 This is outright a feast in terms of artwork. You get everything in this. Where our hearts truly lie is in peace and quiet. They didn't use CG to shrink. I mean, the fact that they're using scale doubles and a lot of it, even though they're doing multiple passes, force perspective, camera stuff. The force perspective stuff was mind blowing my fist or how they did that. I was like, wow, that was amazing. The biggest chickens they could possibly find to put next to the people. I love how every time you get a close up of the ring, you just know that that rings the size of a fucking basketball. Yeah, that's so cool. Half the shy has been invited, and the rest of them are turning up anyway. You know, another thing about this movie that people forget is they were pioneering color grading software. It was really the way they were able to create power windows and eye lights and accentuate that stuff. And so life in the Shire goes on very much as it has this past age. It's very handcrafted, but the color grading in this film is absolutely beautifully done. There's as much going on there as there was with Andrew Lesney's cinematography. Like everything else, it gives this film a bespoke, handcrafted, Savile Row feel. The things are made to endure in the Shire, passing from one generation to the next. They try and duplicate it in other movies, but they can't. Part of it, I think, is so important because it was made at the exactly the right time. Like, I don't think this works 20 years earlier or later. Well, look at the Hobbit opening compared to this opening. Yeah, night and day. He's up to something. All right, then, keep your secrets. But I know you have something to do with it. This is all, it's like you're watching sometimes a watercolor painting. Yes. You know, like really like... Like a fantasy painting come to life. Yeah, and it really was. I mean, they had two fantasy artists. They had the two best Tolkien artists in the world working on this the whole time. You know, painting imagery. John Howe and... Alan Lee. Alan Lee. Never had any adventures or did anything unexpected. If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved. And the fact that everybody was on the same page that they had all of these people in creative key positions that were all really serving this singular vision. And while Peter definitely was, and Philip and Fran were filtering it all without what was going on with Weta and Weta Workshop and Weta Digital. I mean, they always... Nothing was ever good enough. They were always making it better. I remember those days. You feel it. You've been officially labeled a Disturber of the Peace. You feel it in every frame. It also helps that there was like over a year just to prep for the movie before they started shooting anything. Oh, God, yeah. Whereas with the Hobbit, they were given no time at all and didn't even have a script for the third movie by the time they started shooting. You can tell there's an ass load of effort that was done just to setting all this shit up before they started. Sun's first light crept over the top of the trees and turned them all to stone. It was like when an actor makes a choice how to play a part, they were also making choices from a production standpoint what they would do to accentuate these characters to differentiate them from one another. Ready, Scott? I don't know why I took you in after your mother and father died, but it wasn't that of charity. You were the one Baggins that showed real spirit. Rubs! Jumps! All the races, when they talk about Rohan, I mean the design of the armor, the design of the colors they used in the fabrics were different than the fabrics they would use for the elves or different than what they used in Gondor. And you see all of that in the film. I mean, you're not necessarily aware of it, but you feel it. If it was made 20 years earlier or 20 years later, it was like made at the perfect time when visual effects were becoming more of a part of movie making and were able to like accentuate and work in places where they couldn't use practical, but they, I mean, look at these sets, you know? I suppose you think that was terribly clever. Come on, Gandalf. Did you see their faces? I should not keep it. I think you should leave the ring behind. Oh, my business isn't yours when I do my own thing. Give me my baggings! Do not take me for some conjure out of cheap sex. Imagine if fucking Disney made this, like everything around them would be just green screen. And I think that's a problem because like even a scene where Gandalf first goes and talks to Saruman at Isengard, they'll show you an establishing shot that has an effect that's combined with live action and it'll pan down and you'll see the two of them talking outside, but they're fairly medium shots, medium to close up shots. So there's, they don't have to put visual effects in them and it's them talking in real environments and you cut to an effect shot. It feels much more seamless, but when you're in environments that are completely generated and there's no reality in them, you don't get that same feel. And this movie does both all the time. And so you buy