Disclaimer: The views expressed in this web log are the personal opinions of Ian D Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or members of the Official Lord of the Rings fan club. Comic-Con Day 2
				After a breakfast buffet in the pub next to the hotel (turning into even more of a building site by the hour, with all the phone lines down at the time I'm writing this!) I head off to the main exhibition hall to see if anybody's around on the TORn stand. The place is crowded as they are in the middle of announcing raffle results (a recurring pattern throughout the day as they give away a ton of stuff every few hours). Sandra is there dressed as an elf and posing for photo's for a seemingly endless queue of people, and I bump into Bill (Sauron's Truss). We decide to head for the main panel room for the Weta special effects talk, while others apparently head for the first of four planned Dom Monaghan signing sessions. We end up seeing the last half of a presentation on a new Disney feature called "Treasure Planet" (basically Treasure Island set in space!) and the excerpts shown are impressive - it looks like this will be a huge Christmas hit for Disney.
Weta Workshop: Lord of the Rings Weapons and Make-up

How To Become An Orc in One Hour

The talk started with Richard Taylor introducing Gino Acevedi, before announcing the winner of the competition to "Become an orc" that Weta had been running on their stand. A Navy SEAL won the prize and while Richard and other Weta staff talked about the special effects and weaponry, Gino and another make-up artist (James Docherty?) worked on stage to transform the winner into an orc (see "How to become an orc in One Hour" below this report in the left hand column) Richard gave a brief run-through of the early Peter Jackson films Weta had been involved with - from "Meet the Feebles" (which Richard referred to as "The Muppets on acid") right up to "Lord of the Rings". He recounted a story of "the fly scene" which had really impressed Hollywood executives as they thought it showed special effects that even ILM couldn't produce. "Little did they know" said Richard, " that it was filmed by Peter Jackson holding a $10 radio controlled motor on a fishing line in one hand and a fish in the other". Effectively Weta was formed by Richard and his wife Tania 10 years ago. Peter Jackson had wanted to work on "King Kong" but when that fell through, Jackson suggested "The Hobbit" and implied it would take about a year to complete. Of course what they ended up with was 6 years on "Lord of the Rings". The project started with "fish and chips and a bottle of Coke in a diner". Six designers at Weta began conceptualising what we see on the screen. Miramax, the original production company for LOTR, wanted Weta to use an external design team but Richard fought this. "When they came to see us, they were fully expecting to find Weta in a tin garage off Peter Jackson's house - and probably in grass skirts", Richard quipped. We were then shown a 3 minute show reel of Weta work, that was astounding. I was amazed to see the take-off scene from "Contact" included in the show reel - this was the movie that, shown on a friend's DVD system, so impressed me, I went out and bought a DVD machine before DVDs were on sale in the UK! I'd never known Weta had been involved in it. After the show reel, Richard explained that he put together a team of 148 people in five departments. Only 28 of the people had worked in TV or Film before - the other 120 had to be trained up! The requirements for the project were daunting - they had to produce 500 suits of leather armour, 2000 swords. How do you go about doing that? In the end they produced 48,000 separate props, 10,000 facial appliances, 1,800 prosthetics, 68 miniatures (or bigatures as some of them were called as they were so large) - all from just one of the original five departments! Richard went on to say that some might question why Weta used miniatures in these days of rapid advancements in CGI. His answer is that there is a gritty realism with miniatures that you just don't get with digital effects. In the end, he said, only Dwarrowdelf and a shot on a hill were digital - everything else involves a miniature of some sort. To produce everything that was needed, an incredible level of focus and dedication was required, said Richard. "And a lot of pain!", added Daniel Falconer. Peter Jackson, very much a hobbit himself, also gave the team problems because he insisted on visiting the workshop in bare feet. The team had to remove tacks and other workshop items whenever he visited. He would typically have a sweeper walking ahead of him, sweeping any last minute debris away as he walked around the workshop! Daniel Falconer and Warren ? spoke about the work they did on the movie. Credit was given to Alan Lee ("lovable from the minute you met him") and John Howe ("initially, he seemed a bit stand-offish, but he soon became a good friend to all the team") - two very different characters. Howe had intimate knowledge of medieval armour and weaponry, "but he hated spikes. Spikes had to go!". Daniel went on to explain how difficult the working hours were: "We got paid to basically have no life. We are the uber-geeks. We got paid to do the stuff we got beaten up for doing at school. We used to run away from guys like Lawrence (Lurtz) at the mall" Lawrence interjected at this stage: " So it WAS you at the mall!" There were 2,500 crew working on the project, with five different film crews and two different helicopter crews. There were so many props that the team had 28 shipping containers on the road. There were 10 make-up artists looking after prosthetics alone, backed up by other make-up artists. Of the nine lead cast members, seven were in prosthetics, and more than half of the 28 