Damn You, High Fantasy Virus

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Nothing like watching all the appendix bullshit on the Lord of the Rings DVDs to get one motivated to do some worldbuilding. When Richard Taylor's declaiming* about the backgrounds of different varieties of Orc helmets, or how they tried to advance armor to make it look like things changed over centuries, you can't help but want to put more detail into your own world's culture and customs. Quite useful to have on as background noise, really.

Why yes I AM on a Tolkien kick lately; thanks for noticing!


*As far as I can tell, Sir Richard Taylor, KNZM, has "declaim" as his ONLY setting. Everything he says sounds like he's practicing a dramatic reading of some epic medieval saga.

Comments

[beccastareyes]

Yes. That and reading art and writing sites gets me excited about art and writing.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I've been cruising DeviantArt because many of the arts are such great jumping-off points for stories. (Also good conlang exercises where I describe what's going on in the pictures!)

... Of course, there's a minefield of poorly-drawn boobies interspersed with the cool art, but y'know, it's the internet.

[beccastareyes]

Yes, I think that's why I turned off the mature content filter on the front page, since the art was nice, but inevitably there'd be one 'random topless woman photo' that I didn't quite see the artistic value of*.

* Granted DeviantArt also keeps things like pose resources and stock photos; I have at least one page that's entirely devoted to 'artist and her friends taking photos of interesting poses for others use' bookmarked. But they usually aren't interesting poses either.

[sofish-sasha.livejournal.com]

I spent the weekend with my mates watching the appendix stuff on FotR, which I (shock! horror!) somehow haven't managed to see before now*. I just wanted to jump straight into Weta Workshop and get fiddling; it was via an interest in becoming a prop maker that I got into making films in the first place. I can't remember her name, but there was a lady who was bashing away at the Argonath "bigatures", and I would happily move to New Zealand be her assistant/apprentice/slave in a heartbeat!

We're going to watch the appendices of TTT and RotK too, but I'm not sure when. I'm spending the upcoming weekend away from the school, making comics (and watching The Hobbit) with my best friends, and the weekend after that will be spent watching all kinds of films at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, so there isn't much time for nerdery of a Tolkienesque flavour. Plus I've ordered another couple of series of Doctor Who, and I have a couple of mates here who have gone into full-on marathon mode after I introduced them to the good Doctor, so there's that to watch, too. :)



*Although I've just ordered the extended dvd box set for myself, so once that arrives I'll be able to watch it whenever I like.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

The appendices are REALLY great when you've watched the films enough times that it's become embarrassing but you still want to watch SOMETHING related to LotR. And you learn a lot from them! For example, I learned two very important things from the documentaries:

1. Every single person who worked on these movies was 100% insane
2. Especially Viggo Mortensen

Enjoy vignettes of Viggo getting stopped by police for Aragorning in restaurants, Viggo fishing as Aragorn, Viggo breaking his toes onscreen, Viggo running for miles for wide helicopter shots the day after he broke his toes onscreen, Viggo batting an actual knife away from his face with a sword also onscreen, Viggo having a lurid affair with a bearded Rohan lady, Viggo almost murdering all the stunt guys with his own enthusiasm, Viggo inventing a secret handshake that is actually just crushing your skull with his, Viggo floating downriver in full armor and almost drowning, Viggo buying the horse that played his horse in the movies, and Viggo diving into a movie star kiss with a very surprised Billy Boyd on set one day. In a phalanx of insane people, Viggo is the insanest.

I love the lady bashing the Argonath with a rock. "Instant ageing! This is a trade secret I am showing you now. Handed down through many generations." *WHACK* And then she retconned a rock quarry into a huge tiny mountainside.

Enjoy your other films too! Sounds like you've got some fun nerding ahead of you no matter what flavor it is.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

My favourite trick was the tiny brick stamp. It was about a millimeter across and they had to press it thousands of times into the model to create the effect of brickwork.

Also, you missed Viggo getting a tooth chipped by a sword and offering to superglue it back in so they could continue filming.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

So I did! Also I missed him kissing Bernard Hill on the nose. Kissy fellow, that Viggo.

I liked the poor chainmail guys. "We've been doing this for two years. We don't have fingerprints anymore."

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Maybe Sir Richard Taylor is part BRIAN BLESSED.