AmD
11-15-2004, 01:47 PM
Hi,
First time poster here. I have read these forums regularly (daily) for a couple of years now and have always found them to be extremely fun and interesting. It was always my intention to register but.... well you know.... I just never got around to it :) I just had to post something before these LOTR forums close for good and this seems like an appropriate time. I am a big time LOTR fan by the way ;)
I am a final year Student at the University of Bradford (England) and am Studying Computer Animation & Special Effects. Every year we have an animation festival held at a nearby museum (National Museum of Photography, Film and Television). The final even this year was a special talk "Creating Gollum" by Randy Cook.
I have admired this guy for a long time and it was slightly surreal for me to actually meet him (I am not used to meeting people I see on TV/DVDs etc).
He was interviewed in front of us for almost two and a half hours. It was a fascinating experience. He showed us about 20 minutes of Special Effects footage from ROTK which was not on any of the DVDs. Including alternate versions of several shots which were not used (one example was when a Mumkil rams into another Mumakil after Eomer Spears the 'commander'(?) - the camera originally wobbled around much more and was closer to the Mumak as it slammed into the ground). Also in another shot which is still in the film a rider falls off his horse and gets trampled (this is during the charge of the Rohirrim) the shot is still there but they covered the rider up with dead orcs :)
We saw a cross section of Gollum’s skin (SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!). We were shown the Shelob Model, the cave troll models and the flying nazgul models (I had no idea Frodo was CG when she was wrapping him in web!). We were shown loads of Minas Tirith Miniature shots. We got a close look at the Grond miniature etc. etc. etc.
The best part by far was the scene where Legolas takes down the Mumak. The 'rough' version of the shot has BATMAN leaping on the Mumak instead of Legolas (classic old fashioned outfit and cape) - very funny moment.
Another very amusing part was when Randy started talking about Shelob's 'motivation' about how she was actually really sweet inside and how you cannot really blame her for 'defending herself' from these nasty hobbits who tried to kill her. She just wanted to get to know them a little better, stinging Frodo and wrapping him in silk was her way of saying "Hello" :D
He also talked to us about his past films and experience. He showed us some behind the scene footage from an old film called 'Q'. It was hilarious. He was walking around a model dragon which he was animating... with a giant pipe in his mouth... every few seconds pausing... staring intently at the camera and then taking a slow puff. Every 30 seconds or so he stopped and commented on how godawful the dragon was :)
He also said he is currently a second unit Director on King Kong (he seemed very positive about how things were going).
About 20 of us lined up afterwards and got autographs and a handshake... he was an extremely friendly guy and very funny to listen to.
A great event.... well worth the three hours of queuing (what can I say - we are all nerds here - and proud of it ;) )
Now if I can just meet Peter Jackson... life will be complete
Srry for going on for so long on my first post. I'm still chuffed I got to meet the guy.
First time poster here. I have read these forums regularly (daily) for a couple of years now and have always found them to be extremely fun and interesting. It was always my intention to register but.... well you know.... I just never got around to it :) I just had to post something before these LOTR forums close for good and this seems like an appropriate time. I am a big time LOTR fan by the way ;)
I am a final year Student at the University of Bradford (England) and am Studying Computer Animation & Special Effects. Every year we have an animation festival held at a nearby museum (National Museum of Photography, Film and Television). The final even this year was a special talk "Creating Gollum" by Randy Cook.
I have admired this guy for a long time and it was slightly surreal for me to actually meet him (I am not used to meeting people I see on TV/DVDs etc).
He was interviewed in front of us for almost two and a half hours. It was a fascinating experience. He showed us about 20 minutes of Special Effects footage from ROTK which was not on any of the DVDs. Including alternate versions of several shots which were not used (one example was when a Mumkil rams into another Mumakil after Eomer Spears the 'commander'(?) - the camera originally wobbled around much more and was closer to the Mumak as it slammed into the ground). Also in another shot which is still in the film a rider falls off his horse and gets trampled (this is during the charge of the Rohirrim) the shot is still there but they covered the rider up with dead orcs :)
We saw a cross section of Gollum’s skin (SCARY SCARY SCARY!!!). We were shown the Shelob Model, the cave troll models and the flying nazgul models (I had no idea Frodo was CG when she was wrapping him in web!). We were shown loads of Minas Tirith Miniature shots. We got a close look at the Grond miniature etc. etc. etc.
The best part by far was the scene where Legolas takes down the Mumak. The 'rough' version of the shot has BATMAN leaping on the Mumak instead of Legolas (classic old fashioned outfit and cape) - very funny moment.
Another very amusing part was when Randy started talking about Shelob's 'motivation' about how she was actually really sweet inside and how you cannot really blame her for 'defending herself' from these nasty hobbits who tried to kill her. She just wanted to get to know them a little better, stinging Frodo and wrapping him in silk was her way of saying "Hello" :D
He also talked to us about his past films and experience. He showed us some behind the scene footage from an old film called 'Q'. It was hilarious. He was walking around a model dragon which he was animating... with a giant pipe in his mouth... every few seconds pausing... staring intently at the camera and then taking a slow puff. Every 30 seconds or so he stopped and commented on how godawful the dragon was :)
He also said he is currently a second unit Director on King Kong (he seemed very positive about how things were going).
About 20 of us lined up afterwards and got autographs and a handshake... he was an extremely friendly guy and very funny to listen to.
A great event.... well worth the three hours of queuing (what can I say - we are all nerds here - and proud of it ;) )
Now if I can just meet Peter Jackson... life will be complete
Srry for going on for so long on my first post. I'm still chuffed I got to meet the guy.