were putting out giant ape movies, they had cold feet and backed out. This left Peter and Wētā staff in a bind with no projects..

 

• Peter always tried to have a back-up project up his sleeve, and in discussions with his partner Fran had decided that there was a significant gap in the fantasy movie genre. After aborting an attempt at their own sweeping fantasy they decided to find out who had the film rights to the greatest fantasy MYTHOLOGY of them all – Tolkien’s LoTR. In the incredibly complex world of Tolkien film and television rights it turned out that Saul Zaentz, a very successful American movie producer behind One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and later The English Patient had snared most (but importantly and frustratingly not all) of the film rights for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings from United Artists in 1976. They had in turn bought them off Tolkien for the paltry sum of 10,000 pounds in 1968..

 

• Peter and Fran had gone to Harvey Weinstein from Miramax (who was a big fan of Peter and had distributed Heavenly Creatures in the U.S.), who obtained the rights from Saul Zaentz (as they had bailed him out for The English Patient, which went on to be a major commercial and critical success).

 

• Jackson knew it would take multiple films to do Tolkien justice, but initially pitched a single trilogy: starting logically with The Hobbit first (and as a single movie!), thinking that if it was successful, two The Lord of the Rings films could then follow being shot back-to-back. However, The Hobbit option didn’t work out because Miramax could not get the film rights (as they were jointly owned by Zaentz and United Artists). With The Hobbit postponed for a later prequel, Jackson initially pitched the idea of three LoTR films, but Miramax didn't want to take that risk, and agreed on two.

 

• Harvey Weinstein initially agreed to a two-movie total budget of $75 million U.S., which was the company’s biggest ever film budget to that time. They gave Peter $15 million upfront to further develop the script and start pre-production. It quickly became clear to Peter though that $75 million wasn’t going to be enough. He went back to Weinstein and asked for more. Weinstein dug his toes in on the budget and also changed his mind on the two movies and said he now wanted a single two-hour movie! Peter knew he couldn’t do justice to Tolkien’s master work in a single movie.

                                                

• So Peter thought it was all over. However, fortunately someone got into Harvey’s ear and suggested a ‘Turnaround’ deal, where another studio picks-up the project and you get your original investment back. Typically a turnaround deal takes about a year with the complex legal deals. Weinstein gave Jackson four weeks. So Peter quickly flew across to Hollywood with a 30-minute presentation and some models to meet other studios. Most studios weren’t interested: after all this was the unfilmable book and a fairly unknown director. Jackson only had two appointments: one with Paramount and one with New Line Cinema. Paramount respectfully passed. In what was an incredibly bold move from Jackson (which ultimately demonstrated his incredible business acumen in addition to his creative genius), he contacted New Line and asked to put their meeting back by a day – making out there was so much interest in the project! – this could have backfired badly.. But New Line agreed.

 

 

 

• As it happened, Peter had a significant ally within New Line Cinema (A ‘Horse of Troy’). A young rising star called Mark Ordesky, who was something of an unusual Hollywood film nerd because he absolutely loved two things: 1) Peter Jackson’s early Splatter movies and 2) Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. So he helped keep New Line on the line..

 

• The meeting between Peter and the CEO Bob Shaye is now the stuff of Hollywood legend. Shaye was known for walking out on pitches after two minutes if he wasn’t interested. So he politely sat there for the 30-minute presentation, never uttering a word and with a complete poker face. Then famously at the end he reputedly asked Peter one question: ‘Peter why are you only making two movies, when there are three books”.. And then the mind-bending next sentence “how about you make me three movies, given there are three books”. This is considered one of the greatest calculated risks in Hollywood history. But Shaye could see the potential if the first movie was a success.. two more years of significant income flow. And he was right. It was also one of the best investments in movie history: at a return of $10 to $1 ($280 million U.S. production budget and $3 billion U.S. at the box office + another billion in DVDs).

 

• Because Miramax was the original backer, this is why the Weinsteins’ are listed as Executive Producers (as part of the Turnaround deal). However, Peter got one back on Harvey by creating an Orc in his image in the LoTR.

• Location 1: River Anduin (Poet’s Corner – Upper Hutt) [If anyone knows why it is called ‘Poet’s Corner’ please let me know – I can’t find it anywhere..]

   

   

  • [Photo 1] Explain that a total of five rivers were used for the River Anduin scenes seamlessly spliced together as the one river in the editing process [show the photo of the various rivers]. For the dramatic helicopter shots several South Island rivers were used, including the Waiau and Kawerau rivers. Stunt doubles were used in some of these fast-flowing, more dangerous rivers. But when it came to the close ups of the main ensemble cast, they came right here to this shallow river. If Sean Bean falls out of his boat he is not going to drown..

