It's happening! The great catch-up! After two months I'm finally on the verge of updating the PotW project! And soon afterwards will (I hope) come the final posts for New Zealand. And the success (or failure) of my kite.
The purpose of this post was basically to create a little anticipation and confirm that I have not, in fact, met a grizzly fate at the wheels of a truck.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
New Zealand (Day 7 part 2)
I promised there would be a part two. And here it is. See, sometimes I'm worth trusting. But most of the time I'm not. Just a warning.
So after that tour we took for the first half of the day we decided to take a drive down to Kawarau Bridge to jump off it into the river 43 metres below with a bit of stretchy rubber attached to our ankles. This action is also known as bungy jumping. It was awesomely terrifying. The bungy cord is strapped tightly around your ankles, so you shuffle out to the edge of the ledge in a way that feels none too confident. Add to that the gorge yawning beneath you and the knowledge that in a few moments you are going to leap into it's mouth and it's pretty nerve-wracking up there. On the drive to the bridge I still hadn't fully made up my mind as to whether or not I would do it, but the argument that won me over was basically that I'd regret not going no matter how much I convinced myself it wouldn't have been fun enough to make it worth the terror. Plus on arrival we found that there was a discounted rate for family (two adults and two children) so that further confirmed my decision, and in a way of laying it on thick this bridge is the original location for commercial bungee jumping. So I went. Despite being very nervous on the drive I was surprisingly calm once there, even while waiting in line on the bridge. But once I started having the cord strapped on I started to get nervous and question myself just a little, and while being led out to the platform my mind was going nuts; "For what conceivable reason are you doing this?" Then came the countdown, just a simple "Five four three two one GO!" During that moment I just thought "Oh man oh man oh man waaaaaaaaeeeeeee this is fun!" The initial drop was altogether far too much like those dreams where you're falling, but as soon as the cord started to stretch and you started slowing down it was great. After bouncing around some I was gathered in by two guys in a boat down below, disconnected from the cord and sent on my way back up the stairs. Over in an instant, but an unforgettable experience.
We also got the pictures from the company, so here are some of the better ones that they got.
So after that tour we took for the first half of the day we decided to take a drive down to Kawarau Bridge to jump off it into the river 43 metres below with a bit of stretchy rubber attached to our ankles. This action is also known as bungy jumping. It was awesomely terrifying. The bungy cord is strapped tightly around your ankles, so you shuffle out to the edge of the ledge in a way that feels none too confident. Add to that the gorge yawning beneath you and the knowledge that in a few moments you are going to leap into it's mouth and it's pretty nerve-wracking up there. On the drive to the bridge I still hadn't fully made up my mind as to whether or not I would do it, but the argument that won me over was basically that I'd regret not going no matter how much I convinced myself it wouldn't have been fun enough to make it worth the terror. Plus on arrival we found that there was a discounted rate for family (two adults and two children) so that further confirmed my decision, and in a way of laying it on thick this bridge is the original location for commercial bungee jumping. So I went. Despite being very nervous on the drive I was surprisingly calm once there, even while waiting in line on the bridge. But once I started having the cord strapped on I started to get nervous and question myself just a little, and while being led out to the platform my mind was going nuts; "For what conceivable reason are you doing this?" Then came the countdown, just a simple "Five four three two one GO!" During that moment I just thought "Oh man oh man oh man waaaaaaaaeeeeeee this is fun!" The initial drop was altogether far too much like those dreams where you're falling, but as soon as the cord started to stretch and you started slowing down it was great. After bouncing around some I was gathered in by two guys in a boat down below, disconnected from the cord and sent on my way back up the stairs. Over in an instant, but an unforgettable experience.
We also got the pictures from the company, so here are some of the better ones that they got.
Friday, May 13, 2011
New Zealand (Day 7)
Don't. Just don't say whatever sarcastic thought sprung to mind concerning the regularity and speed at which these posts are coming out.
This day shouldn't take long to cover. It was another Lord of the Rings tour in which we saw several locations, generally mountain backgrounds and wooded areas. Really the pictures speak for themselves, so I think I'll let them. However, there is a part two to this day. I'll try to do the write-up tomorrow. But I'll leave you hanging for the time being...(that's a pun...it will make sense when you see part 2).
