Middle Earth, Movies, and Me

    Next month marks a whopping 20 years since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings was released in cinemas, and I didn't want that anniversary to pass without saying a few words.

   I've spoken many times, at length, in interviews as well as on this blog, about my love of the fantasy genre. I was raised on 80s fantasy movies and artwork, so, when Fellowship came out at my local UCI in December 2001, of course my Dad took myself and my brother to see it. I was twelve years old at the time, and unaware that I was about to experience a key moment in my life.

   I don't remember too much about that first screening; I mostly remember comparing it to the book, as I'd just started reading that at the time (I'd read The Hobbit previously, and I'd read enough of LOTR to know that Bilbo's ring was The One Ring, but I was surprised by other things like, for example, the fact that Gimli was the son of Gloin), but of course I adored the film, to the extent that I had read the rest of the book and a few movie tie-ins by Brian Sibley by the time the second film came out. 

   I sadly don't remember anything about my trip to see The Two Towers, but my memory of seeing The Return of the King is very vivid, as it had a profound emotional effect on me. Not only is Peter Jackson's trilogy responsible for my addiction to buying action figures, but it also made me learn about what filmmaking really was, and suddenly I knew what career I wanted to pursue. I dabbled with theatre for the next few years, as (for some reason) that felt like a more realistic goal for this small-town girl - but I got my first camcorder when I was 15, and as the saying goes, I never looked back.

   Because The Lord of the Rings inspired me to make films, there were obviously times when it inspired what I'd film. Sometimes these were obvious visual homages to the fantasy epic, others were cinematography ideas I pinched, and others were - I swear - completely unintentional, perhaps because of how much the series is ingrained into my psyche, even twenty years later.

   So, to the best of my knowledge, here's all the times my films gave a visual nod to the work of Messrs Tolkein and Jackson...

The Lord of the Things (2006)

   This is undoubtedly the most obvious example of a LOTR rip-off on my list. When I got my second camera - a standard-definition DV-tape camcorder - I wanted to test it out by making a film. I found a fan-made 'comedy version' of The Fellowship of the Rings script online, got my friends together, made costumes out of curtains and cardboard (special kudos to my mate Josh for his surprisingly accurate cardboard Sauron armour!), and ended up making my first narrative film as a result. We thought the script was funny at the time, as we were teenagers - but looking back on it now, it was incredibly crude and would probably be seen as offensive today, so I have no intention of ever releasing the film online!

The Opening Night (2010) 

  This example is much less obvious, and it doesn't help that the original shot in question is hard to find; we didn't use it in the finished film, so I'd have to trawl through hours of rushes to show you a screenshot. I did try to find my original storyboards for this blog post, to help demonstrate my point, but I seem to be missing a few pages - so bear with me while I try and explain this one as best I can!

   The Opening Night was my student film about the world of Theatre, with more visual inspirations from Moulin Rouge! (which also turned 20 this year) than anything else. It certainly didn't need to reference The Lord of The Rings, and yet, young me decided to try and do that. There was a scene when the lead character, Marianne (Lucy Hagan-Walker), blots her lipstick and leaves the tissue on the dressing table. I asked my crew to film a close-up of said tissue where the framing made it look exactly like the snowy mountains of Caradhas! This was completely unnecessary, as the finished shot was just a bland white close-up of a screwed up tissue, which is why it wasn't ultimately used in the edit.

Ashes (shot in 2012)

   As this was my first time directing a professional crew, Ashes was a film where I wanted to throw every visual trick that I could at it. I was also fascinated by how amazing the lead actor's (Sarah Lamesch) eyes looked on camera, so I wanted to enhance them wherever possible. In the film's terrifying penultimate scene, there were some close-ups where Sarah looked directly at camera, so I suggested to DOP Neil Oseman that we should steal a lighting trick from The Fellowship of the Ring, where Galadriel's eyes always look like they have stars reflected in them. Neil was all too happy to oblige, and you can see a breakdown of this lighting technique - as well as other examples of his cinematography on the film - in this archived blog post.

Songbird (shot in 2016)

   When time came for me to shoot my first full-on fantasy film, of course my love of Lord of the Rings was going to rear its head again, on numerous occasions. However, it was only last year - when I was introducing my partner, Edward Harvey, to the trilogy as part of my lockdown birthday celebrations - that I realised how much my favourite shot from Songbird looked like a shot of Frodo from the Flight at the Ford scene! I had storyboarded this shot, and I know that DOP Christopher Newman is as big of a Tolkein nerd as I am, so the seeds of inspiration must've been there, even if it wasn't a conscious decision.

   A more obvious Lord of the Rings reference can be seen in the extended cut of Songbird where, in the opening scene, a metal eagle is hanging from the mirror of the car that's driving Janet Devlin's Jennifer. This, again, was a very gratuitous decision - it was an in-joke about the fact that the driver, Mickey (Terry Palmer) could only take Jennifer part of the way to Blackmoor Woods, just as Tolkein's Eagles could never fly the Fellowship all of the way to Mordor. [And yes, I do know that the above screengrab is from The Hobbit, but it was the best visual comparison I could find!]

   And finally, another accidental Tolkein reference; at the end of the climactic battle scene, we captured this shot of the villain, Therese Collins' 'The Collector', lying defeated on the ground. Again, this shot was storyboarded, so whether it was intentional or not, it was clearly inspired by one of the paintings my Dad had in the house when I was young - Return of the Shadow by the artist Roger Garland.

   You can read more about Songbird's visual inspirations and Easter eggs in this blog post.

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   Over the years, as I grew and my filmmaking developed, I like to hope I have found my own style as a director, rather than just stealing ideas from other people. However, that is something all fledgling filmmakers do when they're first starting out - and as long as it's done with respect, it's something I encourage. If you're picking up a camera for the first time, and you don't know what to shoot, why not try recreating a camera angle from a film you really love? It's a great way to figure out the nuts and bolts that go into shot composition.

   And with more Tolkein films and television shows coming our way next year, who's to say I won't be inspired to try more visual references in the future. As a result of the pandemic, I've also learnt the power of rest, which has inspired me to start reading more - and of course, The Silmarillion is at the top of my list. Who knows what that will awaken in my mind?

   But what is incredible is that fact that, two decades later, I'm still inspired by The Lord of The Rings. I still listen to the soundtrack, I still collect the merchandise, and particularly today, as 'Storm Arwen' is currently ravaging my garden, I've realised that there aren't many days where I don't think about the films. Even now, I'm still discovering new behind-the-scenes stories, still learning about techniques that were implemented during the shoot, which just goes to show how much care and attention to detail the filmmakers put into their work.

   It's also worth noting that those filmmakers (and most of their cast) weren't well-known names at the time. They had studio backing, but a very restricted budget, and they chose to film in their underused homeland rather than on a Hollywood backlot. It was, in many ways, the biggest 'indie film' ever made, and I always strive to apply that approach when working with my own film crews today.

   Tolkein created the world of Middle Earth, and he deserves constant love and admiration for that. But The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson are what made me want to make movies in the first place; it's a career path I'm still fighting for in 2021, and I will always be immensely grateful for that.

   Now if only someone could put me in touch with WingNut Films so that I could say thank you to Peter Jackson in person...

Sophie