   

  • While the aerial shots also depict gorge-like rivers, as characterised by Tolkien, [Photo 2] you can get away with a single side of the gorge for these side-on close-ups.

   

  • On first view this seems like a fairly random and benign location for LoTR, right by the state highway. However, looking at it from the perspective of a location scout film locations are often chosen for two reasons:

   

  • 1) obviously the look matching in this case Tolkien’s vivid descriptions; but also just as importantly

   

  • 2) logistical/pragmatic considerations (access, safety etc). You can see that usually the river is very shallow (you can see the bottom) and flows quite gently. Of course things can change quickly, as the river comes out of the mountains to the north, and can swell up in a storm (see the stop banks/dikes across the highway).

   

  • Now of the many enormous challenges in the LoTR, one of the most obvious is scale with all the different sized characters. [Show photo 3/4] Peter Jackson and Wētā overcame this challenge with a mixture of classic forced perspective film techniques and an exhausting array of different sized sets and props. We have an example here of three different sized hand-made Elven boats, depending on who was being filmed with whom (small, medium and large). [Show photo 3] If we look closely at this picture we see that they are not real Hobbits, they are mannequins.. if you look closely at some of the sweeping aerial shots the mannequins move with the elven boats, as they are attached! [Photo 5] To aid the scaling process this guy ‘Tall Paul’ – a 7ft local helped out (he became a cop in 2005, after filming). You only saw his midriff alongside the real hobbit actors. So he was Gandalf, Boromir, Aragorn, and he didn’t like to talk about it, but also occasionally Galadriel..

   

  • [Close-up photos] Now these are the primary shots that were filmed here. Here is handsome himself - Orlando - looking suitably concerned that he is being chased by this Lurtz [Photo 10: Lurtz], however he is probably concerned about a dodgy passing manoeuvre on the highway over there. And then we have Sean Bean [Photo 11], actually rowing up the river to provide a bit more variety to the shot. And then Aragorn [Photo 12], taken looking up the river with a wider angle. And this is where we see a tiny blooper (see the power pylon on the hill).. that was visible for a second, so Peter didn’t bother taking it out during editing.

   

  • [Photo Sean Bean, Lesnie, PJ] This is one of our favourite behind the scenes shots. If you recall the scenes on the river, they are quite gritty and dynamic, and you feel you are on the elven boats with the Fellowship. And this is why. That is the late great Australian cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (who won an Academy Award for the final movie in the trilogy). He is using a Steadicam and this ‘in your face’ action filming was perfected by the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. We also have Peter Jackson himself with the viewfinder. Now what is actually happening here is that while the great Sean Bean was very handy with a sword and riding horses, it turned out who couldn’t row an elven boat. So there is actually someone in scuba gear lying prone on the river bed keeping the boat sufficiently stable to achieve the shot. Sean looks a bit sheepish, and that is why. Just another little example of the many challenges the great director and his crew had to overcome with a bit of Kiwi ingenuity. Peter Jackson referred to the whole project as ‘one giant exercise in problem-solving. For every problem, there must be a solution’..

   

  • And here is where the Fellowship was heading [final photo] through the Argonath to Amon Hen, where the Fellowship is ultimately broken. The actual height of the Argonath is not explicitly stated in Tolkien's works, but they are described as being "huge" and "towering". Based on the descriptions in the books and illustrations, it is commonly believed that the statues were 700 feet tall, making them an impressive and imposing sight for travellers passing through the Anduin.

   

  • In PJ’s adaptation the Argonath were depicted as being approximately 120 feet (nearly 40 meters) tall. This height was chosen to visually convey the grandeur and majesty of the statues while also being practical for filming purposes. The actual models were about 8 feet tall. The Argonath models were one of over 70 Miniatures and Bigatures.

  Location 2: Isengard (Harcourt’s Park)

   

   

  After parking in the main carpark direct the group to the northern footpath through the bush. When the path opens out walk towards the edge of the grass bank overlooking the meadow.

   

  • The first thing of interest is the stones below us in the grass. They are very similar to the river stones at our previous location – at the River Anduin. This is because we are standing on what was the original river bed in the 15^th So here is a great example of the dynamic power of nature, where earthquakes have lifted the river bed up in terraces and changed the course of the river, which now runs to the north west of us.

