The wonderful world of Weta.

July 31

First of all, let me just say that I cannot BELIEVE it’s the end of July already! Where has this month gone? I definitely do not feel like I’ve been here for a month already! Craziness. It makes me realize I’d better get my butt in gear if I want to go out and do/see things. November, I have a feeling, is going to creep up rather quickly.

But enough of that, I want to talk about this evening – an evening I’ve been looking forward to all week. Be prepared for a long entry!

Tonight, two people from Weta Workshop came and gave a presentation to a group of us international kids. The first was Matt Appleton, who served as an armor supervisor, and who also worked on various miniatures for Lord of the Rings (along with King Kong and Narnia, but this evening was all about Lord of the Rings).

The other was his partner, Emily Sturrock. I’m so jealous of what she got to do. She originally applied to Weta to be a make-up and prosthetics artist, but started out making chain mail and sewing hairs onto hobbit feet. But, once production started, she had (in my opinion) one of the coolest jobs ever. She was the armor and weapons stand-by for the lead actors. Meaning she was the one carrying around Sting, Anduril, Hadhafang, etc. and helping people like Viggo Mortensen, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, the hobbits, the Witch King, and Sauron into their armor on a daily basis. How cool is that?

Matt and Emily started out talking a bit about Weta Workshop in general. They’re the one responsible for all the amazing prosthetics, armor, weaponry, props, miniatures, and sets for Lord of the Rings. As far as the armor and weapons go, they said “Weta makes everything that either prevents harm or does harm.” The rest, they said, is up to wardrobe.

After watching a short video of clips of various things Weta has worked on, Matt and Emily started in on the juicy bits of their presentation. First, they passed around various props and things, explaining a little about each and what it was made and used for.

(One caveat here – if you’re not too into Lord of the Rings, you may not want to bother reading further. I’d hate to bore you with my geekiness.)

They had with them skulls (both large foam ones and little tiny ones) from the Paths of the Dead scenes in Return of the King. They had some chain mail from Kingdom of Heaven and Narnia, and explained how Weta’s making of mail has evolved over the past 10 years. They passed around various helmets – a Rohan one, and one from the Army of the Dead from Return of the King. The Army of the Dead one was all leather, and super cool looking. They also had (unused) hobbit feet and ears – hair and all! They had an arm from the Dead Marshes (which, I now realize, I didn’t get a picture of! Grr.), as well as an early orc mask and some elven arrowheads.












But now to my favorite things! The first was a miniature version of Aragorn’s chainmail vest from the Battle at the Black Gates from Return of the King. The reason a miniature was made was because, originally, they filmed a scene in which Aragorn fought Sauron at the Black Gates. For this, Kieran Shaw (who was Frodo’s scale double) was dressed as Aragorn, and “Tall Paul” was dressed as Sauron. This made Sauron look all of the 9 feet he’s supposed to be. The scene, of course, was never in the film (which is probably a good thing), but the story is still neat. But, sorry Mom. No actual Viggo clothing.

My other favorite thing – or, I guess things – was Frodo’s sword, Sting. They had two versions of it – a large Elijah-sized one that (I think) was steel, and a smaller scale double one that was made out of a special type of plastic. It was really cool holding such an important prop!












After passing around and talking about all the props, Matt and Emily started a slideshow. The slideshow in itself wasn’t all that special. But, with every battle scene or confrontation came a unique story about their experiences working on Lord of the Rings. I obviously don’t remember everything, but here are a smattering of funny and interesting things that I do remember. I’ll try to put them in chronological order…

In the very beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring, Emily was in charge of Sauron’s armor and weapons. The guy she was dressing was so tall, and the armor so heavy, that she had to carry around a stepladder with her in order to get his helmet on and off.

