As I write this a growing number of the actors and extras are in New Zealand getting ready for primary photography on Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Some of the actors expect to be there for 18 months. I sort of wonder how many group photos will come out of this production, and if everyone will be wearing their sunblock in all of them.
Although everyone agrees that New Zealand is a beautiful land and has a wide variety of landscapes in a relatively small area, what many people outside that region may not know is that New Zealand is one of the countries plagued by the
Ozone problem. As environmentalists have been quick to point out over the years, we have foolishly flooded our waters and airs with chemicals the longterm effects of which are still being identified, and we know now that we have depleted part of Earth's Ozone layer, especially in the southern hemisphere.
Actors for
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and
Xena: Warrior Princess have to slather up in protective ointment when they are filming outdoors, and the stuff along with their makeup has to be waterproof, as there are frequent rains in the Auckland area where the two shows have mostly been filmed through the years.
I don't think we'll be seeing the Elves of Lorien offering the surviving members of the Fellowship vials filled with Elven sunblock, but Jackson's makeup and special effects people will have to take the sunblock into account.
Rainstorms are not so bad for "The Lord of the Rings". There are occasional rains in the story, so I don't think it should matter too much if there are clouds in the sky or even the occasional drizzling mist or sudden downpour (although the best rainstorm, the one that traps the hobbits at Bombadil's house, will sadly not be included in the movies). One must wonder how Jackson is going to portray the darkened Rohan and Gondor when Sauron's cloud closes over them.
"Oh, that's easy! CGI!" you say. Well, maybe not so easily. As I understand it, the CGI folks have to match the lighting sequences of the shots filmed with live actors. I don't know how WETA's people will do it, but George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic people used special cards with color slides on them. They'd take a shot and the CGI guys would use that to match up the lighting. Despite the many complaints I've heard about CGI in "The Phantom Menace", I thought the lighting matchups were superb. I expect at least the same quality to emerge from WETA's programming team.
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