main lead characters in the movie were in prosthetics too. With this and four miniatures units, Richard believes the logistics and management nightmare they suffered must be the most complex ever experienced in the film industry. Richard went on to point out that the second film, The Two Towers, is twice as epic as the first film. We have a lot to look forward to! Lawrence and Sala were then given a chance to talk about what life was like spending eternity in make-up. "Bad guys rock!" said Lawrence before going a bit sheepish and adding "But we're LOVEABLE bad guys!". Lawrence explains that if he spent four and a half hours in make-up that was an easy day when not much was required. When he had to appear naked (there were loud screams from the female audience members at this point!) as in the Saruman's chamber scene and the birthing pot he had an 11 hour make-up call. He started at 10pm at night to be on set at 8am the next morning. This meant that he would often have to spend 22-23 hours in prosthetics when filming! Gino cut in at this point, explaining "We did rude things to him if he fell asleep and then took photo's. Cutips were stuck in odd places! One day he fell asleep and had a record drool - 2 feet long". Richard Taylor cut in at this stage, pointing at Lawrence and saying "I didn't know a Maori could blush!" Richard went on to talk about one particularly painful scene for Lawrence. "Peter wanted Lurtz to bend and roar. But prosthetics don't bend! Lawrence went 'Aaaaaarrrrghhhh' instead of 'Roaaaaarrrr'. He had the first Uruk-Hai G-string. He had to apply a lot of KY jelly to his ass to recover.". Lawrence was getting through 20 tubes of KY a day (Lawrence: "And that was just my ass") so Richard's partner Tania begged the local supply company to tell them the formula. As Richard tells it "They said no. But then Tania rang back and got a guy who said 'I quit in 2 weeks - so here's the recipe'". Weta could now make their own 40 gallon drums of KY. Darren cut in here "The main thing was the embarrassment of continually going to the store to ask for 20 tubes of KY was finally over" Richard revealed that one of Peter Jackson's favourite memories of shooting the movie was when New Zealand leant the national army to help with the film. They were fairly belligerant soldiers, and considered films to be a bit namby-pamby. Jackson's happy memory is of seeing a sergeant bailing out a private, marine style - with both of them completely dressed as orcs. To reward the Army staff after a particularly gruelling 20 hour shoot, Weta bought the army "a shitload of alcohol" which Richard now admits was "not the best idea we've had". The next day orcs came to work with chronic hangovers. They were given strict instructions "Under no circumstances will anyone take off a mask!". Unfortunately a poor subaltern heaved up and spent some time with the result dripping out of his prosthetics! Richard then went on to talk about an event they have at Weta called "Frock Day" where all members of staff dress up as women. Lawrence interjected with "It takes more of a man to dress as a woman" as Richard goes on to explain that he thinks Peter Jackson deliberately arranged for the Head staff of Army, Navy and Air Force to visit on Frock Day. They have come to see what the film is about ("It's all about killing"), only to find Richard in a "tall purple number, a ponce hat and high heels. There was complete and utter disbelief! But after 10 minutes they got into it - perhaps a little too much!" There were other Army reminisces - like finding that the Gondorians - a race of Europeans from Numenor - are all black! Or trying to teach 100 Fijian soldiers how to fire a Gondorian bow. They can fire a rifle, but this was difficult and Richard and his team had to digitally remove a LOT of arrows that just went "Phhhffft" and fell immediately to the ground. Many songs were made up and there was a Mr Uruk-Hai song every day, with Sala making up a Ms Urak-Hai song one day which he renditioned for the audience - not the best version of "You make me feel like a natural woman" that I've heard! A lot more information was given out about the incredible work that was done: over 10,000 individually fletched arrows were used - 9,600 of them lost in the New Zealand Wilderness ("Can you imagine archaelogical digs in the future? 'There were Numernoreans here?'), Sauron's armour took a staggering 6 months in a furnace to make. 2000 bows, shields and clubs were made, using different exotic timbers from all over the world. 14km lengths of chain mail link were assembled by hand into garments because no body wanted to do things the traditional way by using knitting covered with silver or gold paint ("We can't have a soldier going out into the field in a crocheted top, can we?"). The two guys who made the chain-mail garments did it 10 hours a day for 2 years - as a result, they have completely worn away their thumb and forefinger prints! Richard talked a little about the cast. Liv was a firm favourite as she spent a lot of time with the Weta crew "just hanging out" but initially they were very nervous about her. She wandered in and asked for a cup of tea. Unfortunately, Weta staff are practical jokers and someone had swapped the sugar for the salt. She had two sugars, took one sip of her tea, spat it out and asked if the Weta crew were trying to kill her. Richard started to wrap things up, ready for some jaw-dropping movies about how the effects were achieved using combinations of several techniques (digital doubles, false perspective, 2-pass techniques). Weta has 320 digital FX artists and currently has the largest computer installation in the Southern hemisphere, barring government installations. The session eventually wrapped with a Q&A session. When asked which part he most