into it. Trying to help you. You'd have them say something like, you know, with the set dress and it's like, oh, we can ask the CG guys to put in some extra bits and bobs in the background. It's like, no, no, no, no. You were supposed to want to do it. You were supposed to want to create all this stuff. Like that's the spirit of like the whole thing. When they're coming up with like, what's in Bilbo's room? You know that passionate people are like, well, what would he have in his room? What do we know he has in his room? And what do you need to see to represent this, that either as opposed to like, oh, problem, get it to the CG guys that can probably solve it. I think I forgot most of rings of power, but I am, I can't get out of my head. Yep, this is definitely where the bad guys live. It would just be fantastic if this is where the goodies are based. It's like, oh man, we need to get... We got a bad rap guy. Hey, they just like clearly angular architecture, okay? Yeah, it's such a beautiful model, though I love it. Look at this. Oh, the green. I don't think a lot of that's to code, though. And this, it's like calm down film. I can only coom so many times in a row. I know, dude, then the nine come out. It's like, oh, it's funny because people watching that in the cinema, he didn't know the books. We'd have thought they were coming out of Baradur, but it's like a completely different city that they're, they're coming out of. I'm a landscape. Look at him. Look at that, a real location. Beautiful. I love this set. Yeah. So good. It's such a great spooky wizard's fortress. Oh, I fucking love it. It really is. And look at the god-rise, you know, the luminous lighting. That shot with the Nazca Laura. The Harvard's so good. I love that shot that shows that, like there's fucking nails inside that horse's hoof. It doesn't draw a lot of attention to the little things in the costume design, but you can notice them. Now it's conspicuous. You've ruined it forever. No, he's accentuated it and it's wonderful and beautiful and amazing. And when I was a kid, I actually thought that those bugs were coming out of the Nazgul. That would be disturbing. The... Watch that. I remember watching the director's commentary for this and like they're thinking was like this, this presence of this thing just drives out life in all its forms. Like they want to get out of the ground because like the energy of this thing has just infected it. It's so interesting to think about all of the techniques that, you know, the purpose is to be invisible, but at the same time, you know, its presence is apparent, right? Like the magnets underneath the floor when the ring hits the ground to make it feel like a heavy burden's been dropped. Because it's the size of a dinner plate, right? The one like in the snow. I wonder if they made a giant hand for that giant ring. But what was cool about like the production of this is like almost the entire trilogy was fully storyboarded before they started filming. So they planned out a ton of these shots well before they actually got out of the family. Why do that? Why can't it just spontaneously? Wow, now I have a shot. Like, oh yeah, no, we haven't finished the script and I have no idea where this story is leading. I don't know what everybody else is doing. Stop! I imagine storyboarding it out really helped with the CGI in this movie too because I've heard from like, especially people who work on the CGI for Marvel movies right now, they don't bring the CGI artists on the set to actually look at shit. And when you don't do that and you make like shots and then you just assume that the CGI artists can work around that, you got like this mess on screen that could just be fixed if you storyboarded it out and had people who knew what they were doing around. Stop! A lot of these early films because visual effects were still new, it was like a part of the process that had to be integrated, like it was necessary that it was integrated into a lot of the other... Yeah, like a lot of the... A lot of the attitudes and formats for creation were stuff they did out of necessity and have since become something that they should strive to do because it had such great results. What do you want? Whereas now, it's just like, well, yeah, I mean, we can use the computers to achieve a lot of things. Like it's just a ubiquitous thing that's available and present. But without that like foresight and planning and like all of those attempts while actually filming to make sure that everything is laid out to make the task easier, to get better results, then you get stuff like fucking Marvel movies where everything looks awful when there's really no reason that it should look that bad. I love the slowed down like nay that horse makes when they realize that the ring's being used. It's just really creepy sounding. That shot with Butterburr, though, with the Nazgul and their knives. God, it's so good. Love the way they flow. I want to plant here. They're medieval telephones. Yeah. Look at that eye. Oh, it looks so good, though. Yeah, I know. But again, it would be like, oh, it's the CG. You incorporate it correctly