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***FOTR EE APPENDICES DISCUSSION: Design Galleries – The Realms of Middle-Earth*** (part 1)

Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jun 28 2009, 11:09am

Post #1 of 11 (1614 views)
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***FOTR EE APPENDICES DISCUSSION: Design Galleries – The Realms of Middle-Earth*** (part 1) Can't Post

This week we are going to be looking at the Design Galleries for The Realms of Middle-Earth which will consist of The Second Age/Prologue; The Shire and Bag End; Bree, Isengard, Weathertop, and The Trollshaw; Rivendell, which also includes Frodo’s Bedroom and Elrond’s Chamber; Moria, Lothlorien; The Silverlode and Amon Hen.

Our first set of pictures will be from The Second Age/Prologue.

To find the Design Galleries, put in Disk 3 of FOTR EE. Choose Designing and Building Middle-Earth, then Design Galleries, The Realms of Middle-Earth.

When you choose the realm you want to look at, you will see a page of explanation. If you choose Slideshow, it will step automatically through your choice. There is audio commentary with some of the choices which are marked with a "wax" seal. If you want to spend more time looking at the images, you can choose to step through the pages of images one at a time.



I am not really going to be asking questions in these discussions. If you have a comment you would like to make, or a question that might make things clearer for you, please post it. It has always seemed to me that these galleries were a chance to revel in the designs that went into these wonderful movies.



Here is a picture of orcs from the Prologue that I especially liked. The gray day just looks like a day for battle.



I also liked this painting of orcs going into battle. The name is blurry, but the signature looks like Bennett which would make it Jeremy Bennett. He certainly conveys motion in this.



This is a painting by Paul Lasaine. There is also a copy of the painting in The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring by Gary Russell. In the book, Paul Lasaine says, "This conceptual image was produced as a first look at the giant battle that happens in the flashback sequences in the Second Age. Here we see Sauron casting an eye over his troops – Peter Jackson wanted to get a feeling of what it might look like when you have 600,000 troops ready for war in Mordor. I used a different color palette for this one – avoiding the harsh browns and industrial blacks of ‘our’ Mordor, this painting instead has cool grays, magentas and a rather steely blue about it." (pg. 99)



This looks like a series of storyboards where Elrond is telling Isildur to follow him. Elrond is going to lead him into Mt. Doom to destroy the ring.

I did find it odd that when talking about Realms of Middle-Earth, the Galleries named this gallery Second Age/Prologue.

Tomorrow we will be moving to The Shire. Hurray, no orcs!

Movie Technical Discussion -- Index


weaver
Half-elven

Jun 29 2009, 3:20am

Post #2 of 11 (953 views)
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Oh, I like those paintings! [In reply to] Can't Post

I had not seen those before -- thanks!

I especially like the one of Sauron looking over his troops -- very ominous and very eerie...

I guess storyboards are good for figuring out camera angles, placement of characters, etc. But when you want to pre-vizualize the "mood" of a scene, I can see where paintings would be the better choice.

Did they do a lot of paintings like these, for the films? Not sure if that's in the gallery features you're working with, but since paintings are more time consuming, I'd imagine there were fewer of these and they were fairly selective about deciding which scenes to visualize in this way...

Very cool stuff!

Weaver





Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jun 29 2009, 2:19pm

Post #3 of 11 (941 views)
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Paintings [In reply to] Can't Post

There are a lot of paintings in the Galleries. Plus, there are some beautiful ones in the Art of "___" books. I found out who painted some of the ones in the Galleries by looking in The Art of The Fellowship of the Ring.

In one of the audio commentaries by the artist, he mentions that these paintings were done to set the colors for the scene -- give the cinimatographer something to see what Peter wanted.

I know when we were in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the LOTR Exhibit, there was an exhibit of original paintings that were so spectacular! We became real fans of Jeremy Bennett, Paul Lasaine, and Gus Hunter. Heart

Movie Technical Discussion -- Index


weaver
Half-elven

Jun 29 2009, 3:46pm

Post #4 of 11 (940 views)
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thanks for the artist names... [In reply to] Can't Post

I looked them up on line and they all do impressive stuff -- it must have been great to see their works in person!

Weaver





Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jun 29 2009, 7:39pm

Post #5 of 11 (938 views)
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You're welcome! // [In reply to] Can't Post

 

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Elven
Valinor


Jul 1 2009, 8:50pm

Post #6 of 11 (930 views)
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The storyboards ... [In reply to] Can't Post

Im only making an assumption here, but the storyboards which you show there may have been done after the first phase of working out the prologue - in the first ones I think Elrond is already at the top of the Mountain and the camera follow Isildur as he climbs it to get to the door. These were done is Pre-Viz and werent sketches (not they showed them on the EE's) - and then this scene was placed at Rivendell (Elrond telling Gandalf that Men are weak) ...
Well Wink thats my theory for the moment.

The colour on the paintings sure makes a difference to the mood of the scenes - they look evil!

Thanks again Alcarcalime for all your hard work putting these together Heart
Cheers
Elven x


Swishtail.

Tolkien was a Capricorn!!
Russell Crowe for Beorn!!

Avatar: Liberace - The other Lord of the Rings.

Quote of The Week: The thing is I always write in the morning, and I know that if I go to the Net I won’t write ... you can start in the most scholarly website and end up at Paris Hilton dot com .. GdT


Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jul 2 2009, 12:49am

Post #7 of 11 (931 views)
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Yes, [In reply to] Can't Post

it's kind of hard to keep track of which version of the prologue they are discussing at any time, or even what they filmed instead of doing a prologue.

The paintings do convey the proper feeling, which is why they were done, I think.

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grammaboodawg
Immortal


Jul 3 2009, 12:35am

Post #8 of 11 (923 views)
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Everything about Mordor is so intense! [In reply to] Can't Post

I really love Lasaine's move in the colour palette for Sauron looking down over his realm. For some reason, I suddenly thought of Aragorn standing high above Minas Tirith looking out over his own realm... officially introduced to him by Gandalf. Sauron's alone. Aragorn has Gandalf.

But the artwork of Bennett and Lasaine is always so evocative and powerful. Beautiful!!!



sample

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West."
~Hug like a hobbit!~ "In my heaven..."

I really need these new films to take me back to, and not re-introduce me to, that magical world.



TORn's Observations Lists


Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jul 3 2009, 10:08am

Post #9 of 11 (918 views)
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Yes, [In reply to] Can't Post

The colors were perfect. And Jeremy Bennett and Paul Lasaine are terrific artists.

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Peredhil lover
Valinor

Jul 4 2009, 8:23pm

Post #10 of 11 (916 views)
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Late as usual [In reply to] Can't Post

Sorry, I was so busy collecting the discussion links that I didn't have much online time left at all.

The colours of these paintings all fit very well with the army they are depicting. I for one would feel very grey and hopeless if I had to face such an Orc army! Which was probably precisely the mood they were trying to create. And particularly the first two pictures are very detailed for such a purpose.
The third picture is just great in its colours, isn't it? And very impressive as well in giving an idea of Sauron's might.

The storyboards were close enough to how the film was shot that I recognised Elrond at Mt. Doom at once. Really amazing how close they came to the finished film at such an early stage!

I do not suffer from LotR obsession - I enjoy every minute of it.

TORn Link Collection


Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea


Jul 5 2009, 7:37am

Post #11 of 11 (953 views)
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A Peredhil lover is never late, Frodo Baggins! [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
Really amazing how close they came to the finished film at such an early stage!


Yes, this always amazed me, also!

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