Peter Jackson is a master of blending special effects and character to serve the overall narrative piece. Like many of my colleagues, his work in The Lord of the Rings inspired me to attend film school and has been a guiding influence in my creative endeavors. Particularly, I am fascinated by Jackson's ability to create a film of epic proportions with comprehensive battles, but still have a focus on character and the relationships between the people in the story.
Part of the reason Jackson is so talented at creating and implementing special effects is because he's been doing it since he was a child. On Jackson's first feature film, Bad Taste, he actually created a lot of the special effects himself. In one scene, they had an alien drinking vomit, and Jackson used a mixture of muesli and green food coloring to create the prop. Jackson's success with special effects led him and his co-workers to found an effects company called Weta Digital. With the success of the first Lord of the Rings film, Jackson's Weta was able to gain instant funding to pursue research on new special effects. This led to the creation of the Massive program. Jackson used the Massive software to create academy award-winning visual effects for the battle scenes for Lord of the Rings. It was a combination of this software and Jackson's extreme dedication to detail in costume and set design that gave Lord of the Rings its incredible atmosphere.
Here is an example of a finished photo, completed with the Massive software, from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers:
Another picture example, witch each individual layer, click here...(It won't let me embed image)
EXAMPLE OF HOW EACH LAYER OF A SHOT IS COMPOSED IN A BATTLE SCENE
Lastly, here's an example of Weta's work in creating special effects-laden environments for some of Jackson's films. The opening sequence is from the third installment of Lord of the Rings...
Weta Digital's Environment Example
With scenes like these, Jackson accomplished the creation of a fantasy world that drew audiences in and made them forget they were in theaters. These effects aren't completely groundbreaking, but Jackson's use of them to supplement the story is. Jackson never places such prominence on the use of special effects that the story suffers, and that is why I have such strong admiration for him. Even though he's using state of the art technology and software, he refuses to overlook the most important thing: character.
A perfect example of Jackson blending character and special effects is Aragorn's ending speech in the Return of the King. Aragorn rides up on his horse amidst heavy special effects. There's an ominous mountain in the background, a black swirling sky, and computer-generated towers surrounding him. Still, in the writing process, Jackson wrote a speech to allow Aragorn to express his character and to rally his troops. It is my absolute favorite film speech, because of the heart with which it is delivered, and because of the epic backdrop of the scene. Jackson's allows enough time for the scene, and speech, to build emotionally so that by the end it carries great weight emotionally for the audience.
Peter Jackson is my favorite filmmaker for scenes like this speech. One of the things that bothers me most with recent films is their tendency to rely on special effects to carry a story, rather than to complement a story. Jackson's primary focus is characters and how they interact with each other, and in my opinion, that's the only thing that can truly make a great film.
Without further explanation, here it is...
ARAGORN'S BATTLE SPEECH
Note: I previously embedded the video in my post but it was removed almost immediately, so you'll have to settle for clicking the link!
-Brian
