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Peter Jackson created a living history with theLord of the Ringstrilogy. The director’s penchant for the realm of fantasy and all that it has to offer has in turn delivered the audience a land of endless escapism. Such a rich world of lore and mysticism crafted by J.R.R. Tolkien would have never worked in the hands of anyone other than the Kiwi filmmaker.
![Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings – The Shire [Credit: New Line Cinema]](https://i2.wp.com/fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/06141251/Lord-of-the-Rings-The-Shire-Credit-New-Line-Cinema-1-1024x512.jpg)
Despite a strict authority over the lore of Tolkien’s universe, sticking too close to the source material would prove exhausting due to the complete surrealism of Middle-earth’s landscapes, scenery, and population. However, it was Peter Jackson’s unyielding faith in the adaptation and his ingenious inventions that crafted theLord of the Ringstrilogy as a modern-day classic in pop culture history.
Middle-earth Presents a Daunting Challenge to Peter Jackson
The responsibility of adapting theLord of the Ringsnovels comes with the burden of being resourceful and innovative. The Middle-earth of Tolkien’s fantasy is unforgiving in its in-depth expansive mythology. The limited creativity that a Hollywood set or a location provides is no match for Hithaeglir, Anduin, or Hobbiton.
As such, reality becomes a roadblock when it comes to the fantastical creations ripped out from Tolkien’s imagination. For Peter Jackson, this meant that he had to devise a method while filming the objects fromLord of the Ringslore that could give them an otherworldy mysticism when translated on screen.
As for the locations and landscapes, the town of Hobbiton and a few other set pieces had to be crafted from the ground up while the rest was filled in by advanced VFX and CGI. Although seen as a nuisance in today’s cinematic industry, directors like Ridley Scott and James Cameron pioneered the advancement of CGI and VFX in the 80s due to films likeAlien,BladeRunner, andTerminator.
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In the early 2000s, the advancement in the technical and technological aspects of filmmaking then helped bring to life such masterpieces as theLord of the Ringstrilogy, theHarry Potterfranchise, andAvatar.
Practical Effects vs. CGI/VFX inLord of the Rings
Despite the fantastical world of Elves, dwarves, druids, and hobbits, Peter Jackson leaned heavily toward the use ofpractical set piecesfor hisLord of the Ringstrilogy. The beauty of Middle-earth became even more tangible due to Jackson’s ability to infusereal objectswith the magic of Tolkien’s imagination rather than resigning to botched computer-generated graphics.
One of the crucial aspects of theLord of the Ringstrilogy that required an inventive take was truthfully depicting the hobbits with respect to the humans, Elves, and the rest of the population. For that, Peter Jackson used forced perspective in the shots where two separate set pieces would be built and filmed in exactly the same manner while one would be placed slightly in front of the camera to appear larger.
The two shots would be juxtaposed in post-production to give the scene a natural look and feel rather than make the hobbits look unnaturally edited and shortened via CGI.
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Another object that used the same technique was the titular ring that was at the center of theLord of the Ringssaga. The props department manufactured severalgolden circlets of different diameters, the largest among them being 8 inches in diameter.
The differently sized rings would be used for forced perspective shots in various scenes, including close-up shots to show the ring in detail while keeping the actors and the background more subdued and out of focus.
![Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Elijah Wood as Frodo in Lord of the Rings [Credit: New Line Cinema]](https://i2.wp.com/fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/06140151/Lord-of-the-Rings-franchise-set-to-be-revived-by-WB.jpg)
Peter Jackson’s ingenious inventions on set, his ability to adapt to unforeseen issues during filming, and counter matters as simple as focusing on a ring within a frame contributed to makingLord of the Ringsone of the greatest trilogies ever produced in live-action cinema.
Lord of the Ringstrilogy is available to stream on Max.
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2410
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
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Lord of the Rings