In the Fellowship, when Saruman’s orcs are seen pulling down a tree with ropes, it’s actually a real oak tree that they’re pulling down. Someone from the art department was driving along, saw the tree, knocked on a door, and bought it. They then dug it up, decided which roots they liked best, and chopped it up into pieces. They then brought it on set, put it back together, added some more leaves (because “nothing natural ever looks good on screen”), and affixed it to the ground on a giant hinge. It took some time to pull it down, however, because a heavy rain made the ground muddy and reluctant to give way. During that scene in the film, what you don’t see is the 4-wheeler and various crew members manning more ropes to help the orcs pull the tree down.

At Weathertop, after hours of a night shoot in the rain, the four hobbits (who had spent most of the night dry in their trailers) entertained the crew at 2 a.m. with a can-can line, hobbit feet and all.

During the filming of the Flight to the Ford scene, when the Ringwraiths are chasing Arwen and then the river swallows them up, Matt realized on the way to location down near Queenstown that he only had 2 plastic swords, and seven steel ones. The actors couldn’t use steel swords around the horses, so he had to think fast. Think Macguyver. He said he was going to town to get some paint before shooting began, but really ran around desperately trying to fashion “swords.” They ended up being made of some sort of reed and paint. You’d never know it in the film.

Next time you watch Fellowship, take note during the Council of Elrond at the elf sitting immediately next to Gandalf. That’s Matt!

When Saruman’s Uruk-Hai are being “birthed,” those are real actors in costume. Head-to-toe costume that took 10 hours to apply. 10 hours! Matt said they covered “certain parts” last, in case of any last-minute urges to go to the bathroom.

In the Mines of Moria, it was Emily’s suggestion that the hobbits sheath their swords before running down the narrow stairs on the way to the bridge of Khazad-Dum. She was afraid of them falling on sharp swords. Sean Astin made fun of her, asking if she would also advise them not to run with scissors.

During the Battle of Helm’s Deep, the crew not only had to change their sleep schedules, but they would try to convince themselves that night was day and day was night. They’d sleep until about 4 p.m., go to work, and finish up at sunrise. They would be served breakfast around 6 p.m. each night, and got very upset if the caterers tried to serve burgers, or any other food that didn’t belong on the breakfast table.

They would go home from Helm’s Deep every morning covered in mud and blood – “either black or red, depending on which side you were working on that day.”

The scene in which Aragorn bursts through the doors of the keep at Helm’s Deep, dripping wet and looking all rugged, caused quite a stir among the female crew members once it was shown to them. Emily said, “Before that, he was just Viggo. But after that, he was just WOW.” She said quite a few of the men on crew would try and copy it every now and then. “But it never worked for some reason,” Matt said. Emily even discussed this scene with Miranda Otto (Eowyn), with Peter Jackson giggling about it in the background.

At one point during Helm’s Deep, Emily had too many people she was in charge of to keep track of. They were filming the scene where the Lothlorien Elves arrive at Helm’s Deep. 100 elves were marching in as Haldir was greeting Theoden, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were descending the stairs to meet them. Emily was responsible for making sure they were all dressed and ready to go. Orlando, she said, was really bad with his spatial perception when he was wearing his long bow (which he was all the time at Helm’s Deep). “He would turn around and take out someone’s legs. Or a camera. Or a camera crane!” So, to see that people were only “bashed” instead of “wounded,” Emily created Legolas’ “daisy.” It was a styrofoam something-or-other made to look like a big daisy. She would stick it on the end of his bow when he finished a scene, and remove it at the top of the next scene. During this scene of 100 elves and tons going on, her assistant was responsible for taking the daisy off, throwing it down to her, and then she would replace it at the end of the scene. They did two takes, and everything went fine. But, on the third, the assistant never threw down the daisy, and shooting began before Emily could do anything about it. And soon there came Legolas, waltzing down the stairs with a huge daisy on the end of his bow. The first AD saw it, glared at Emily, but couldn’t call cut because Peter was there and didn’t notice it. So the scene progressed. Eventually, Viggo glanced over at Orlando, did a double take, and whipped the daisy off, hiding it behind his back. When the scene was over, Peter was really excited, and said it was the best take yet. Until Emily came over and showed him the daisy and where it had been during the scene. She said that was the first time she heard PJ swear on set. I wonder if that’ll show up in the bloopers?

