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
Have you seen Meet the Feebles? It is definitely a film of epic proportions and great special effects.
ReplyDeleteI personally don’t like the heavy use of CGI in movies today. It doesn’t look as good as miniatures, costumes, and other more traditional effects. I’m sure that in the future they will be able to make CGI look much better but it’s sad to see those old forms dying and that no one is learning how to make them anymore. I think the traditional effects added more magic to the craft of film making.
I’m glad that your focus is on character and not about just creating a flashy movie.
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ReplyDeleteI like your point about “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.” I think this is so true of Jackson’s films, as I quickly relived them and comparatively other movies in the same genre as Lord Of The Rings. The battle scenes in LOTR, while epic and huge in proportion, are much easier to follow than say, the battles in 300, or Chronicles Of Narnia. On top of that, Jackson’s battles are so multifaceted– more than one character is followed but without seeming jumpy, random, or only surface deep. Obviously there are lead actors, but the supporting actors hold their own as well.
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow filmmaker, I have watched my fair share of films of all genres and I have never been into fantasy films and still am not… but I LOVE the Lord of the Rings films. I agree that in this day and age with technology making such incredible advances it is easy for films to use those FX as a crutch for bad acting and bad writing. But when it comes down to it, no matter how cool those special FX are, if the acting and plot are not there, no audience member is ever going to care about what is going on. The Lord of the Rings world is super complex and there are tons of characters with their own languages and quirks, but Peter Jackson amazingly captured the subtle essence of every single creature in all three of the films. Yes, there are great special FX, and YES the acting is spot on and in all three LOTR films so I personally laughed, cried and got genuinely scared. What great films!
ReplyDeleteBrian -
ReplyDeleteOk, so I have to say even though Lord of the Rings is obviously a movie that took a great deal of effort and work, I never really appreciated it before your post. That picture of the different layers of the battle scene is so interesting - it's crazy to think of how each individual frame of LOTR probably took weeks of work each!
I love your respect for Jackson in how he does not sacrifice story for technology. It is so easy these days to make movies like 2 Fast 2 Furious where you pull in the viewer with cool effects and chaotic editing. But you've pointed out that Peter Jackson marries the technological aspect with the story beautifully, making a valuable and thought-provoking work of art. Good job!