This day shouldn't take long to cover. It was another Lord of the Rings tour in which we saw several locations, generally mountain backgrounds and wooded areas. Really the pictures speak for themselves, so I think I'll let them. However, there is a part two to this day. I'll try to do the write-up tomorrow. But I'll leave you hanging for the time being...(that's a pun...it will make sense when you see part 2).
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| This is the background for Isenguard |
Saturday, May 7, 2011
On shooting longtails...
...with a camera, obviously.
Longtails, or any bird, are tricky to catch while in flight. Constantly flitting about, circling around, moving in and out of the focus range. And with such a big background like the ocean, getting it in focus and snapping the shot before the bird moves out of focus again relies on serendipity more than anything else. I've easily taken over two thousand pictures of longtails, but of those two thousand I've only got about a hundred decent ones, and of those hundred only a handful are actually any good. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I can't imagine trying to do this with a film camera.
Another caveat with photographing longtails is that they are more often than not above your head. The trouble with this is that the underside of the bird is just flat white; all the markings are on the top. Rarely is a shot taken underneath one of them any good. On my latest "excursion" to the beach I got one of a longtail, in flight, looking down, with the beach behind it. It was practically perfect, except for the simple fact that tourists tend to like the beach. As you can see...
It has the rocks for composition, the bright blue of the water and the pale pink of Bermuda's iconic sand. But sadly there are people. However, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, it now looks like this.
Looks a lot better, doesn't it? Amazing what can be done with Photoshop. Also, it only took me five to ten minutes to clean out all the tourists. I just need to sit myself down and do that with all those spots that showed up in my New Zealand pictures...the trouble there is that because they're in such a smooth gradient such as the sky, any scarring when I remove the dots will be immediately noticeable unless I'm very very careful. here, it didn't matter too much because of the turbulence of the water. It's a much easier trick to pull off with an out-of-focus, randomly coloured background where any mistake is not noticeable.
Here are some more pictures from the same "journey" to the beach.
Longtails, or any bird, are tricky to catch while in flight. Constantly flitting about, circling around, moving in and out of the focus range. And with such a big background like the ocean, getting it in focus and snapping the shot before the bird moves out of focus again relies on serendipity more than anything else. I've easily taken over two thousand pictures of longtails, but of those two thousand I've only got about a hundred decent ones, and of those hundred only a handful are actually any good. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I can't imagine trying to do this with a film camera.
Another caveat with photographing longtails is that they are more often than not above your head. The trouble with this is that the underside of the bird is just flat white; all the markings are on the top. Rarely is a shot taken underneath one of them any good. On my latest "excursion" to the beach I got one of a longtail, in flight, looking down, with the beach behind it. It was practically perfect, except for the simple fact that tourists tend to like the beach. As you can see...
It has the rocks for composition, the bright blue of the water and the pale pink of Bermuda's iconic sand. But sadly there are people. However, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, it now looks like this.
Looks a lot better, doesn't it? Amazing what can be done with Photoshop. Also, it only took me five to ten minutes to clean out all the tourists. I just need to sit myself down and do that with all those spots that showed up in my New Zealand pictures...the trouble there is that because they're in such a smooth gradient such as the sky, any scarring when I remove the dots will be immediately noticeable unless I'm very very careful. here, it didn't matter too much because of the turbulence of the water. It's a much easier trick to pull off with an out-of-focus, randomly coloured background where any mistake is not noticeable.
Here are some more pictures from the same "journey" to the beach.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Day six!
Here it is. Wow.
Day six. Okay okay I'm going really slowly with this. Bear with me. The next few days should be a little faster. Well, at least I hope so. And don't remind me about all the PotWs I have to catch up on. I'll get it done. When is the question. Not if. When.
This day was our big Lord of the Rings day. We started at about eight in the morning and didn't get home until five or six that evening. But details like that aren't important. Back to important stuff.