   

  • [Photo 1] So you will likely recall Gandalf galloping across Middle-earth towards Isengard. This spectacular basin surrounded by mountains was in the South Island near Glenorchy. With the Orthanc tower added in. The largest of the Bigatures constructed. At 22 feet tall it had to be laid on its side for the close-up filming. However, when Gandalf bursts through the gate wall he did so right on this meadow. Well not Sir Ian McKellen (he never rode a horse during filming), but his riding double. You can see the tree there behind the path and fence that was constructed. And there is the round tree just as it was then (an evergreen) and the Poplar. Now the curious thing about this shot is that it has been flipped around. The reason for this is because Peter Jackson is both a student of film and theatre and quite superstitious. Going back to the original Greek Tragedies/plays the evil characters always entered the stage from the left.. so you can’t have the personification of all that is good – aka Gandalf enter from the left; hence the shot was flipped around.

   

  • The next question you may have is, how did they create the massive wall and gateway? [Show Photo xx]. Well that was old fashioned film trickery through forced perspective. The model was in the middle of the meadow and filmed with the live action also in the frame. Remarkable isn’t it. And then later on of course they added in some CGI at the edges and photoshopped in the grand mountains of the south island.

   

  • The next important scene is when Gandalf comes to a screeching halt in front of the Orthanc tower and Saruman the White, the leader of their Order walks down to greet him was also filmed in this meadow. See the blue screen. The final bit where Sir Christopher Lee actually walks down the stairs was filmed in Stone Street studios.

   

  • If we now walk back up the bank to the smaller flat area by the garden we have another very important scene that starts to mark a turning point in the first movie, where Gandalf starts to wonder about Saruman’s motives. And of course the next scene must be the greatest old man fighting sequence in the history of movies!

   

  • The pebble path was not here originally, it is a new addition. [Photo xx]. You can see this is the location as this conical tree is in the picture frame, but is much larger nearly a quarter of a century on. One of the challenges with New Zealand’s outdoors in representing Middle-earth England is the predominate palette of greens. So to add a bit of English country garden colour the brought in a couple of potted plants from a garden centre. And if we look closely at the photo we notice that actually it is a ‘cut and paste’ job with the same trees replicated to add a sense of depth.

   

  • We also have quite a cool behind the scenes shot here [photo xx]. The three wizards: Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White, and Peter the Pink. Although while he is certainly a wizard of a film maker he looks more like a hobbit. All three became Knights of the Realm too. Sir Christopher Lee was one of the tallest leading men in film at 6 ft 5 inches.

   

  • This is when I talk about the setting up of a shot – looking at lighting, sound etc. Then, if you have extras, they will come in and do a couple of rehearsals, followed by the actual takes. Multiple takes due to wide-shot, close-shot, half-shot, head-shot, reverse angle (all depending on the scene of course).

   

  Rivendell (Kaitoke Regional Park)

   

  On turning off the main road towards Rivendell point out the official Rivendell sign. This offers an opportunity to talk about the small number of official LoTR signs in NZ. Only one in the South Island (Edoras/Mt Sunday) and the three in the North (two in Wellington that we see today) and the Hobbiton movie set. Can talk about the provenance of the sign, with the Park Ranger wanting to look after lost LoTR pilgrims. There are a range of stories about how the sign was given approval eventually by the Tolkien Estate.

  On driving into the valley it is a great opportunity to bring in a conservation theme (what we had/what we have lost/what we are trying to restore):

   

  Nau Mai ki Kaitoke. Kaitoke means ‘to eat worms’/’worm food’ which could be because there were only worms to eat (unlikely looking at the location) or worms were a good source of food/bait. This beautiful native forest is 7000 acres and is an endemic Temperate rain forest, one of few remaining in the world. There are some in the U.S., South America and Australia, but that is about it.. Unfortunately this area was heavily logged to create the surrounding farms. Once it would have been lush and thick forest, as you are about to see. Notice especially the large trees that pop out through the canopy, above the others in the valley. These are ancient podocarps, mainly Rimu and Northern Rātā, some are over 1000 years old.

   

  • So this is why it is always very special to drive towards that valley over there – for quite apart from the LoTR, it is like driving back in time to the way Aotearoa New Zealand was before human beings arrived here. Aotearoa was astonishingly unique, as Zealandia the continent that we sit within split away from Gondwana the southern super-continent that contained Antarctica, South America, South Africa and Australia about 65 million years ago and went out on its lonesome like an ecological life raft into the Pacific Ocean on its own. When it did so, an incredible thing happened.. we had no land mammals on board (only NZ fur seals and an unusual ground-dwelling bat). This led to Aotearoa becoming the Land of Birds, which evolved in strange and unusual ways. Many growing very large, and flightless, as there were very few natural predators, so they could roam around on the forest floor. Birds took up the roles of mammals with the giant moa, the world’s largest flightless bird becoming the main browser. When humans arrived – the Polynesians – in the 13^th century they brought the first exotic predators (the Pacific rat [kiore] and dog [kurī]), which started to predate on the native wildlife. They hunted the moa to extinction, also leading to the extinction of the world’s largest eagle (the Haast eagle/Pouākai). The Haast eagle were probably gone by the 16^th century [although, note, pouākai were only in the South Is].