regretted being cut from the movie, Richard had no hesitation in mentioning the Urak-Hai birthing scene, which unfortunately hasn't even made it into the extended cut. This involved the Uruk-Hai being born "pupae-like" and involved a lot of very hard work by the Weta crew. Unfortunately it was too grisly to make the cut. The question about the possibility of Peter Jackson filming "The Hobbit" also came up. Richard was adamant this would not happen: "Peter's spent seven years of his life on Lord of the Rings. He now wants to move on and do something different. Weta has worked with Peter for 15 years - we like working with him and want to work with him on his next project, so it's unlikely we'd be involved with 'The Hobbit'" The two hour pitch (it seemed more like 15 minutes) was over all too soon and by, common concensus, was a thoroughly entertaining and informative success. I sincerely hope that some of the footage shown to attendees (no cameras were allowed during these footage sections) make their way on to the extended DVD in November, as I think many will be as impressed as I was with the sheer ingenuity and inventiveness that went into creating effects like the "hand-held" camera in the Mines of Moria fight scenes. Dominic Monaghan Signing Next on the agenda was the Dominic Monaghan Q&A session, but this was changed at the last minute to an autograph/signing session. It was not hard to see why - the planned signing sessions were taking forever to complete. Celebrities generally fall into two camps when it comes to autographing sessions: those who attempt to give each fan as much time as they want to make them feel "special", and those who just attempt to sign the paraphernalia of as many fans as possible to leave the most number of people possible with some sort of souvenir. Monaghan fell into the first category, generously letting fans hand over multiple items for signing, chatting away enthusiastically and always maintaining eye contact, and then stepping down from the podium for the obligatory photo with each fan. This left most fans happy, but meant very long delays in getting autographs. Peggy (Sierra) and I joined the queue at 2.10pm and I counted about 15 people ahead of us in the fan club queue. We got to the head at 3.50pm. Ouch! Our only consolation was that things will be much worse tomorrow, the busiest day by far of the convention, based on past experience. Part of the problem was that fan club members were given some priority in that there were two queues - one for fan club members, and one for non-fan club members. The fan-club queue had a 15-minute exclusive period in each 90 minute signing session, and then each queue alternated for each subsequent autograph/chat. This sounded a great deal for fan club members and several new members joined the club to speed up their autograph hunting. However on the session we joined we worked out late on we'd have been quicker joining the non-fan club queue. In the 15 minute "exclusive" period only 3 people got to speak with Dom. So my advice to those attending tomorrow (Saturday) when the queues will be much longer is to count carefully and do the maths before deciding which queue to join. I know there are many fans who hang on every word Dom has to say, and that they will want the most intimate moments of our private chat. Bear in mind that I had four items to be signed (for other fan club members) and also that the girl ahead of me took an eternity while she faffed around with her phone trying to set up her home recording machine so Dom could record an answerphone message for her, with the net result that I was well aware of the increasing frustration of those behind me waiting their chance to speak to the great one. Our conversation went something like this: Ian: Hi. I've got four things to sign I'm afraid Dom: That's OK. I recognise that accent. Where are you from? Ian: London Dom: How long have you been over here? Ian: Just a week. I'm here on holiday, mainly for a concert at the Hollywood Bowl Dom: Really? Who's playing? Ian: Howard Shore - you know the score from 'The Lord of the Rings'. Dom: Oh! OK. Ian: So are you getting a chance to see around San Diego, or is it all work while you're here? Dom: I wanted to go to the zoo, but I won't have time unfortunately. Scintillating stuff, eh? I can also exclusively reveal, because I overheard Peggy talking to him, that he was meeting Elijah Wood that night. Oh the heady times one has, just chatting away with the stars. I don't know how much Mr Monaghan was being paid for the two day Decipher gig, but after 9 hours of demanding fandom I reckon he earnt every penny. It's been interesting observing fandom, and Lord of the Rings fandom in particular, here at the conference. American fans are more fun than their British counterparts (they don't have a "stick up their butt" as Bill Powers so eloquently put it) but it's struck me several times over the last few days that there is a VERY thin line between being passionate and enthusiastic about something, and being so pushy that you're a real pain to everyone around you! Some fans walk that thin line a lot more successfully than others! But what's really fascinating to me is the way that ALL those associated with the movie project that I've met on this trip and the last, seem more than happy to put up with the pushier fans. I haven't worked out yet if it's just that they can't believe their good fortune and feel blessed to have had the rewards with this project that they've had, or that they're just "nice" people who are far too polite to point out when fan requests are becoming unreasonable. OK, so the Marvel report and other stuff on San Diego and some of the bizarre fan costumes I've seen has been held over yet again for another day! Click here for August 3rd report