Best and Worst Techie Moments in LotR

[AL.D]

The Lord of the Ring’s films are amazing examples of how to combine CGI effects, miniatures, and camera techniques successfully. The clever use of duplicate big and small sets, combined with forced perspective tracking shots in Fellowship of the Ring is second to none, and the big Minas Tirith shots in Return of the King are some of the best model-work I’ve ever seen in a movie. And then there is Gollum. Has ANY other film even come close to creating this kind of believability in a CGI character? I mean, Yoda was good, but…!
Of course there were dodgey shots too, and it’s a relief to see that WETA aren’t perfect. I cringed at the terrible keying as Frodo ran toward the Crack of Doom, and sucked my teeth as the population knelt in front of the Hobbits in RotK revealing some far from perfect blue-screen. Did anyone else notice the wide, helicopter track-in to Edoras in RotK where the smoke flowed INTO the chimney’s and the flags flapped backwards as it had obviously been reversed?
Maybe not. Maybe this is merely my own personal area of pedantry that deserves to be ignored. Or perhaps you DID spot a few dodgey filmaking tricks and are dying to show how eagle-eyed you.

Here are my best and worst techie bits:

They got it right with:
1) Gollum. Brilliant in TT, even better in RotK.
2) Minas Tirith miniature. Amazing detail.
3) Fire FX on Balrog and Balrog animation
4) Great sound editing in the Mines of Moria. There is no music during the first part of the battle with the cave troll, and it is so much more intense because of it.
5) Eagles appearing out of the clouds in Mordor. Beautiful design, fab animation, 100% Tolkien.
6) Mumakil. Wonderful animation and design. I got the same thrill as I got from seeing the At-At walkers in Empire Strikes back.

They let it slip with:
1) Frodo sliding along the ground in RotK as he enters the Crack of Doom
2) Gadalf standing on the broken Bridge of Kazad-Dum with the Balrog in foreground in FotR. Terribly keyed…and used again in the intro to RotK.
3) ‘You bow to no-one’ but you don’t chroma-key so good in RotK
4) Osgiliath. Looked like a set.

[Twista]

Well my top two would have to be:

- When Frodo has the ring on at the crack of Doom, and then Gollum jumps on him and you simply see Gollum floating about in the air. I suppose theres nothing wrong with it, it jus tlooks rather stupid dont you think?

- The eye or Sauron when Sam and Frodo are making their way across Mordor. It looks like a bloody lighthouse moving about. Stupidness once again lol.

[AL.D]

Mmmm!
Difficult to know how else they could've pulled off the 'flaming eye' thing. I mean, if you're going to go with that image so literally, then I guess it would appear the way it did in the movie.
However, I'm with you on the Gollum thing. Some heat haze FX so that you could make out Frodo's form a little would have been good. Just some definition to Frodo so that Gollum didn't look like he was floating. Not some terrible 'Hollow Man' style trickery, something subtle.

[Lizra]

The wargs! ewww!

[gimli7410]

they also messed it up when the dragon fireworks flies over the hobbits during the party

[BeardofPants]

There were a couple of moments in TTT where I could swear that I saw blue screen....

[hectorberlioz]

hmm...I dont kmnow hwy you think gollum looked better in rotk, imo he looked out of place...you could tell he was cgi.
yes the wargs! terribly done! they looked so fake, like the beast padme fights in attack of the clones.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Wargs were bad, opening scene in ROTK when Daegol was being pulled underwater by the fish, Yes gollum floating throttling Frodo or whatever, even when Sauron's eye tower collapsed looked kind of corny to me... The Army of the Dead looked kind of stereotypical/ out of place/dumb to me....

[Lalaith_Elf]

Oh definatly the Army of the Dead. I mean they were fluroresent GREEN! But yeah, the wargs were a bit iffy (wow my vocab is so advanced), and Gollum at the end and the 'lighthouse' effect. Definatly messed up!

[Fimbrethil]

It wasn't the wargs that got me so much in that sceen as the Legolas trick. Can we say really bad graphic and totally fake? And besides if you're going to jump on a horse like that you would grab it from the oppisite side you were goign to jump on.
The whole Eye Tower thing...it was different. Not poorly done...so much as a little off. I don't really think they should have done a sceen like that. I don't eve nthink Tolkien went into to much detail as to how the Eye was on the Tower, it was just kind of excepted.

