Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen: Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit

Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen by Daniel Falconer

Getting a glimpse behind the scenes of a favorite film is always exciting — it’s rather like pulling the curtain back and, rather than seeing a humdrum old snake oil salesman, actually discovering a great and powerful wizard. David Falconer’s Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen gives credit to the several hundred wizards hard at work re-creating and re-inventing J.R.R. Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS novels and The Hobbit into two sets of visual feasts.

Everything from aerial photography, to miniaturized or life-size sets and props, to CGI artistry went into those six films, and each page of this guide pays tribute to the very hard work and ingenuity of the Weta Workshop crew, as well as the cast members, many of whom are quoted in varying degrees of incredulity and affection. One of the most common refrains, from either cast or crew, is along the lines of “We were so lucky that things worked out this way,” but that belies the obvious amount of hard work and dedication poured into the films.

Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen is arranged by location, with the table of contents cleverly laid out as a map of Middle-Earth: if readers want insight into how the giant trees of Mirkwood were designed, or the challenges posed by scale in creating Beorn’s enormous home, they’ll know exactly what section to turn to. Organizing information by place rather than the timelines of the various films allows Falconer to, for example, talk about moments in The Fellowship of the Ring in the same context as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, informing readers about the ways in which living set pieces like Hobbiton changed (or didn’t) in the years between shooting scenes for each film. The natural beauty of New Zealand is given its full due, and the anecdotes from location scouts about the physical and natural challenges of their job were some of my favorite moments.

Equally illuminating are the photographs and reminiscences from the miniature-makers and props-crafters, who speak about the process of creating objects as realistically as possible. I was astonished to learn just how many props were intended to be usable, in order to add to the authenticity of each set, regardless of whether something like a musical instrument or book was used in a scene. One crewman, Richard Taylor, writes of the importance of “…the kind of details that made Middle-Earth feel like a real place,” and I can’t speak highly enough of the tireless efforts of these craftspeople. Of course, sometimes “miniatures” is a relative term: the Argonath statues of Isildur and Elendil on the banks of the River Anduin were only seven feet tall, while the Tower of Orthanc was about five meters tall. But the level of detail in each miniature is the same as if they had been built to full-size scale, and the amount of effort and care put into them is truly admirable.

Any discussion of Middle-Earth on film necessitates mention of digital effects, and Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen features plenty of still frames from the films with finished CGI additions, along with on-set photos of actors in motion-capture suits. Falconer writes:

Almost every shot in The Hobbit films was a visual effects shot; around 2,200 per film, many of which involved putting characters into CG spaces, compared to 400, 800, and 1600 effects shots in each of The Lord of the Rings films.

Compared with the visual-effects shots created by tricks of photography, the examples of CGI characters or set pieces tend to look a little blurry or overly-saturated, and don’t have the visceral immediacy of a physical element. This isn’t to say that the people who designed those computer graphics didn’t work hard — they absolutely did — but it’s tough to fool the human eye.

Did I wish Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen had gone into more detail with regards to just how set pieces or props were put together? Yes, but I understand the need to protect trade secrets, and Weta Workshop has earned the right to hold that information close to the vest. I was more disappointed in the lack of precision with regard to consistent spellings of place-names like Cirith Ungol (twice referred to as “Cirth Ungol”) or basic copy-editing, as when “chocking” and “choking” were used indiscriminately on the same page. For a book of this overall quality, I expected more oversight.

However, if you enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films and The Hobbit films, and are curious as to why some scenes were changed in the novel-to-film adaptations (for example: why Peter Jackson wanted the Lothlórien elves to assist at the battle of Helm’s Deep) or the difficulties in filming Thorin’s band of dwarves as they escape the dungeons of Mirkwood, Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen will provide answers, insight, and much more.