Stuff like our first stop. That being Ithilien. The most recognizable scene there is where Sam and Frodo are watching the Haradrim come through. To get to the proper vantage point we had to walk around the "set". As we were walking I noticed how extremely familiar the scene looked, through it wasn't until we came around to the camera viewpoint that it clicked and I recognized the scene. Our guide showed us the "call sheet" for one of the days of filming at that location. It included every single little detail for the day's filming, including things like food, maps, extras details, and so on and so forth. Certainly pretty interesting stuff. Our guide had a friend who was one of the Haradrim and thus had an interesting perspective on those particular scenes. All those lines of Haradrim walking across the gravel "field"? The same sets of extras, each filmed seperately and stacked together. They only had about twenty or thirty guys there for that. Each extra was assigned a number, and when that number was called all the extras with that number would "die". The arrows were then editted in later to the guys that died. On one the days of filming while they were waiting to start another take, a group of canyoners came down unwittingly into the film set. The first and, for a while, only thing they saw was the group of extras dressed up as Haradrim. The extras all exchanged a glance, and, wordlessly, starting marching on the canyoners in a threatening manner. Predictably, when faced with a group of outlandishly dressed warriors, the canyoners freaked out and started to run. We also saw in the same area one of the scenes where Sam and Frodo were being led by the rangers to the secret place. At that point in the filming the scale doubles for the hobbits were used because they were standing right next to a human. Apparently though because of the blindfolds they kept tripping and stumbling while being forced down the hill. Same problem as the Uruks at Amon Hen.
Interesting side note: remember all the white flowers on the graves of Theodin's forefathers? Those are all fake. They were modeled off of a real flower which Peter Jackson really liked for that scene, but they never grow close together and only bloom for a very tiny part of the year. In short, it was impossible to have that many flowers at one time. So he had them all made of silk (somewhere in Southeast Asia, I believe. I want to say Taiwan but I don't think that's right). While he was at it he had them made a little bigger as well, as the actual flower is tiny. It's about the same size as a Bermudiana (link).
After our tour of Ithilien (which was a little more than an hour) we made our way back into Queenstown for lunch. For those of you who have been paying attention, you should notice that this is a pretty early lunch. Except I didn't tell you that the drive was about forty-five minutes one way. Moving on. Lunch. It was a hobbit-like meal, being various meats and cheeses with bread. All served on one communal dish. During lunch our guide handed us copies of the scripts for the movies. The actual scripts. For all three movies. And they were full of typos. Full. In addition, we got to look at the Weta Workshop calendar; a hand-drawn calendar full of little jokes and things. For example, in the first week of one month a day was labeled "Rivendell design day". About a week later there was a day labeled "Rivendell re-design day". Five days or so after that; "Rivendell re-re-design day". And another week later there was "Rivendell 'I think we're getting it now' day". In October there was a Monday labeled, "Persistent Media Spy Day". The next day was, "Persistent Media Spy Day: The Sequel". Wednesday was, "More Persistent Media Spy Day". Thursday was, "Thank God for Security Day". And so on and so forth throughout the calendar.
After lunch we were off to another part of the Anduin River. Remember the part of the Anduin we saw "near" Te Anau? That place was just after the Argonath in the movie. Here we were, however, in Queenstown, visiting the place where the Argonath was. Unfortunately they've taken the statues down (much to the delight of the folks over at the Burj Kalhifa) so I got Jordan and Abigail to stand in. I didn't tell them I had taken the picture, though, so they stood there for a few minutes before realizing what fools they looked like. The road we had to take to get to that vantage point was extremely windy and right along the edge of a steep cliff. At the other end of the road was a winery owned by some people with a good sense of humour, as evidenced by the two warning signs on the road; "Steep cliffs. Parachute required" and "Speed Camera".
The next stop on this tour was another Anduin location. This time it was for the opening scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring", where Isildur is ambushed by orcs and loses the ring. The only trouble was that it was late summer/early fall unlike when the scene was shot, which was in the middle of winter. Also, the river at that point is only a few inches deep; not quite the great and mighty Anduin like one might expect. Our guide also explained how on the call sheet for that scene there was a "Stunt rock" listed. Also, the poor stunt double for Isildur had to float like a dead body in freezing cold water several times. I feel sorry for that guy; he did all the hard work for Isildur while the actor mostly just stood around in the few scenes which included him. But the actor gets all the credit. A short drive later we stopped at one of the two locations at which the Fords of Bruinen was filmed. Just up river from us there were some people panning for gold. It certainly seemed like a pointless task, but our guide told us that one of his friends panned for gold and had actually found some little bits of gold. So there you go.