   

  • When Polynesians arrived here 85% of the country was covered in virgin forest like what we see before us.. by the time Europeans arrived after Captain Cook in the late 18^th century the forests had already been reduced to only 55%. But the arrival of European settlers in huge numbers over the last 200 years have reduced the forest cover to only 20% of the country. So while NZ was the last large land mass to be inhabited by humans (next to Antarctica) it has had the most radical change to its landscape and wildlife of any country in the shortest amount of time. The most remarkable statistic at the national museum Te Papa is that half of the total land area of NZ (that is 30 million hectares) was converted into grasslands in one person’s lifetime – just 80 years. When you think about Tolkien’s English countryside of the shire that was sculpted by human hands over thousands of years since the Bronze Age – we did it in less than 100! In the process humans introduced 50 predators and wiped out 50 native species of birds. Among the most devastating was the possum from Australia, which took a great liking to not only the birds but the flora. At one point New Zealand had 70 million possums.

   

  • Wellington city has become a leading city globally in trying to eliminate predators and encourage our native wildlife back. The catalyst being the urban-based eco sanctuary Zealandia, which is highly recommended to visit if you have the time. We will have an opportunity to talk more about conservation and New Zealand’s unique flora and fauna shortly when we take a short walk in the ancient forest. But first to another great Sanctuary – Rivendell: The Last Homely House!

   

  After parking the bus note that there are toilet facilities and tell the group you are heading across the concrete bridge to the left.

   

  • As you walk across the bridge into Rivendell, on your right is where we filmed Eomer looking for Theodred’s body at the start of extended Two Towers. The scene was large and actually filmed just round the corner under the swing bridge over there. Again we see the incredible attention to realism and detail. Full size fibreglass horses were constructed for the scene by Weta Workshop. How long was the scene? Just a few seconds..

   

  • One of our colleagues was an extra for this scene and recalls it being his toughest day of filming: “WE were lying in the river, in the middle of winter, while it was raining, but also with the rain tower operating. We had wetsuits on and hot water bottles stuffed in everywhere they could go. Shivering like anything and then when they call ‘action’, we had to lie as dead and still as possible. We’d do a couple of takes, then warm up under the heater, then a couple more takes etc. A tough, tough half a day (but still fun in its way) … and then the movie came out and it wasn’t in it!”

   

  • Stop by the first Elven post and note that outside of Hobbiton Movie Set Rivendell is the only LoTR location with some significant physical reminders of what was filmed here – so it is a special treat. You can ask the group how their High Elvish is.. and then say that they can cheat, as the translation is on the side (‘Come walk this path to Rivendell). [Elvish pronunciation is also in smaller letters under the Elvish script if you want to cheat. Or if you want to say it in Māori (which sounds Elvish) it’s “Nau mai, hikoi mai tēnei ara ki Rivendell”.] Tolkien was of course a Professor of language at Oxford University in England. So the languages he has created are all based on real ones. Like two Elvish languages spoken in the film are based on Welsh and Finnish. He then fleshes out these new cultures and weaves stories around them in incredible detail.

   

  • On entering the open meadow show [Photo xx] which provides an aerial view of the layout of the location/set. This aerial shot shows how logistically the location was perfect for filming. The filmmakers were able to commandeer this one small part of the Regional Park and keep the majority of it open to the general public. The bridge could be secured and locked off from the rest of the Park, and a great access road for all the film equipment and movements. In this meadow to the right they had the catering, make-up and actors’ caravans.

   

  • To the left you see the large green structure. This was a nursery, not something normally associated with movies. Peter Jackson was given permission to remove the low shrubs and ferns to create an open film location among the tall trees. This is a remarkable example of how different New Zealand agencies got in behind the project. The nursery housed up to 10,000 plants, which had round-the-clock care for 12 months until they were returned to the GPS location each plant was removed from.

