Lord of the Rings: Creating the "Unfilmable"

The date is February 29^th, 2004, it’s the 76^th Academy Awards and the world has been slapped in the face with Lord of the Rings (LOTR). Whether you wanted to or not you knew about the fantastical world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Why? Because against all odds of Cinema traditions, LOTR: The Return of the King, the “unfilmable” film had just won every single Award it was nominated for. Tying with James Cameron’s “Titanic” and William Wyler’s “Ben-Hur”, for most ever won Oscars, 11 Academy Awards in total.

The success of LOTR changed the world of Cinema.  They changed the way that we created movies, our culture, how we perceived fantasy as a genre, the kinds of movies that production companies wanted to make and so much more! This article will be mainly focusing on the trilogy’s use of movie magic and special effects that made stories previously thought of as “unfilmable” completely possible. Without these effects they never would have had they impact that they did.

            Some feel Jackson went too far with visual concepts and relied too heavily on CGI. One of the films’ own stars Vigo Mortensen even stated 10 years later how director Peter Jackson’s love for CGI ballooned as the films went on, “It was grandiose, and all that, but whatever was subtle, in the first movie, gradually got lost in the second and third.” I strongly disagree, the mix between CGI and live action was and still is perfect. “Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy proved that there was room for all manner of special effects in cinema.” The film industry would be steps behind without these films and Jackson’s genius.

            One of the greatest practical effects that the films experimented and succeeded in was the applications of Forced Perspective. By creating sets and props of different sizes dependent on the actor that was utilizing them, along with positioning actors several feet back in shots to create the illusion of smaller stature they seamlessly created shots without using CGI. Although this has been done in films of the past (presumably starting with 1933’s King Kong) “By having parts of the set and either the "big" or "small" actors on tracks, moving in synch with the camera.” LOTR pioneered moving forced perspective, something that had never been done before.

            Another amazing feat of practical effects was what the crew coined as “BIGatures”. These super-sized miniatures are the reason for some of the most realistic and immersive sets seen in the films. They would make miniatures of sets that could not be shot, either because they did not exist in the real world or because they were too big to film and still have good camera control. Although it wasn’t unheard of for films to use miniatures, “the Weta team went the extra mile by creating gigantic, warehouse-filling models.” To make sure they could get as much detail as they needed they would make the miniatures as big as possible, once a shot was blocked and Jackson knew where the camera was going to be, the art department would go in and “hyper detail” that portion of the miniature that would be in frame. They would then transfer these shots to the digital world to create the most realistic effect. Proving that such practical artists still have a place in film!

            Jackson understood where digital effects were needed, to really get the films messages across. CGI was still in its infancy, in 1995 Pixar released Toy Story, the first film created entirely with computers. Four years later George Lucas introduced the first virtual character on a live action set. Jar Jar Binks is a joke to many still to this day. Only a year after Lucas’ failed attempt, Jackson realized that you could not separate the actor and the voice. Actor Andy Serkis was Sméagol, and, Serkis’ facial expressions were what made the character come to life. With massive advances in motion tracking Jackson took the risk and created the first realistic digital character. After Jar Jar, who ever thought anyone would take another CGI character seriously? Serkis’ performance set the bar high for future CGI performers and directors wanting to utilize these effects.

            These are of course just a few of the many ways that Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings Crew were able to change Cinema history. Creating a fantasy trilogy that was not sci-fi, embraced by many was a huge feat in and of itself. It never would have been possible without the seamless combination of practical and digital effects. The awards won for these films caught many production companies’ eyes and made them question the way in which they were approaching the making of films. From forced perspective, to the use of miniatures and of course realistic CGI characters, their skills with making movie magic was unprecedented. The cinematic industry was never going to be the same after that evening of 2004 when cast and crew left with their arms full of Awards.