The last stop was at the top of a moutain from which we could see the whole valley. It was a stunning view. From there we could see the Remarkables range (well, we could see them from almost anywhere around Queenstown, but this was the best vantage point) and our guide pulled out a bunch of swords and stuff from the Lord of the Rings. He had the swords of Theodin, Eowyn, Boromir, Arwen, Legolas' knives, Gimli's ax, Sting, Narsil (the hilt) and Anduril, Aragorn's curved knife and a Morgul blade. On top of that there were a few rings (including Aragorn's ring, the name escapes me), a hobbit cloak, and Gimli's helmet. The pictures describe them infinitely better than I can, so I'll just say that after waving them about for a good half hour we pilled back into the van and headed home.
You'll notice that on the pictures from this last stop there are those three black spots I was babbling about earlier on this blog. If you didn't notice them in the most recent pictures you'll see them here for sure.
Day six. Okay okay I'm going really slowly with this. Bear with me. The next few days should be a little faster. Well, at least I hope so. And don't remind me about all the PotWs I have to catch up on. I'll get it done. When is the question. Not if. When.
This day was our big Lord of the Rings day. We started at about eight in the morning and didn't get home until five or six that evening. But details like that aren't important. Back to important stuff.
Stuff like our first stop. That being Ithilien. The most recognizable scene there is where Sam and Frodo are watching the Haradrim come through. To get to the proper vantage point we had to walk around the "set". As we were walking I noticed how extremely familiar the scene looked, through it wasn't until we came around to the camera viewpoint that it clicked and I recognized the scene. Our guide showed us the "call sheet" for one of the days of filming at that location. It included every single little detail for the day's filming, including things like food, maps, extras details, and so on and so forth. Certainly pretty interesting stuff. Our guide had a friend who was one of the Haradrim and thus had an interesting perspective on those particular scenes. All those lines of Haradrim walking across the gravel "field"? The same sets of extras, each filmed seperately and stacked together. They only had about twenty or thirty guys there for that. Each extra was assigned a number, and when that number was called all the extras with that number would "die". The arrows were then editted in later to the guys that died. On one the days of filming while they were waiting to start another take, a group of canyoners came down unwittingly into the film set. The first and, for a while, only thing they saw was the group of extras dressed up as Haradrim. The extras all exchanged a glance, and, wordlessly, starting marching on the canyoners in a threatening manner. Predictably, when faced with a group of outlandishly dressed warriors, the canyoners freaked out and started to run. We also saw in the same area one of the scenes where Sam and Frodo were being led by the rangers to the secret place. At that point in the filming the scale doubles for the hobbits were used because they were standing right next to a human. Apparently though because of the blindfolds they kept tripping and stumbling while being forced down the hill. Same problem as the Uruks at Amon Hen.
Interesting side note: remember all the white flowers on the graves of Theodin's forefathers? Those are all fake. They were modeled off of a real flower which Peter Jackson really liked for that scene, but they never grow close together and only bloom for a very tiny part of the year. In short, it was impossible to have that many flowers at one time. So he had them all made of silk (somewhere in Southeast Asia, I believe. I want to say Taiwan but I don't think that's right). While he was at it he had them made a little bigger as well, as the actual flower is tiny. It's about the same size as a Bermudiana (link).
After our tour of Ithilien (which was a little more than an hour) we made our way back into Queenstown for lunch. For those of you who have been paying attention, you should notice that this is a pretty early lunch. Except I didn't tell you that the drive was about forty-five minutes one way. Moving on. Lunch. It was a hobbit-like meal, being various meats and cheeses with bread. All served on one communal dish. During lunch our guide handed us copies of the scripts for the movies. The actual scripts. For all three movies. And they were full of typos. Full. In addition, we got to look at the Weta Workshop calendar; a hand-drawn calendar full of little jokes and things. For example, in the first week of one month a day was labeled "Rivendell design day". About a week later there was a day labeled "Rivendell re-design day". Five days or so after that; "Rivendell re-re-design day". And another week later there was "Rivendell 'I think we're getting it now' day". In October there was a Monday labeled, "Persistent Media Spy Day". The next day was, "Persistent Media Spy Day: The Sequel". Wednesday was, "More Persistent Media Spy Day". Thursday was, "Thank God for Security Day". And so on and so forth throughout the calendar.
