Making of ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' panel: Bringing the Balrog to life was ‘like doing a slight of hand card trick'
'We are privileged to be in this world of Middle-earth.'
So proclaims The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power VFX supervisor Jason Smith, who adds, 'There's a lot of pressure and excitement. Power comes from that.'
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Smith joined director of photography Alex Disenhof, production designer Kristian Milsted, costume designer Luca Mosca, prosthetic designer Barrie Gower, and editor Joel Skinner for our in-depth Making of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power panel. Watch their full discussion above.
The Prime Video series explores J.R.R. Tolkien's imagined world thousands of years before the events in The Lord of the Rings. The second season chronicles the forging of the rings and rise of the evil Lord Sauron. 'Every morning when I get to see yesterday's filming from Middle-earth, it's like being a kid again," says Skinner. "I don't need to take a jug of coffee. I want to delve right in and see what these guys have been up to.'
Spanning the environments of elves, dwarves, humans, and orcs provides exciting challenges for the team. 'Each and every different universe has its own look,' explains Disenhof. 'I felt like I was working on four feature films at once.' Notes Gower, 'It's very rare to work on a show with makeup effects where almost every character has some form of rubber glued to their face.'
To create this expansive world the team relies on a strong spirit of collaboration. 'Everybody can do things at such a high level of sophistication. Going to work becomes like going to a museum that you have never seen before,' says Mosca. Gower agrees that 'we get our power from the creative people around us.'
In the Season 2 finale, titled "Shadow and Flame," the dwarf King Durin comes face to face with the menacing Balrog in the Mines of Moria. It's the first time the beast has been depicted on screen since its iconic appearance in The Lord of the Rings films. It was a moment that highlighted the way this creative fellowship worked together.
Prime Video
'It's this 40-foot tall fire monster. Kristian and I had to figure where we were going to build the set and how to give the photography that Jason and Joel needed to bring the Balrog to life,' Disenhof explains. 'On the lighting side, we built 40-foot towers of lights which we could control remotely. When the Balrog was lower, the lights could be lower. Then the lights would climb up the towers and get brighter. We had six different cues for where the Balrog was in space. It gave interactive lighting to set it in the real world, to help best show Barrie's prosthetics and Luca's costumes.'
Adds Smith: 'It's like doing a slight-of-hand card trick where each one of us is one finger on the hand. We're all trying to be in concert with each at just the right time. There's more creative problem solving than I'm used to and it's generally cross-discipline. I don't know why Tolkien's world is so suited to this nice combination of practical things and the imaginary, but it makes it a lot of fun.'
The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power received six Emmy nominations (costumes, main title theme music, main title design, prosthetic makeup, sound editing, and visual effects). So far, the second season has garnered award nominations from the Art Directors Guild, Costume Designers Guild, Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild, and Visual Effects Society.
This article and video are presented by Prime Video.
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