Art Director by Shannon Tippetts

Dan Hennah- one of the supervisors of ‘The Two Towers’art department- was raised on a farm in New Zealand. He left home when he was just 17 to study architecture at Wellington Polytechnic and Victoria University, but he dropped out when the mood struck him. Dan had been interested in art all his life, spending much of his time drawing and painting, but his parents encouraged him to get a “real job,” driven by the perception that you could never make a living as an artist. In 1981 a friend asked Hennah if he would like a job driving Tatum O’Neill around on the set of ‘Prisoner.’  After six weeks on set watching films being made, Hennah realized how much he liked film. This started his 30 year career in the art department, where he went on to work on ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy as well as ‘King Kong.’

“As an art director, it's all about making it happen, you know, it’s not so much about doing the drawings, it's about picking the drawings up and saying we’re going to do it this way, we’re going to make it happen in this much time for this much money. It's a really disciplined role.”

-Dan Hennah

During the production of ‘The Two Towers,’ Hennah broke down the script with a great deal of discussion about what could be real and what would have to be computer generated. After that, he flew from location to location in New Zealand looking for places that would give the perception of Middle-earth. However, Hennah said much of his job required the reporting of facts back to the director and the production designer so they knew what they were going to get regarding how much money had been spent, what the timeline was, etc. It was critical to have clear communication.

http://www.m2e.net/pictures/production-crew/art-directorproduction-designer-dan-hennah

Director of Photography by Josh Wallis

There are many tricks to a cinematographer can use to accomplish his mission. 

The most common are Camera Angle, Camera movement, focus, shutter speed and lighting.  All of these techniques can be combined in various way to draw out an emotion in the audience.

In our scene “the white rider” we find Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in the Fangorn Forest tracking the Orks that took Pip and Merry. Fargorn Forest is an ancient forest that has seen not only experienced many things, but has feeling and as our heroes find out is alive.  This scene is crucial in the movie because it sets the stage for the second coming of Gandalf this time as Gandal “The White”

This scene portrays the forest as spooky and old. To make that emotion present to the audience, it has to possess an overwhelming sensation of suspicion and eminent danger.  To accomplish this Andrew Lesnie combined three different elements of cinematography.

First he kept the camera panning left to right then right to left around the actors. Almost creating a feeling of dizziness or disoriented. Like if you closed your eyes and spun around quickly then stop. 

Second he uses a panning medium shot of Legolas beginning with a side shot of his face while telling the others that the forest was alive and talking to each other. As the camera pans around his face and moves in for a close up we see fear in Legolas eyes when he tells the others that the forest is angry.  This shot re-enforces the disorientated feeling of our heroes while adding a hefty dose of fear to the scene hinting to the audience that a confrontation is eminent and nearing.  

Next Legolas senses the white wizard and our heroes prepare for the confrontation. They begin whispering to each other even though they are not right next to each other.  To make this a reality Andrew Lesnie used a close ups and even extreme close ups to simulate whispering in close proximity.

Lighting and fog are also used to give off an eerie sense that danger is lurking around every corner or behind every tree.  The lighting is low much like you would find deep in an overgrown forest.  




Lighting can also be used to usher in a feeling of reserection life. Look at the light  that masks Gandalf. It was created by a bright light, like a spotlight, located behind him as well as one directly above him. When filmed, this makes the light seem as if it radiating from the person like he was the source of the light.

The last element I want to point out is the uses of extreme angle shots.  Two shots are seen here. 



The first is a shot with the camera very low to the ground looking up at Gandalf as he appears in his entire splendor masked by a radiating light.  This gives a sense of superiority. We see the White Wizard towering over our heroes.  

The next shot we seen a down angled shot from above Gandalf. This re-enforces the superiority feeling that the white wizard has the high ground.  Which in ancient battle strategy was an almost certain win.  

Andrew Lesnie is an academy award winning cinematographer. Although he is most known for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and most recently the Hobbit, his resume is quite impressive.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (director of photography) 

The Last Airbender 

The Lovely Bones (director of photography) 

Bran Nue Dae (director of photography) 

I Am Legend (director of photography) 

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Behind-the-Scenes (video short) 

King Kong 

Love's Brother (director of photography) 

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (director of photography) 

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (director of photography) 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (director of photography) 

Babe: Pig in the City (director of photography) 

The Sugar Factory 

Doing Time for Patsy Cline 

Two If by Sea (director of photography) 

Babe (director of photography) 

House of Fun (TV series)

Spider & Rose 

Temptation of a Monk (director of photography) 

Fatal Past 

The Girl Who Came Late 

Boys in the Island 

More Winners: Mr Edmund (TV movie) 

The Delinquents (director of photography) 

The Saint: Fear in Fun Park (TV movie) 

The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy (TV movie) 

Great Performances (TV series)

Dark Age (director of photography) 

Australian Dream 

Cyclone Tracy (TV mini-series) 

Fair Game (director of photography) 

Unfinished Business 

Emoh Ruo 

Bodyline (TV mini-series) 

The Man You Know (short) 

Fantasy Man 

IStations (short) 

The Same Stream 

WonderWorld: The Original Series (TV series) 

The Comeback (documentary) 

Wonder World! (TV series) 

Production Design by Colin Wilson

In production design it is the responsibility of this person to bring the movie to life and give you that real experience that you are in a different place. The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot in New Zealand. In the Two Towers you see even more of “Middle Earth” as you follow the characters on their own journeys.