After lunch we were off to another part of the Anduin River. Remember the part of the Anduin we saw "near" Te Anau? That place was just after the Argonath in the movie. Here we were, however, in Queenstown, visiting the place where the Argonath was. Unfortunately they've taken the statues down (much to the delight of the folks over at the Burj Kalhifa) so I got Jordan and Abigail to stand in. I didn't tell them I had taken the picture, though, so they stood there for a few minutes before realizing what fools they looked like. The road we had to take to get to that vantage point was extremely windy and right along the edge of a steep cliff. At the other end of the road was a winery owned by some people with a good sense of humour, as evidenced by the two warning signs on the road; "Steep cliffs. Parachute required" and "Speed Camera".
The next stop on this tour was another Anduin location. This time it was for the opening scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring", where Isildur is ambushed by orcs and loses the ring. The only trouble was that it was late summer/early fall unlike when the scene was shot, which was in the middle of winter. Also, the river at that point is only a few inches deep; not quite the great and mighty Anduin like one might expect. Our guide also explained how on the call sheet for that scene there was a "Stunt rock" listed. Also, the poor stunt double for Isildur had to float like a dead body in freezing cold water several times. I feel sorry for that guy; he did all the hard work for Isildur while the actor mostly just stood around in the few scenes which included him. But the actor gets all the credit. A short drive later we stopped at one of the two locations at which the Fords of Bruinen was filmed. Just up river from us there were some people panning for gold. It certainly seemed like a pointless task, but our guide told us that one of his friends panned for gold and had actually found some little bits of gold. So there you go.
The last stop was at the top of a moutain from which we could see the whole valley. It was a stunning view. From there we could see the Remarkables range (well, we could see them from almost anywhere around Queenstown, but this was the best vantage point) and our guide pulled out a bunch of swords and stuff from the Lord of the Rings. He had the swords of Theodin, Eowyn, Boromir, Arwen, Legolas' knives, Gimli's ax, Sting, Narsil (the hilt) and Anduril, Aragorn's curved knife and a Morgul blade. On top of that there were a few rings (including Aragorn's ring, the name escapes me), a hobbit cloak, and Gimli's helmet. The pictures describe them infinitely better than I can, so I'll just say that after waving them about for a good half hour we pilled back into the van and headed home.
You'll notice that on the pictures from this last stop there are those three black spots I was babbling about earlier on this blog. If you didn't notice them in the most recent pictures you'll see them here for sure.
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| You can see how far down it is. Also, that bridge there is the location of the first commercial bungy jumping operation. |
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| He didn't handle too many more swords after this shot... |
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Still here!
Just a quick post to say that yes, there still is someone here. I'm currently quite busy with school and music as exams approach (especially music), and when you add my usual amount of procrastination on top you end up with a good deal of blog neglect. My sister's been nagging me to post, giving me the title of "Worst Blogger Ever", so I've decided that enough is enough and here you go. One shiny new blog post.
Seriously though, this is my pledge (and now motivation) to get cracking on the last few days from our trip plus do the write-up for the aftermath of Good Friday. If I don't hurry my wounds from the day may be healed before I get around to writing it. (that's a teaser, by the way.) I did start on one of the entries about an hour ago while simultaneously watching the NFL Draft, but unfortunately my multi-tasking skills need some brushing up and I ended up watching a lot more of the draft than writing my entry. So it's half done. But it's a start. And I'm rambling now.
Watch this space! Well...actually don't...that would get very boring very fast...just...subscribe or something so as to be notified when things come up...that way you don't waste your time checking. Or do come and check...up to you.
Seriously though, this is my pledge (and now motivation) to get cracking on the last few days from our trip plus do the write-up for the aftermath of Good Friday. If I don't hurry my wounds from the day may be healed before I get around to writing it. (that's a teaser, by the way.) I did start on one of the entries about an hour ago while simultaneously watching the NFL Draft, but unfortunately my multi-tasking skills need some brushing up and I ended up watching a lot more of the draft than writing my entry. So it's half done. But it's a start. And I'm rambling now.