   

  • Walking towards the loop track point out the next Elven post, which includes pictures and text introducing the set. The image of a fresh-faced Peter Jackson reminds us of what an incredible coup it was for a relatively unknown 38-year-old Kiwi director to be given the biggest budget in film history to that point to create the most complex live action trilogy ever dreamed up - based on one of the most beloved books of the 20^th

   

  • Moving on to the next post there is a larger interactive post with the sizes of the different members of the Fellowship. The interesting point to note is that while the graphic has the actors from the movie trilogy, the heights are actually from the books. The first point to note is that with all of the scale headaches that PJ had filming the Fellowship together by sheer luck it was possible to film the hobbits with Gimli without any size manipulation. This is because funnily enough John Rhy Davies was the tallest member of the Fellowship cast at 6ft 2. Therefore, the perfect height differential between the hobbits (who were all around 5ft 6). Tolkien actually represented Gandalf as short at only 5 ft 6 inches, while Sir Ian McKellen is 5 ft 11. Peter Jackson left Gandalf as a regular height character. With Legolas Orlando was pretty close also at 5.11 (Tolkien had him at 6 ft). According to Tolkien Aragorn was the tallest at 6 ft 6, while Viggo is also 5 ft 11. Lastly, looking at Sauron he is 9ft tall. This is pretty close to Tolkien’s description. It is suggested in Tolkien lore that as Sauron became more powerful he got taller (possibly even 12 feet tall). And of course the way Peter Jackson presents Sauron in the epic prologue he looked to be 14 or 15 ft tall, towering above all others. PJ also did this with the Balrog. The Balrog is not described in detail by Tolkien but was thought to be in size ‘like a tall man’ However, Peter Jackson presents the Balrog as a massive demon as he steps onto the Bridge of Khazad-dum and draws up to his full height. A curious aspect of the graphic is the ‘cat’s eyes’ of Sauron. Of course you never saw his eyes, which much like the Ringwraiths and Dementors is much scarier looking into the infinite dark depths..

   

   

   

  • Before filming started on the trilogy Peter Jackson did a pep talk to the cast and crew. He wanted everyone to be clear on his approach to the movies. He didn’t want people to think of the trilogy as a fantasy, but rather the recreation of a mythology set in a long-forgotten - but real – world. It was like someone had gone into the basement of the British Library and dusted off some ancient texts of this earlier time (much as Gandalf does when he goes to Minas Tirith to research the origins of The One Ring). So we have re-discovered old Middle-earth ruins and brought them back to life for the filming. This is Peter Jackson’s signature approach of setting fantasy within a real-world context. So Middle-earth was going to be actually physically rebuilt and this was going to deliver a much more authentic engaging movie experience, firstly for the cast and crew and ultimately the film-going audiences.

   

  • [Show Photos of different interpretations of Rivendell, and Alan Lee’s depiction] Peter had a huge advantage when recreating Middle-earth because not only did he have Tolkien’s incredible vivid story, illustrations, and appendices detailing Middle-earth as a ‘true mythology – once you are in that world it is real, but he had thousands of artistic interpretations of Middle-earth over the past 45 years since the books were published.

   

  • When it came to the look and feel of Rivendell he ended up choosing the art of the great Alan Lee. Alan was a British artist, who was the first ever to be asked to create illustrations for the 1991 illustrated edition of the LoTR approved by the Tolkien family (not using J.R.R. Tolkien’s own illustrations). So Peter Jackson always had Alan’s vision for Middle-earth in his head from his own well-leafed copy from when he first read the trilogy as an 18-year-old. In a great coup for the movies Peter was able to entice not only Alan Lee, but another great Middle-earth illustrator John Howe from Canada to come to Wellington to lead the conceptual art for the project. They stayed for six years, and returned for the Hobbit trilogy.
    • In terms of how J.R.R. Tolkien came up with the idea of this beautiful hidden haven stuck in a permanent autumn (Fall), symbolising that the golden age of the Elves in Middle Earth was coming to an end – comes from a walking tour he did in Switzerland. He went to the Lauterbrunnen Valley: “a deep valley of seventy-two waterfalls, which reveals itself in its greatest splendour after a heavy rain when the sky clears up, the waterfalls tumble over the rock faces on all sides, and when the Jungfrau (mountain; meaning ‘virgin’ or ‘maiden’) glistens high above the valley in her eternal white.”

  • Moving next to the helpful map provides a great opportunity to orient the group to the layout of the set.

    • You can see that a lot of set was constructed in the relatively small area (with the low scrub/ferns removed to create open space). A full-size version of Lord Elrond’s house was constructed here. If you look down to the map you can see we are at the corner of his home now. If it was only the outside, the production would have to move to Wellington and build a separate internal set for filming. By having it all here for the acting shows the magic of this place. [Query here Team: I actually thought that while the exterior of Lord Elrond’s house was built here, the internal scenes for the acting with Elrond, the Shards of Narsil (Aragorn & Boromir scene), and of course the Council of Elrond were all filmed in the internal sets constructed at Stone Street - which were connected to the ‘Kissing Bridge’ scene/set.. Happy to be corrected..]

