New Zealand (Day 5)

This is taking a while, isn't it?  I'm really starting to wish I had written these reports the day they occured on, even if it was just on notepad when I didn't have internet access.  But I shall prevail!  I hope...

Day five was our visit to Fangorn, Amon Hen, and parts of the Anduin River.  Our tour guide was a former conservation officer who's job it was to ensure that the film crew while filming at these locations did not damage any of the nature in any way.  Apparently, after a month or so of filming, the only thing he ever had to correct the crew on was their cigarette butts being left on the ground, but that was just on the first day and he never had to say it again.  So all he did for those months of filming was hang around with Peter Jackson, which is a pretty sweet thing to be paid to do, if you ask me.  He also helped out with a few scenes, and was able to give us a very good "behind the scenes" look at how they were all made.

For example, when the Uruk-Hai are chasing after Frodo at the breaking of the Fellowship, there's a scene where they are all running down a hill (a relatively steep hill at that).  The one trouble is that the big Maori guys they enlisted to be the Uruks couldn't see a thing through the masks (I can vouch for them...seeing through one of those masks is freakishly difficult), so when they tried running down the hill they'd all trip and fall.  Peter Jackson then had them run down it over and over again without the masks so they could figure out where to run, and then had them do it again with the masks on.  Also, shortly before that point when the Fellowship is still rowing down the river there are several shots of Uruks running through the forest.  The interesting thing about those shots is that they were all taken in the same place and with only about six extras.  And yet, because of the nature of the shots it looks like a horde of them racing through the forest.

To get to the location itself was quite a journey in and of itself as it involved at least an hour of driving along on bumpy gravel roads in an incredibly remote location.  It was miles from anywhere; just fields and hills as far as the eye could see and further.

The rest of the day was spend heading off to Queenstown.  Amazing drive.  You'll see parts of it in future days.

I didn't get a lot of pictures on this day as rain was threatening a lot of the time and it was dark in the forest.

Fangorn

The Anduin River (actually a lake...but who's gonna notice that?)

The beach on which they parked there boats.  Sean Austin (Sam) had to run into freezing cold water seven or eight different times to get that shot of when they leave.  Every time he had to completely change his costume.

If I can track it down (and remember to do so) I'll get the video we took of us chasing after Patrick down the hill.