[AL.D]

re: Gollum better in RotK than in TT

I don’t have the RotK DVD (yet) to give good examples, but compare these 2 shots of Gollum from TT:

1) Gollum is disgusted with Sam for cooking the conies with ‘taters. Gollum puts his face up close to Sam’s: “Give it to us raw and wriggling”. The lighting and colour grading on Gollum is perfect. He sits beautifully in the scene, and really seems to look at Sam and be on the same ground-plane as him. However, a few shots later…

2) Sam, Frodo and Gollum are on the ridge watching the legions of soldiers marching to Mordor. “The dark one is gathering all armies to him”. Gollum looks hazy, almost out of focus. His body is behind the others but there is a ‘flatness’ and greyness to him. He doesn’t quite sit right with the other characters.


Both shots are in bright sunshine. I imagine that this is incredibly difficult to get right with a CGI character. The lighting gives no opportunity to hide keyed edges (unlike the night shots which are shadowy and saturated blue). And to get the eyelines between CGI and real characters to match must also be really tricky. Two Towers has several shots like example 2, but RotK were all like example 1.

From what I’ve seen on the DVD special features, and read (‘Cinefex’ is great for this sort of stuff), WETA Digital had to re-model Gollum at the last minute for The Two Towers. This must’ve meant less time for animation, lighting FX, etc. which may explain why they had more time for him in RotK and so a better result.

I just remember the amazing close-up shots of Gollum’s face in RotK, pretending to be asleep on the rocky ledge, where you could see every wrinkle, freckle and hair follicle, all perfectly lit and beautifully animated.

Army of the Dead: Yeah, I know what you mean. A bit too 'Ghostbusters'.

Wargs: Too much like Hyena's and not enough like Wolves for me. I liked the animation though. The way they ran was nice.

[Lalaith_Elf]

Originally posted by Fimbrethil
It wasn't the wargs that got me so much in that sceen as the Legolas trick. Can we say really bad graphic and totally fake? And besides if you're going to jump on a horse like that you would grab it from the oppisite side you were goign to jump on.
The whole Eye Tower thing...it was different. Not poorly done...so much as a little off. I don't really think they should have done a sceen like that. I don't eve nthink Tolkien went into to much detail as to how the Eye was on the Tower, it was just kind of excepted.

And if Legolas did jump onto a horse like that then, well, wouldn't he either kick Gimli or land on him? There wasn't that much room between the two.

[Orli17]

I think Sauron's eye was the worst thing in the movies. i mean ys it really looked like a lighthouse and was really ridiculous.

Also when the Nazgul came upon Minas tirith and destroyed a catapult, the way the logs and humans fell down was too digital. I mean it looked like an xbox game or sthg for that lil moment.

But i think the cool thing is how they made the hobbits and gimli look really short......that is CGI right?

[Orli17]

i noticed that when Frodo was stabbed with a spear in FOTC by the cave troll in Moria, he didn't die becuase of the mithril coat. So why then was Shelob able to stab him in ROTK? cuz he still had the coat on.....or is Shelob a bit more powerful in a way? i'm confused....

[Beruthiel's cat]

I really don't think the scenes when the Fellowship is fighting the cave troll in FotR are very effective. They look cartoonish somehow.

[gimli7410]

Originally posted by Beruthiel's cat
I really don't think the scenes when the Fellowship is fighting the cave troll in FotR are very effective. They look cartoonish somehow.

i thought those were some of the better scenes except for when merry and pippen are on the troll, that looked cartoonish

[Fimbrethil]

Originally posted by Orli17
[B]Also when the Nazgul came upon Minas tirith and destroyed a catapult, the way the logs and humans fell down was too digital. I mean it looked like an xbox game or sthg for that lil moment.
B]

The thing you said about the Nazgul reminded me, what was the deal with the big green light? Even my friend who remembers more of the books than I do turned ot me and said "What are they doing? Signaling Mordor?" That quite confused me. Does that belong in a different thread?

Some of it did look a little cartoonish though. Hehe..."Look! the moss is eating the Oliphaunt really really fast!" Said by my dim cousin while watching ROTK, we were in the theater too! Oh well.

As to Legolas landing on Gimli....well...would've been funny. But...there was alot we could nit pick about. That's probably why Gimli fell off in the first place though. Naw, I bet Legolas pushed him.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

When Legolas was on the troll it looked too smooth and liquidy. Very CGI IMO

[Andúril]

By far the worst was in tFotR:EE, when Isildur put on the ring. I can't believe how badly they got that wrong.

[Fimbrethil]

Rotk, "The way is shut." Yet, it's wide open! In the book there was a door.