For the latest international news check out

Click on any picture to see a larger version. Move mouse over picture for explanatory text. IMPORTANT NOTICE: All images on this site are Copyright Ian Smith and may not be reproduced or sold on Ebay, or copied outright to other fan sites without my express permission!

You travel half way round the world and what happens? In a crowded 'press pen' you turn to the guy next to you and notice that he's a photographer for 'The Evening Standard'. Yup, the London Evening Standard! It's a small world!
		It was hard not to notice this gentleman. His large step ladder ensured he got a good view, albeit at the expense of about six places in an area that was seriously over-crowded. He was knelt down beside the step ladder editing his pictures from this morning's press conference on an Apple laptop. I didn't envy him his job - with two battered versions of the camera I had, laptop, battery packs and step ladder traipsing around this sort of gig can't be any fun. The same mistakes as I'd seen at the press conference applied here. Photographers were directed to a small section of 'the press pen' that was already overcrowded with people I really didn't think counted as 'photographers'. I didn't see anyone that had been at the parade, and it was clear why - you want the best spot at this sort of bash and you only get that by getting there early, ie missing out on the parade and getting a colleague to cover that in your absence. Again the main subject of conversation was the screw up in having us facing a stage with the sun directly behind it. The two pro's near me insisted that in previous years the press pen had been the other side of the road and that this was a major screw up, but talking to Robert Catto (his photographs of the premiere can be found at www.catto.co.nz/ROTK by the way) a few days later he seemed to think things had been the same for previous premieres but that on those occasions an overcast sky had ensured good photographs were possible. Opposite me were three grandstands and if I could have got across to one of them to use my £40 ticket I would have done since they at least had a clear view of the large TV displays (over six feet high) which were transmitting cast interviews taking place some place we couldn't see, much further down Courtenay Place. In the event I should be grateful I didn't go, as the stage in front of us remained unused until the very end of the day, and only one of the three grandstands actually got to see the celebrities face on - one of the others was perched behind the stage and inaccessible to cast and crew, the other was too close to 'The Embassy' to actually see anything other than the TV monitor. It later transpired that the 'Red Carpet tour' grandstand was actually much further down the road anyway. Luckily for me Stefan Servos from Ringcon and herr-der-ringe.de was already at the front barrier, having missed the parade, and his girlfriend very kindly gave up her place behind him for me. Any photo's that are here - and they're not as good as I'd have liked because of the problems of a cast that just wanted to be elsewhere by the time they got to the press pen and because of problems with too many people ahead and beside me - are here because of her generosity in letting me take her place while she hung at the back unable to see anything (I think I owe her and Stefan a few beers!) Although the pen was packed the atmosphere was great. One of the cast members (possibly David Wenham) later said it felt like VE Day and I know what he meant. The building behind us was full of people hanging over the first floor balcony, and as one looked around one could see groups of people partying on rooftops and balconies all around. Alas we couldn't see the TV monitors and had only the sound to listen to to keep us entertained as we waited the couple of hours before the celebrities actually reached us. It did not make for entertaining listening. What is it about these events that makes them get the most inane people to 'host' the event? We had a million and one variations on 'What do you think of New Zealand?' (Wow! I wonder what the actor will say in answer to that one that we haven't already read a hundred times in the local press!) Unintentioned hilarity occasionally removed the tedium as the compere got an actor's name wrong here and there. Oh dear! More hilarity for the press folks came from the reporter of an Australian publication at the front. They'd grouped us at the back of a line, closest to 'The Embassy' when in fact the cast were actually hanging around the other side, making it difficult to get good photo's with so many of the 'non photographers' leaning over the railings between us and celebrities to take their own snapshots. Three Asian journalists for some reason appeared to be allowed the other side of the barriers onto the Red Carpet itself, as was New Line's own photographer that I'd met at the press conference that morning. The Asian journalists were causing a LOT of problems in that as soon as a celebrity came anywhere near us they would go up close to them, blocking all the photographer's views off, and refusing to move. The air became full of profanities and political incorrectness as our Australian colleague let rip "Oy! You f*******! Get out the f******* way. Oy! You f******** morons what are you doing? Move! You f*********". On and on it went until a security guy realised what was happening and moved them out the way, only to have the whole abusive shouting soliloquay repeated again the next time another celebrity appeared. It could have been a difficult situation but this public declaration of the way most of us were feeling was like a huge release of stress and tension, and also proved most entertaining. As a result there was much laughter in the press area each time a new string of racist invective streamed forth at what seemed like a deafening 500 decibel level. Our biggest frustration was that everything was happening some way away from us and so we were getting no pictures or view of what was going on. The big stage ahead of us to our right remained empty and unused and was the subject of much debate along the lines of how hopeless the council were, what idiot set this thing up, etc etc. Eventually the celebrities started making their way down to