     

    • Looking down the path here we see a little tree stump. This is the perspective for a wonderful scene where after waking up and being reunited with his fellow hobbits Frodo glances past them and see Bilbo sitting on a bench. He has naturally aged with the Ring no longer keeping him young. This scene was filmed in the early morning light and Peter Jackson commented on how he loved how the silhouette of light shone through Bilbo’s hair.

     

    Move now to the small clearing opposite the Kissing Bridge’ scene 

     

    • On the inside of the temple we have a U-shaped long guard bridge, where Gandalf and Elrond share a scene. The detail on this bridge is remarkable. Also you might notice a subtle detail where Peter Jackson is trying to connect directly with the real hardcore Tolkien fans. When the movies were being made, many people were very sceptical about ANYONE - let alone a fairly unknown New Zealand (where?) splatter movie director - touching one of the most treasured books in literature. So we see here the white swans. Now to 95% of the film-going public (who haven’t read the books) they just look nice. But to the serious Tolkien fans they know that the white swans are the emblem of the Elves. So when they see details like this Peter is starting to win them over – this guy knows his Tolkien..

     

    • There was a gazebo there with a pump for the man-made waterfall that was behind you. Turning around now. This is where Peter and Wētā Workshop attempted something pretty ambitious. They tried to build the Kissing Bridge as depicted in this beautiful romantic painting by Alan Lee. This is an important scene symbolically, as it stands for the ultimately doomed love of Arwen and Aragorn – an immortal Elve and a mortal man. It also helped build up Arwen’s character more in the trilogy (she only really has a bit part in Tolkien’s books). And this theme is also tapping into Tolkien’s much older tale of Luthien and Beren. So this was an important scene to get right.. Now Peter came out to see the set and unfortunately he was underwhelmed. The bridge and waterfall weren’t large enough for what he had envisioned. It wasn’t possible to go larger without damaging the forest, so he asked Wētā Workshop to re-build the set in Stone Street studios [show photo of internal set].

     

    • You can see this is an internal set with the studio windows. Now the waterfall is finally up to Peter’s high standards, and three romantic scenes were filmed here between Arwen and Aragorn across the trilogy. This set also included the location for the Council of Elrond (outside Elrond’s house) and you can see the bridge in the background of the Council of Elrond scenes. The set was so impressive that apparently the crew would often find Sir Ian McKellen having his coffee-break in the set, he loved it so much.

     

     

    Move to Frodo’s/Bilbo’s bedroom scene.

    • One of the most remarkable sets and live action filming here in this beautiful forest are the scenes of Frodo awakening after being stabbed with the Morgul blade, meeting Elrond, reuniting with Gandalf, the hobbits and Bilbo. Frodo was brought to Rivendell because he can only be healed by the powerful Lord Elrond. Can anybody tell me why? I have prizes, remember? Yes he wears a ring… the blue stone Elvish ring one of three.

     

    • The beautiful bed was against the big tree behind me [point to photo] where this bed was, and the thinner one is the corner of the bedroom [Note: I state that the thinner one is cleverly hidden by the arches in the room]. This camera perspective made the most of the extensive set in the background, adding authentic depth to the scenes. Somewhere in the USA somebody demanded to buy Frodo's elvish bed. So it was sold for 2 million dollars With an order not to publish pictures for the same reason you couldn't take photos in Wētā. [Query: I have always wondered about this.. is it true guys? I have never found any mention of this on the Interweb, and why would New Line cinema allow such a prop to be sold?]. Another iconic scene filmed here is when Frodo is given Sting and the Mithril vest by Bilbo. Now what is the scariest scene in the whole trilogy? It’s not the Orcs, or the Balrog, or Shelob.. it is one of the great ‘jump-scares’ when Bilbo sees the Ring pop out from Frodo’s neck and askes if he could hold it one last time.. Frodo covers up the Ring and Bilbo suddenly reaches out for it and his face is transformed into a grotesque ‘Gollumesque’ vision, and then he retreats in regret.. “I am sorry: sorry you have come in for this burden, sorry about everything”. At the end of filming Peter Jackson gave all of the principal cast a special gift. When it came to Bilbo, he was given a mask of his contorted face in this scene, Sir Ian Holm loved it so much.