The trees in Fangorn Forest were, in reality, only about 3-feet high. They were also a form of weed brought over to NZ from Scotland. The art department went around to farmers, asking to buy these weeds. The farmers, of course, were only too happy to oblige, and offered other weeds for sale, too.

Fangorn, being built in a large, warm building, attracted not only bugs, but also a cat. Matt said there’s footage somewhere of what appears to be a gigantic cat stalking through Fangorn Forest. Apparently, a similar thing happened in the Moria miniature. But there, the giant creature was a sneaky lizard.

Everyone’s favorite prop was Grond. Matt said they even had shirts made up to honor him and his battering ram goodness.

In the Paths of the Dead, when the wall of skulls falls and almost drowns Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, the skulls were made of foam (so as to not harm the heroes). The skulls “bounced like tennis balls,” according the Emily, who was one of the ones responsible for trying to pick them all up after a take. She said they were finding foam skulls everywhere for months afterward; they bounced into some odd places, apparently.

During the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, with 300 horses and riders to armor and dress, the stand-bys were in really high demand. In order to make sure they didn’t have to keep running on and off of the set, little “twig and canvas” huts were built in the middle of the field. So, after dressing riders, Emily was run into a hut. Then the ground would shake as 300 horses and riders charged all around her and the other stand-bys. So, when you watch the Rohirrim charge in, just think that somewhere, in a little canvas hut, Emily is hiding, hoping not to be run over.

Mirando Otto was “a goddess of a woman” to work with, according to Emily. “She’s 5-foot-nothing, and a size nothing,” she said, describing Miranda’s stature. But, she was tough. She was only one of two people who wore a full mail shirt as part of her costume (the other was Viggo at Helm’s Deep), and, when she battled with the Witch King, he really was wailing on her. But she never complained, not even when the mail started leaving huge bruises on her shoulders. Emily said Miranda spent the time in between shots lying on her back, to give her shoulders a rest.

When Frodo and Sam are disguised as orcs in Mordor, Sam’s costume is in peril of falling apart in every shot. Sean Astin apparently felt claustrophobic in his costume, so it was redesigned so that he could grip it at the shoulder and tear it off if he felt he had to. Matt called it the “stripper orc costume.”

Emily and Matt both commented that each “army” (Uruk-Hai, orcs, Elves, Gondorians, Rohirrim, etc.) took on an identity of its own. The Uruks were “the supermodels," the Gondorians didn’t have personalities, the Rohirrim were “trailer trash,” and the elves were sissies. During the scene where the elves are charging down a hill into a sea of orcs, Emily said they “lost at least one or two elves each take.” The Uruks, on the other hand, loved falling down. At Amon Hen, when they fell running down the hill, they would use their breast plates to literally body surf the rest of the way down.

They also talked a bit about certain scenes that were never shot. Like the battle between Aragorn and Sauron, Arwen fighting at Helm’s Deep, and showing Sauron forging the One Ring by cutting his hand and forming the Ring from his own blood. We saw photos of this last bit. Sauron got new armor for this particular scene. Originally, he had very spiky, brittle armor. When Aragorn fought him, bits of Sauron kept breaking off and getting buried in the sand. So, when they redesigned him, they dubbed him “Sauron the Beautiful.” This is what Emily referred to him as for at least five minutes, which was amusing.

A good way to show off things they’d created, but that were never used in the films, was on Decipher trading cards. Characters like Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and Radagast the Brown appear on these cards, even though they’re nowhere to be found in the films. Also, things like Theodred’s gorgeous armor and Arwen’s quiver are pictured.

Lastly, Matt noted how these things that Weta make often get categorized as “artifacts” when they’re sent off to museum exhibitions. He remembered helping to set up the exhibit at Te Papa. He found a bunch of Uruk spears wrapped in bubble wrap and being handled very carefully. “And we would toss those things around the carpark” during filming, he said.

This is so much to take in… but it was so cool to listen to them tell their stories! What I wouldn’t give to have been there…