the end of the red carpet, but invariably seemed unaware we were press, or just eager to avoid us. Getting photographic opportunities was difficult, and certainly recorded interviews were a no-no. New Zealand mayor Kerry Prendergast was one of the few who made a point of coming over and giving unprompted comment on the day, although one felt her repeated declarations that 'This is a great day for Wellington and worth every penny' was probably more defensive than it needed to be, and probably a reaction to the weekend's papers who had reported how much the making of these movies has cost the Wellington tax payer ("Even with all the tourism it would have been cheaper to give every New Zealand citizen free tickets for all three movies than to have subsidised them to the extent of the several hundreds of millions of dollars we have done" was the general gist of one feature article). Slowly more celebrities showed up. The whole thing felt extremely inhumane as each of us, desperate for a 'cast member looking directly to camera' photo shot, hollered out christian names to try and get the appropriate celebrity to look our way. It wasn't long before we'd turned into a baying crowd hollering Christian names as if we were intimate friends with each celebrity that showed up. All that being said, the attitude of most of the professionals remained one of amused acceptance of our situation. If anybody felt sorry for themselves we had only to think of those fans penned in even tighter than ourselves, or who'd suffered freezing temperatures overnight, in the hope of a snatched autograph or badly focussed photograph. Even the premiere attendees had something of a rough ride, being kept endlessly waiting in a holding area near 'The Embassy' while the big names made their way down the red carpet. At least we had loose fitting clothes on. Glancing over to the empty stage I felt sorry for Phillipa Boyens' son Callum as, wearily, he sat on the road leaning against the stage done up in suit and tie, trying to grab what little shade was available. 'It's not all as glamorous as it's made out to be', I thought! Other unintentioned humour came when the 'professionals', not as familiar with the various movie personalities as fans are, tried to guess who each person coming down the red carpet was. I heard Phillipa Boyens identified as several different women, none of whom appeared to have anything to do with the film, and the devil in me didn't correct mis-identifications, amused at the thought of a stranger with the caption 'writer Phillipa Boyens' (or 'Boyers' as she'd hilariously been called in the Howard Shore concert programme) appearing in the next day's papers! Eventually speeches were made on the stage that had remained so annoyingly empty for the bulk of the afternoon. Most of the professional press had left, realising that the sun was now so low in the sky it was impossible to get anything other than a seriously bleached out, lens flared shot of the activities. The speeches were dull for the most part, consisting of endless thanks to various individuals, with only Astin and Mortensen saying anything other than the standard 'We love New Zealand' phrase we'd already heard several hundred times in the broadcast 'interviews'. Serkis at least gave us a humorous Smeagol/Gollum 'Wellington sucks!/No we loves Wellington' take on the while thing, and then Astin and Mortensen got a little 'political'. Astin's speech seemeed to this listener, seemingly alone out of the hundreds of thousands who heard it, somewhat glib, clichéd and over-rehearsed. To me it came across rather like an insincere politician pleasing the masses by telling them what they want to hear (I'm just a huge cynic, OK?!). Let's just say It was one of those post- September 11th, 'from the bottom of my heart in these troubled times God bless this country and its people' variety. Too simplistic and naive by half! Mortensen's speech, by way of contrast, was a dignified thanks to the people of Wellington for funding the movies with their tax dollars, assuring them that the actors knew of their involvement. One could almost feel the tension in the air, akin to that of someone perhaps spoiling the party a little by pointing out the realities of what had happened with the financing of these movies. I silently applauded Mortensen, but felt I was probably the only one doing so and there are no prizes for guessing which of the two 'political' speeches got most widely reported in the press the next day, and which of the two was almost completely ignored! Speeches over, there were explosions as two abseilers climbed down the walls of The Embassy to unfurl signs that read 'Only in Wellington' in Maori and English to, for some inexplicable reason, the rather hackneyed sounds of 'O fortuna!' (the music from 'The Omen' and the 'Old Spice' ads on TV). The cast were then dispersed over the Embassy and multiplex cinema's being used for the premiere (a clever tack to help circumvent the complaints of those who had got tickets to the premiere, only to find it was in the multiplex and NOT the Embassy) with golf carts being used to get them to the multiplex. Journalists had a bus to take them to a restaurant beside the party venue with a two hour gap before needing to take up positions two hours before the celebrities were due to arrive. I'm afraid the prospect of hanging around for four hours just for the vague possibility of a decent photo of a celebrity didn't appeal and I returned to my hotel room for the early evening. By all accounts I did the right thing as reports of the party, even from those generally far more likely to 'paint only the good side of things', almost universally talk of how disappointing it was. All-in-all the day had been a pretty good one, and nowhere near as dreadful or wearisome as I'd been expecting. But I was glad it was over, so that my real holiday (seeing more of New Zealand) and wind-down could begin! Click here to go back to Parade Report and Pictures Click here to go back to Press Conference Report and Pictures Stay tuned for future reports (indicated by a photo appearing in the main Itinerary calendar) Back to Day 7 report Forward to Day 9 report
Don't forget you can check out reports of lots of other Lord of the Rings -themed events in the Web Logs section

Email: ian@iansmith.co.uk