Under the spell of the Ring Star Cate Blanchett reflects on Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, revealing one of her favorite visual effects used during production, making the films stand out from other Hollywood releases. Blanchett portrayed Lothlórien Galadriel’s elf ruler during the film trilogy adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s work in early 2000. Jackson’s trilogy has been widely acclaimed with The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring selected by the National Film Registry as a culturally significant film.
Starting with The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy took the fantasy world of Middle-earth from the page to live-action on the big screen. Depicting the odyssey of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) from the safety of the Shire to the scorched plains of Mordor to destroy an almighty cursed ring, the trilogy is widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed and influential film series of all time. . launching a successful franchise that continues to this day through Prime Video’s prequel series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And while The rings of power Season 2 may soon begin filming and continue to explore new events in Middle-earth history, one of the stars of the original movie trilogies has reflected on the production of Jackson’s films.
During a performance on First we partyIn the hit interview series “Hot Ones” uploaded to YouTube, Blanchett was asked which visual effects technique caught her attention and stood out the most during the production of Under the spell of the Ring by host Sean Evans. The star revealed that Jackson’s use of a split-frame diopter to capture two points of interest of significantly different scales in a single frame stood out to her the most as something the films elevate. Watch Blanchett’s full response below:
I think it was what Peter Jackson called, and I’m sure they’re used a lot now, is a split-frame diopter. It’s something they do with the lens that you can keep two people of monumentally different sizes in the same frame. And that they would build a table where everything was clear on one side, it was kind of like, you know, a piece of theater is where everything was big on one side and everything small on the other.
But there was something about the lens where they could hold them, kind of like a funhouse mirror that was really incredible because it was done in-camera, which was pretty cool. Because a lot of stuff like that, and I think you can feel it when it’s all done in the mail, you know. I love when those tricks are done in-camera.
How many of the effects in Lord of the Rings were practical?
Despite Jackson’s trilogy omitting certain book details, Under the spell of the Ring trilogy continued to capture audiences’ attention during its release, with the film’s impressive visual effects being one of the series’ highlights. For the trilogy, Jackson recruited collaborator Richard Taylor to work with the artists at Weta Workshop to develop many of the film’s practical elements, including costumes, props, and sets. As such, while the film implemented digital effects to create the film’s more fantastic creatures and large hordes of warriors for great battles, the settings in which they take place, such as Helms Deep or Minis Tirith, were first created as incredibly detailed miniatures used for landscape shots. As such, the practical effects help ground Under the spell of the Ring trilogy with a sense of realism, helping the audience to immerse themselves in the world as something that really exists.
With both the hobbit trilogy and The rings of power with incredible and terrifyingly practical Orc costumes, Jackson’s influence Under the spell of the Ring trilogy remains tangible to this day. While the trilogy itself showed off some of the most incredible digital effects put on film, as seen in Andy Serkis’ motion-capture rendition as Gollum, the films weren’t afraid to use equally impressive hands-on techniques wherever possible. resulting in some of the most iconic shots of modern Hollywood movies. And as Hollywood has increasingly relied on digital effects through innovations such as the Volume, Jackson’s trilogy remains a perfect example of what a perfect balance between practicality and digital effects can achieve.
Source: First we party