     

    • The next scene filmed here, one of the most beautiful of the first movie is the stunning image of Frodo standing on a balcony with Rivendell in all its grandeur in the background. This sublime image captures the incredible skill of the filmmakers to integrate live action with models, sweeping backdrops and CGI to fuse it all together. It took a long time to put together. The three parts are: (1) [Photo of the balcony/Frodo] the balcony beside the bedroom here as it would be (with a blue screen behind us); (2) then a team was sent all the way down to Fiordland to film the Bowen waterfalls and have them duplicated along the valley sides and (3) the last element is [turn to miniature photos] the miniature complete temple where you can see Sir Richard Taylor standing in the middle of his work. Wow.

     

                  

    Move to Legolas’ tree

    • It might sound a bit odd, but as the production neared the release date for the first movie, they realised that they had a serious lack of promo photos. I guess they did have a lot to do.. So Peter called up Orlando Bloom who was over in Australia filming Pirates of the Caribbean. And he said would you mind doing us a favour and popping over one free weekend for some promotional poster shots. He said sure, and when he arrived at Wellington airport Peter asked him where he would like to take the photos. Well naturally Legolas, who had lived in Rivendell said let’s go to beautiful Kaitoke Regional Park. So who wants to pose as old handsome himself?

    The Gate of Rivendell

    • And finally folks we have left the best for last! This is a real treat, as outside of the Hobbiton movie set this is the only other physical reminder of the incredible sets that popped up all over New Zealand to recreate Middle-earth. Now the staggering thing about this structure is that it is only half the size of the original built for the LoTR. And that one had a thirty-foot tower on top of it! This one was built for us by the Wētā Workshop team after the Hobbit trilogy. So while it looks like it has been here for a thousand years, it is actually only a decade old. But it proves the extraordinary skill of the Wētā artists. This was not prefabricated and brought here on a truck. It was built on site. It is hollow with a wooden frame and made out of cheap materials, such as fluorescent coloured pool noodles (see the hole there). The Wētā companies have about 50 patents for film-making technologies they have invented from scratch (our ‘Number 8 fence wire’ approach to film-making). This is one of them. The external render is a kind of light-fast drying concrete material that was sculpted on site as it started to dry. Pretty authentic right?

     

    • The scenes filmed right here are symbolically very important to the first movie, as firstly you had the members of the Fellowship arrive in dribs and drabs (Aragorn and the Hobbits; Legolas, Gimli, Boromir and Gandalf). Peter Jackson also demonstrated his literal directing skill by not showing the cast members like Orlando, John-Rhy Davies and most notably Sean Bean the location prior to their arrival through the gate. So the wonderful reactions of awe you see on their faces were real on arriving at Rivendell: with the actors thinking ‘what you managed to actually build Rivendell in a rain forest?! Bonkers!’ In fact one of the funny stories about this natural reaction was that Sean Bean turned to go back through the gate with his horse to do another take (as the cast were used to Peter’s multiple takes - often 30 or more: ‘How about one more for good luck eh?’), that he could not believe it when Peter said ‘No, I got it first time!’..

     

    • And so the final important symbolic moment at Rivendell of course is when they are brought together through the Council of Elrond to form the Fellowship and they get the big ‘pep talk’ from Lord Elrond: “So be it! You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring!”.. which is then followed by one of the greatest one-liners in the entire Trilogy when Pippin says “Great! Where are we going?”.. So it is quite wonderful to think that the entire Fellowship ensemble cast plus Elrond and Arwen were all right here as the Fellowship departs on their epic quest (in a real forest just an hour from downtown Wellington city).

     

    • Show photo [of the whole Fellowship group]. And this is a very rare image because you have the entire Fellowship of actors in the one shot, which usually was not possible of course due to all the scale issues. So how this achieved? [point to smaller image]. This image is actually really a composite: The top half showing the whole fellowship together for the only time with the real actors as they are standing still, but the bottom half has been altered. Notice Elrond’s hand (filmed from an elevated position over his shoulder) has become a bit blurry in order to put the little feet and hands of our smaller fellowship members in, who are actually really kneeling down. This was something the hobbit actors complained about a bit. Only 40% of the time they were wearing the hobbit feet were the feet actually filmed. So Billy Boyd said why did we have to get the jolly hobbit feet on early each morning.. we could have slept in.. but of course you know the reason why.. as far as Peter Jackson was concerned, if you had your hobbit feet on – you WERE a hobbit, making it easier to get in character.

     

    • And lastly, does anyone remember which way Gandalf directs Frodo, as he does not which is the way to Mordor.. YES, Left.. that is where evil resides after all..

    • As we have enough time and if you’re comfortable walking over a swing bridge over there it is well worth having a short walk in the more ancient podocarp forest. As we said earlier which has just been upgraded. We will go across the swing bridge and explore a small part of the Forest for an up-close view of New Zealand’s unique forests.

