My flatmate in Wellington had lent me a Lord of the Rings guidebook as I set off on this road trip, and he was the one who suggested that I make the trip to Tekapo, stopping in Twizel, rather than returning to Queenstown as I had initially planned. I'm very glad I did!
The tour I went on (found here: http://lordoftheringstour.com/) was recommended in the guidebook. While not nearly as immersive as Hobbiton, it was fantastic fun. The woman running it was utterly delightful and very passionate. I learned a lot about some of the tricks used in filming the movies as well as the location. Case in point, our first stop was at the river that Gandalf, Pippin, and Shadowfax cross on their way to Minas Tirith. In the movie, it looks something like the below (yes, this is a cellphone picture of a screenshot. Technology!)
The actual river looks like this:
The river pretty much always looks like this, it wasn't a case of a flood or this picture being taken in a drought - by placing the camera close to the ground, forced perspective made it look much bigger than it is. The Twizel shoot was one of the longest of the entire film. Crews were in the area for 62 days, shooting for 31 of them. However, Peter Jackson was only on set for three days, Ian McKellen for about half a day. This is one of the film canisters used during the shoot.
From here, it was on to the 22-acre sheep farm that was used for the filming. Any shots taken of an approach to Minas Tirith are composites, using this field, the model created by the fabulous folk at Weta, and a mountain range from elsewhere in New Zealand.
Because there were going to be horses on set, 20 locals were hired to go over all 22 acres filling in rabbit holes. It took them 20 days to do this, but they were successful, and none of the horses went home (or didn't, as the case usually is) with broken legs. Apparently a few humans did turn their ankles, but who cares about them?
The original plan had been to use Canadian Mounties for the Riders of the Mark, as the Mounties are one of the few active cavalry units left in the world. Unfortunately, whoever thought of this had failed to account for the six-month quarantine that would be required to bring their horses into the country. Instead, a nationwide call was put out for riders, and 360 people were selected based on skill.
Of those 360, 100 quit within the first week, as the pay was low ($100 for the rider, $100 for the horse) compared to the long hours (4:30am to 9:00pm), and the housing was rudimentary, just tents and campers.
About 80% of the riders who showed up were women, so they required make-up and the application of facial hair. Apparently there were intermittent screams as folk went to the bathroom and were surprised by the "stranger" in the mirror. There were also a few cases of Twelfth Night levels of misplaced flirting.
The charge to Osgiliath by Faramir and his doomed company were all shot on this field as well, and unlike the composite shot for Minas Tirith, what you see in the movies is pretty much what exists there today.
Poor David Wenham (who played Faramir) is apparently deathly afraid of horses and absolutely refused to ride one. In the scene below, he is actually riding a saddle on a barrel that is being pulled down the service road. Given that he was the only Australian in a field full of Kiwis, he took a tremendous amount of flak for this.
The production had wanted about 1,000 people to be Orcs for the battle scenes. This, however, was back in the days when Peter Jackson was only known for his low-budget horror films, so not many people showed up for the casting call. They were able to pull around 500 people from the town, so next the production team went to all of the hotels and campgrounds in the area and managed to round up 75 tourists to add to the ranks. There's an army base down the road, and the Prime Minister granted the production the use of 220 soldiers.
The day before filming the Battle of Pelennor Fields it had been absolutely freezing, and all of the extras had been warned to show up wearing thermal underwear. The next day it was close to 80F (27C). Every available person working on the production was spoken for, and there was no one to run water for the broiling extras. As it would take too long to bring in people from the neighboring towns, 40 schoolchildren got to skip class to help keep everyone hydrated.
This is the hill that the Rohirrim ride down in the first charge. The actual shot of the riders charging down the hill is CGI, as there was no way to make the ground safe enough to ensure the safety of the horses.
Bernard Hill, who played Théoden, came up with the idea of riding along the line, hitting the spears with his sword while rallying the troops. This idea was complicated greatly by a few things, including that Hill had only just learned how to ride, and he's left handed. To get the right angle for the shot, he had to hold the sword in his right. It took six hours to get the right shot for that scene.
The shot of the riders charging into the front lines is, surprisingly, not CGI. This was actually filmed, though it was done with only two takes as the stunt was so dangerous.
Our tour guide was not involved with the filming of the first movies, though she and her family are long-time Tolkien buffs. She was an extra in the Hobbit movies, as one of the Laketown residents fleeing post-devastation. Those sequences were filmed about an hour away from this location.
One of the fun things about the tour is that the back of the van was full of replica swords and banners (including one banner that was used on set), and you can absolutely be certain that I had a grand time swinging Éowyn's sword around. My current profile picture comes from this day. I also have this picture. I feel the need to tell you all that I was totally making Orcish faces behind this mask.
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