Lord of The Rings "The White Rider" : 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.