Watch this space! Well...actually don't...that would get very boring very fast...just...subscribe or something so as to be notified when things come up...that way you don't waste your time checking. Or do come and check...up to you.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I just finished my kite for Good Friday. For those of you that don't know what the heck I'm talking about, here in Bermuda it's a tradition (although a dying one) to make and fly kites on Good Friday. The first kites flown had sticks of wood forming a cross, and then string and paper applied to make it flyable. Over the years kite designs got more and more elaborate, so now there are several different styles, but the two predominant ones are round kites and headstick kites. My siblings used frames from last year to make headstick kites, each about the size of an average human's torso. I made a large five foot round kite with two headsticks, resulting in a kite that's about six feet from the top of the headsticks to the bottom. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some pictures (or get someone to take pictures) of the kites being put up.
As a side note, my kite is going to be pulling so hard on the string I'll have to wear two pairs of gloves to just try to prevent myself from getting rope burn. Last year I had heavy duty work gloves for a 4.5 foot kite...the string went right through that.
As a side note, my kite is going to be pulling so hard on the string I'll have to wear two pairs of gloves to just try to prevent myself from getting rope burn. Last year I had heavy duty work gloves for a 4.5 foot kite...the string went right through that.
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| Is it...is it really me in a picture? What is this world coming to? |
Monday, April 18, 2011
More Macros!
This lens is awesome! I'll let the pictures explain why. None of these have been cropped or edited in any way.
Good news and bad news
The good news is that I was pleasantly surprised with a macro/portrait lens for my birthday. I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is. It's a little strange to get used to as it's 105 mm and that's it, but still can produce incredibly sharp images up close (limited depth of field, yes, but not as bad as the filters I was using). What's nice is that at 105 mm I can stand a few feet from the subject and still be getting a close-up shot, which is perfect for small animals that get scared by things coming too close (i.e. lizards. See below).
The bad news is I have a few specks of dust on my sensor. Inside the camera. They're nearly invisible on a lot of shots but when there's a sky in the background the show up like red paint on a white shirt. It doesn't help that the majority of the specks are in the upper half where the sky usually is. I'll be bringing it to a Nikon place in Montreal when I go there on Easter (piano lessons...long story...) and picking it up two weeks later when we go back for, yes, more piano lessons. Fortunately the specks are pretty small so I can generally edit them out (as I've done with two of them below...the third couldn't be taken out for obvious reasons...if you spot it...[no pun intended]).
The bad news is I have a few specks of dust on my sensor. Inside the camera. They're nearly invisible on a lot of shots but when there's a sky in the background the show up like red paint on a white shirt. It doesn't help that the majority of the specks are in the upper half where the sky usually is. I'll be bringing it to a Nikon place in Montreal when I go there on Easter (piano lessons...long story...) and picking it up two weeks later when we go back for, yes, more piano lessons. Fortunately the specks are pretty small so I can generally edit them out (as I've done with two of them below...the third couldn't be taken out for obvious reasons...if you spot it...[no pun intended]).
Sunday, April 17, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
New Zealand (Day 4)
While this day is technically not the day after Day 3, that's because Day 3.5 (as I shall henceforth call it) was a transit day. The number one objective of that day was to get from Wanaka to Te Anau. That involved a spectacular drive through the mountains (including a drive over the highest paved road in New Zealand), a stop in Arrowtown for a late lunch, and finally arriving in Te Anau in the evening. Calling it a transit day is not to say it wasn't an absolutely awesome day, as mountain scenery is amazing, but other than just driving not too much happened.
Day four was the day we visited Milford Sound. The whole south-western coast of the South Island is fjords and mountains, much like Scandinavia. The drive there was amazing in and of itself, let alone the fjord. We stopped by at the Mirror Lakes where the water is, well, a mirror. Not a single ripple to mess up the reflection.
The rest of the drive was, as stated already, amazing. Words really don't work in this situation so I'll let the pictures do the talking for you. Bear in mind that the first two were taken from a moving vehicle. That's what caused the blurring.
And yes you get a virtual cookie if you figure out the secret nature of these pictures.
Somewhat fortunately for me, Milford Sound really defies description. There were mountains, waterfalls, water, some seals, some birds...all combined to make a wonderful amazing scene of awesomeness. Again, words just don't serve here so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Also, just so you know New Zealand days 2-4 are part of week 13.
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