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One tour to rule them all... Part deux
Entry 10 of 24 | show all | print this entry |
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Lord of the Rings... take two!
OK, so we've all been to Isengard and Rivendell. The next stop on this tour takes us to Dry Creek Quarry, where the massive (and probably best) sets of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith were constructed. As you can guess, they're no longer there, which is of course a huge disappointment. Helms Deep was constructed first and all the scenes were shot at night over a 4 month period. If you've watched the scene you'll be well aware that it rained for most of the battle, so you can just imagine how happy the crew were after 4 months of standing there soaking wet. Apparently it was easy to tell which crew members worked on this set; they were all the pale and sick looking ones. After Helms Deep had wrapped, they partially demolished it, then merely built onto what was left to make Minas Tirith. This had to have the best set of them all and one of the only ones visible to the public during filming. They couldn't cover it up, so the morning commuters got a pretty good look on their way passed. I bet they're all kicking themselves for not taking mountains of photographs while they had the chance.
Apparently once filming had wrapped, the crew and their family were all invited to a wrap party on the set, but as much of the interior was still pretty hush, hush, they were banned from taking any pictures.
Next it was on to Mt Victoria. Here they filmed a tiny couple of seconds scene for Weathertop, though most of Weathertop was filmed elsewhere. Here they did the part where the Black Riders are closing in on the ground beneath Weathertop as the hobbits look on. This is also where the Dunharrow Plateau was shot and that impressive part where Aragorn and Theoden look over the armies below, was actually them looking over the slightly less imposing houses of Wellington. Perhaps the most notable scenes shot in this location were those filmed on the very first day of shooting for the film, and they were of the Outer Shire and Hobbiton Woods. Here they did the scene when Frodo is sat in a tree, Sam beneath making breakfast and they hear the Wood Elves. We gave this scene a shot too. There was also shortcut to mushrooms when trying to escape Farmer Maggot they tumble down the cliff, landing in a heap and find mushrooms. They decided not to risk any of the actors on the first day of filming so used stunt doubles for this scene, which was probably a good call as one of them dislocated his shoulders while doing it. Also there was running and hiding from Black Riders and as the ground was so steep and slippy, when a hobbit got to the bottom they actually had hobbit carriers who carried them back upto the top to do more takes (imagine putting that on your CV). Apparently there was a lot of hype around this location by the media so security guards were stationed all around the area to make sure no sneaky photos were taken and made public. Supposedly only one photographer got a photo but that is of a flying security guard who is about to land on him and escort him away.
We then drove to Southern Coast, Seatoun and Miramar. The sandstone rocks along the coast inspired the design of Shelob's Lair, while Seatoun was where the set of Bree was filmed in old army barracks. Seatoun is also where the stars lived during filming (all except Ian McKellen). Miramar is where the famous Weta production facilities are, which has now been nicknamed 'Wellywood'. We even got a sneaky glimpse through the window at the new Weta store. We managed to get a little glance at Gollum and a figure of Lurtz.
All in all, a good day. An essential for any fan of Lord of the Rings.
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