there. It's like, yeah, you wouldn't be able to probably do a practical orb that has the eye and he does all the swirling. Some of this stuff is actually hard to compliment because you take it for granted sometimes. But like the way the the orcs look are incredible, all the orcs and everything. Yeah, they're all like the makeup and the effect. It looks amazing. Yeah, it's smacked with it all at once. You just sort of just like, yeah, this is all amazing. More, please. Here's the worst shot in the whole trilogy. What the fuck were they thinking with this one? It's ethereal. It's not ethereal. It's retarded. I love this movie, but that's a horrifically bad shot. Even the Frodo one looks awkward. Like it looks like you could do it in your own editing thing. Pretty quick. The Elron one is hilarious. The Elron one looks like the beginnings of a horrible fever dream. Look at these mountains. Oh, here. Yeah, it's gorgeous. It is fascinating to think about how much of like New Zealand as a country, like globally, is defined by this film series. Like, I mean, it really is like a huge aspect of how they're like known around the world. I mean, was this the first movie to really make use of New Zealand as a film in location? First high profile. Probably not the first. Certainly high profile. Yeah, it was. Yeah, super high profile. Nine companions. So be it. Oh, it's so good. Mission quest. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring. I view it as a like, I know it sounds silly, but as a trilogy in the like this to me is like, oh, yes, we've got the thrust now. Right. Where are we going? And this is where the first disk ends, which is interesting considering that, you know, it's like, how far are we? Oh, like nearly two hours. But it doesn't feel like it doesn't. I mean, people like complain about the pacing of them sometimes. But I just I think they're fucking perfect. No, I can't believe that people throw such a fit over how long the ending of Return of the King is. And it's like, it's really not long at all. The big key to it is look at the ending's length compared to the story, which is enormous. I think it's like 20 minutes on the dot, pretty much. Which is fine. From the end of a nine or ten. Yeah. An hour. Yeah, trilogy. This trilogy is now the length of your average series on Disney Plus or Amazon. And it does so much more with its time. Oh, God, yeah. The ending is perfect. In her heart, your mother knew you'd be hunted all your life, that you'd never escape Well, I mean, you know, like the 20 minutes of this film is equivalent to the total content of Ahsoka. Yes. And next season, too, if there is one. Yeah. Skill of the Elves can reforge the sword of kings. But only you have the power to wield it. There are certain frames in this that have more content than all of Ahsoka. I mean, arguably, yeah. The shot of them all together as a fellowship. I feel like that's already more. Look at that. Look at that. I just love the way the ring looks. You know, it's so plain, so mundane, so plain. Exactly. Look at this. Look at this. There's so much to just praise all the time. It's so detailed. Yeah, I'm wondering, like, what this is. Is this like a like a practical miniature that they move and have a camera go towards and they can like open it up and separate it? You know what they are? Woke in the darkness. So how's that do? Oh, look at that. Fucking wait to see the Balrog again. The Balrog is so awesome. Shadow and flame. I love how they they tease it by showing like a sketch of it. It looks fucking great as well. I know it's so fucking cool. And then you see it and it's like even cooler, like by a massive margin. We cannot stay here. This will be the death of the hubbys. Yeah, they really did it justice. Because Tolkien describes it so beautifully as well that it's made of fire and shadow. And it's just a great monster. We will go through the mines. So good. Yeah, and it's remembered forever. And it's an example of the era using CG, where it's needed, where it was a tool. How's your shoulder? Better than it was. You wonder if it is like, because I mean, of course, there was an immense amount of visual effects here. But even, you know, it's not like every single shot had it compared to some stuff now, where like 100% of the shots have visual effects work. You must be careful now. You feel it's power growing, don't you? I feel it too. If it's like a matter of all of the effort is strained, it spreads so thin that like it hampers everything. Maybe that's the reason why Iron Man looks pretty crap towards the end. Form of my cousin's violin. And they call it a mine. A mine. These Moria vibes are fucking so good. It's so creepy and dark. Dude, the way he describes it before they hit the realization. This is no mine. It's a tomb. Oh, this is wrong. Gimli's not paying attention. He's just like, oh, we're going to party here. Wait a minute. He sells it too. He's not like a fucking idiot character. It's just like, whoa, this is weird. Well, that just happened. We make for the gap of Rowan. And then on top of everything else, a big water monster's trying to kill him. Crazy. What a terrible day. Yeah.