      • As we arrive at the middle of the swing bridge we get a perspective on how two rivers converge before us: Te Awa Kairangi (‘the esteemed/special river’ (although kairangi itself is probably derivative of there being lots of birds to eat – hence a special place)/Hutt River) and the Pakuratahi river (pākura is a synonym for pūkeko (swamp hen) in Te Reo Māori. Pākuratahi means ‘first swamp hen’). We're going to walk up a very short loop track. As we do notice the great many types of ferns we are so famous for. 

       

      • Due to our relative isolation from continental landmasses, New Zealand has a high level of endemic biodiversity with an estimated 80,000 species of native animals, plants and fungi (by contrast, the United Kingdom has two). Above us you can clearly see how a rain forest is different from others. With many epiphytic plants growing on each tree preventing sunlight from coming down to the forest floor. Which would harm some ground plants like types of ferns. Once a tree does fall and die this is how the forest gets energy. The thick decaying leaves and trees nourishing the soil underneath. [show rotting tree trunk] This trunk had fungus, mushrooms and bugs on like Huhu grubs, which eat the soft rotten wood. These are commonly eaten, as provide a scrumptious protein-rich meal, especially if you are lost in the forest.

       

       

       

      • For a marine temperate (cool) climate Aotearoa New Zealand also has an unusually high number of fern species. 200 species in total with 40% being entirely native. We have some of the smallest and largest ferns in the world (the Mamaku/Black Fern which soars to 20 metres/60 feet). [stop by tall silver fern] And here is the most famous fern of all: the Ponga Silver Fern. The silver fern has been accepted as a symbol of New Zealand's national identity since the 1880s. To Māori, the elegant (elven-like) shape of the fronds represented strength, stubborn resistance, and enduring power. The fern has become the symbol of our national identity in the world – reflecting our sense of attachment to our homeland. It became synonymous with New Zealand from the Boer War (1888-1892) and famously gained prominence in the 1905 All Blacks (‘Originals’) tour of Great Britain. The Ponga had a great practical use for Māori in the forest Māori were experts in living in the forest. If you look around, what colour do you see? Green but this bright fern can be used for nighttime navigation. You can also eat the Koru shaped new growth before it unfurls by boiling it twice to remove the hair, if you were lost in the bush. By placing small sections of fern silver side up under the moonlight it can be seen.  

       

      • Aotearoa’s native forests also have a great variety of different species living side by side. And this small loop track gives us a taste of that diversity. You also see the five layers of forest we have: the forest floor, undergrowth, sub-canopy, canopy and emergent layer.

       

      • Now while we are here, I want to show in a particular an incredible process in New Zealand forests. [Stop by the Rimu that is being devoured by the Northern Rātā]. What we have here is two entirely different species of tree. In here is the host tree, a large Rimu (Red Pine). And you see these vines coming down. This is a parasitic plant. A Northern Rātā, which starts out in the canopy of the host tree when manu/birds eat the seeds they will poo them into the top of a tree they are sitting on, which slowly drop down over centuries attaching to the host, and eventually reaching the ground. The vines grow strong enough to support themselves, effectively as tree trunks, giant legs (like Treebeard). During that process, the host tree gradually dies away. I sometimes think of it as nature’s slow-motion version of the ‘Facehugger’ in the Alien franchise. So eventually there are large gaps where the original tree once stood. Isn’t nature remarkable.. Note that while it is a parasite, the Rātā is never cut down to protect the original tree, because it’s part of NZ ecosystem.

      • Wander around the loop onto the boardwalk, pointing out the variety of ferns, the supplejack [kareao] and the beautiful rod-straight towering stand of Kahikatea, and their massive tree roots.

         

        • These are mostly Kahikatea trees. Kahikatea grows throughout New Zealand and is commonest in riverine and swamp forests where it is often found in almost pure stands. It was sometimes used by Māori for carving when Totara was not present. It was also sometimes used for shipping spars when Kauri was not present, however it was prone to rotting and borer, so less useful for ship-building.

         

        • There are also some Rimu (Native Pine) here. This is why New Zealand’s whenua/land was so suited to foreign pines trees. Our nutrient rich, volcanic soils allowed introduced pines to grow at a much faster rate than the continental United States where they mostly came from (Monterey Pines, and Monterey Cyprus). And this is why New Zealand now has some of the largest pine forests in the world And you will see all the pine heading off shore from the port in downtown Wellington. It's said that Tāne Mahuta, the Great God of the forest (Ngāhere) had huge trees like these as his legs. From there he commands all life here and it is a delicate balance.