Taking from drawings that were done up by the art department production designer Grant Major took these sketches and created what is known as Middle Earth.  Peter Jackson, the director, and his crew searched everyone all across the country to find Fangorn Forest. After scanning through and entire country and discussing it with Grant Major, they agreed to shoot Fangorn not on location but in a big studio set.

With this in mind Grant and his team had a guy named Brian Massey who was the tree builder/designer. Brian was their tree expect and had studied trees for some time. He even gave the crew a little brochure about how trees are and are not. This was their bible for constructing the trees and how they should create them. Drift wood was the roots of tree and real branches were used. Moss was on the ground. Dirt and all was brought in to make it feel like a real forest. Tree trunks were formed and cut up and used steel beams to support them. The trees didn’t extend very tall. It the shots all you see is the ground really, so they only had the trees extend up to the top of the ceiling in the studio right up to the lights.

8 times was how many times Fangorn was created during this trilogy. Brian Massey was always wanting to make it better and he did every time crew members said. Ian McKellen, Gandalf, said that there, “was a smell of dampness and decay it felt like you were in a forest and not in a studio.” 

Makeup by Courtney Shaw

 Information for the Makeup of Lord of the Rings

Gimli: He would come in 4 ½ hours early every day to get started on his makeup process. We would put on a whole prosthetic on his face, which was made out of latex. Once it was placed on his face, the airbrush team would come and made sure it would blend in with his skin. After that was accomplished we would glue every hair on his beard and head. He had a cut of middle finger, so we made a cast out of his other middle finger and painted it on his finger. We hand painted his finger nail. 

Leoglas: His wasn’t as difficult as most of the characters. He wore a wig, and had makeup on, but nothing that really changed his appearance.  He wore latex ears that only lasted one day. He was in and out in the make up department.

Gandolf the White: He already had a bigger nose but once you got all the hair on this head and face, you couldn’t see it as much. So we decided to make a prosthetic nose that was even bigger. The makeup team put glued all of his hair on him as well.

Aragon: His was also very easy compared to the other cast. He wore a wig and had makeup on. He had a beard that we would put on him. But after doing everyone else’s makeup that was a breeze. We had everything premade and it went really fast.

Wardrobe/Costume Design by Crystal Schwalger

Wardrobe for The Lord of The Rings The Two Towers

The wardrobe/costume design for any film is one of the most important parts of film making. If the costume is wrong, the audience won’t buy into the movie, and all the rest of the effort put into the movie is for naught.  

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, specifically the Two Towers segment has a great variety of costumes. There were two main costume designers: Ngila Dickson (pronounced Nyla), and Sir Richard Taylor. Together They they won a BAFTA for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2003).

Dickerson has been working on fashion design since she was young. Besides theLord of the Rings Trilogy, she has also worked on: The Green Lantern, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and many others. Dickson began work onLord of the Rings in April 1999; six months before shooting began, and assembled a crew of over 50 to help sew and make the costumes.

Taylor is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects Company called the Weta Workshop. The created all the swords for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, as well as for other films such as The Chronicles of Narnia, and Peter Jackson’s other film, King Kong.Taylor and his crew designed and built all the armor, weapons and special props for the film.

Each of the main characters costumes was made an average of 40 times, and each race of characters has their own distinctive style. According to Dickerson, “Hero costumes are costumes that were mean to be seen up close.  These have fantastic hand details like embroidery, real chain maille, fine acid etched velvets, hand knotted wigs, etc.”  Even all the weapons were made realistically detailed and have their non-leather, non hero version.

For our chosen scene, four actor/characters are represented: Gandalf the White, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.

                            

Gandalf the White: Gandalf's white costume starts with a white wool cape that is calf length and held with a rather intricate silver mallorn clasp. The edge is trimmed with embroidery. It is an intricate machine embroidered pattern, white on white. The tunic is quilted down to the upper hip.  It is an 8 petal floral shape. There is a different pattern in the yoke, but it is also quilted. Next layer is the cream under tunic and this fabric is somewhat textured. Last layer is the trousers.  They are wide culottes.

    

                           

Aragorn: Aragorn wears a fine, grey linen shirt, embroidered around neck and a smocked panel at each shoulder, and leather trousers. He also wears tall soft boots, a long sleeveless jerkin w/braided ties long duster/coat of heavier leather. This is to reflect his ranger status.

Legolas:  He is a woodland elf. Dickerson wanted the elf costumes to reflect the environment around them with lots of leaf shapes etc. Legolas’s basic outfit is a two toned suede jerkin.  This is worn over a pale silk shirt and dark suede trousers.  He wears knee high soft boots and wide leather vambraces.  He is seldom without bow and quiver.  The jerkin is dark olive over lighter olive with a shirt of pale blue. His Trousers are dark brownish/green which are tucked into his boots. Legolas' boots are really movie magic multipart constructs.  The basic boot is a short angle length pull on boot with elastic sides.  Over it are book toppers wraps that were created by the wardrobe department. These toppers wrap around and fasten on the inside.  A strap goes under the instep.

Gimli : He is a dwarf  warrior.. His costume reflected where he came from which was the Lonely mountains. Dickerson and Taylor had him in an almost full suite of armors with woven leather crisscross his armor. He also had a tunic made of leather as well as a Helmut. Even though his suite was only partly out of metal, and made with PVC cutouts, his costume still weighted around 70lbs.

Good costume design should be seamless where the audience doesn’t even notice it unless it is bad. While it is so important, Costume design remains one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated filmmaking arts and the visual design of any movie.