Chapter 334: True Love in Times of Crisis

Pre-production had lasted two full years. The Lord of the Rings Studio and the entire cast and crew had poured immense effort into it. The greatest benefit of this meticulous preparation was a smooth shooting process. While the first ten days of filming had still been a bit bumpy, once Duke got the crew into rhythm, production immediately hit its stride.

For the action scenes, both the main actors and their stunt doubles had undergone long, rigorous training. Even a pretty face like Orlando Bloom could strike an archery pose that was both elegant and textbook-perfect.

As for the stand-in work, the crew had hired four dwarf doubles for the hobbits and specially crafted silicone masks of Frodo and the others. As long as it wasn't a tight facial close-up, the four doubles could easily slip on the masks and complete the shots.

The silicone masks were incredibly lifelike. If someone caught a glimpse of them at night, a timid person would be scared half to death.

After ten days of shooting on soundstages and outdoor backlots, the crew left Wellington City to begin location filming. The production was simply massive. With dozens of large trailers, hundreds of actors, and nearly a hundred warhorses traveling with them, they became the center of attention wherever they went.

The crew's first location stop was near Mount Ruapehu in Central-Southern New Zealand North Island. This intermittent volcano was Duke's chosen prototype for Mount Doom. Aside from filming the volcano itself, the crew would set up camp on the nearby wasteland for a period to shoot several horseback scenes featuring the actors.

However, upon arriving here, Duke had already decided to split the crew.

Standing outside the crew's encampment, Duke gazed at Mount Ruapehu in the distance. This black volcano, which would exude an aura of evil and death in the film, now looked exceptionally majestic against New Zealand's azure sky, its snow-capped peak appearing especially captivating.

"Zack..."

Withdrawing his gaze, Duke looked at Zack Snyder on his left. "You're still teaming up with Ben Watts. You're best at using light and color—capture the most beautiful sides of New Zealand."

Zack Snyder nodded but added, "Duke, I need a helicopter."

"The helicopter will arrive this afternoon." Duke checked the time. "Go get ready."

Zack Snyder would take a significant portion of the crew with him, including key camera team member Ben Watts. In fact, this was the director of photography Duke was grooming for the future; the two had already collaborated to complete all the location shots back during the filming of The Matrix.

As the first assistant director, Zack Snyder's temporary task was to head out with the people from Weta Studio to shoot New Zealand's untouched landscapes, gathering footage for visual effects compositing.

"Anna, you and sound designer David Farmer head over to the North Island Zoo."

Turning around, Duke spoke to Anna Printz. "The production team has already contacted them. You two will go there to record animal sounds—kangaroos, tigers, sea lions, cows, horses, lions, and wolves. I need their different vocalizations for day and night. You have a full week, so record as much as you can."

"Understood."

Anna Printz walked toward her trailer to prepare for the trip to the zoo.

The crew had just set up camp and couldn't start filming yet. Because of the large number of horses traveling with them, they inevitably attracted the attention of New Zealand's Animal Protection Organization. While these people weren't quite as difficult as their counterparts in North America, they still weren't easy to deal with.

Standing there, gazing out over the distant wasteland, Duke thought about the Animal Protection Organization he loathed so much. The production definitely needed a dedicated person to deal with them, but this person couldn't hold too much weight in the crew, or else those guys would inevitably think they were a big deal.

However, the person had to be shrewd enough and unafraid of any pressure they might apply.

Thinking of this, Duke had the perfect candidate in mind. He turned and waved behind him, and Tina Fey and Ivanka Trump walked over together.

Duke gave Tina Fey a look she could easily read before turning to Ivanka Trump. "Evie, what is your main goal for coming to New Zealand?"

"Flowers in a greenhouse wither when they face the wind and rain..."

After offering this cryptic sentence, Ivanka Trump answered his question. "To temper and hone my abilities."

"I have a perfect opportunity for you right now."

Turning his head, Duke gazed into the distance again. "I need someone to communicate with the Animal Protection Organization. They're a bit difficult to deal with."

"I'll do it," Ivanka agreed without hesitation.

"Tina."

Duke raised his hand and made a gesture. Tina Fey led Ivanka away to brief her on some basic precautions.

According to the demands of the Animal Protection Organization, the crew's horses could not work for more than three hours a day. They had to take a break every half hour, and after an hour and a half, they needed a prolonged rest...

If the crew filmed at this pace, the scenes featuring horses alone would drag on for at least half a year.

These people, who loved animals more than humans, never considered things from a human perspective.

The production's requests weren't unreasonable—just five to six hours of work time for the horses each day. No one in the crew, including Duke, had ever intended to abuse the animals.

Fortunately, there were no real Orcs or ogres in this world. Otherwise, an Orc and Ogre Association jumping out in protest would be a real headache.

Shaking his head, Duke dismissed these absurd thoughts and turned his focus to the next day's schedule. The scenes here were somewhat scattered, mainly involving sequences that integrated actors and horses.

Over the course of the afternoon and evening, the crew set up camp and did a preliminary layout of the filming sites. Anywhere that didn't meet Duke's requirements received additional sets or green screens, allowing suitable backgrounds to be added during post-production.

Just as the sun rose the next morning, the entire crew shifted into high gear. Cranes, cameras, props, warhorses, and weapons were swiftly transported to the first shooting location. Using the crane arms, the set decorators worked as quickly as possible to rig green screens directly opposite and at a forty-five-degree angle to the main camera position.

Duke walked past each camera station to inspect the setups before stopping beside a horse trainer.

"How is Bill doing?"

The trainer was leading a snow-white horse. The animal was very docile, standing quietly beside him.

"He's in excellent shape." The trainer gently stroked the horse's neck.

Stepping up next to the trainer, Duke stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him and pointed at the main camera position. "When I call action, have Bill maintain a forty-five-degree angle with the green screen and run in that direction."

After getting the trainer's assurance, Duke left the spot and returned behind the director's monitors. Following a brief check with the assistant director, he had the script supervisor call for action.

This was just a shot meant to be paired with Gandalf, so it wasn't particularly difficult. The specially trained horse ran past the green screen three times before Duke declared it complete.

Then Ian McKellen, clad in a white robe with white hair, took the stage. He first acted out a scene summoning the Lord of all Horses, then shared an affectionate moment with Bill. Whether for a veteran actor like McKellen or for the crew filming it, the difficulty was relatively low.

Filming had barely gone on for an hour when representatives from the Animal Protection Organization tried to approach Duke. They wanted to protest that the horses had been working consecutively for too long.

Bill's owner and the trainer were both standing right there, and neither had any objections to the workload. Duke didn't bother entertaining the protesters. He tossed the problem to an assistant director and Ivanka Trump, and went right on filming.

"Moving on!" Duke shouted.

"I protest..."

Though the voice reached his ears, Duke didn't even spare a glance. He and the crew quickly relocated to the nearby "Pelennor Fields" to shoot the scene where Gandalf and Pippin rode toward Minas Tirith.

Aside from the cranes and green screens, a new piece of equipment was added to the shoot—a prop horse!

Driven by a crankshaft, the prop horse naturally couldn't run. It could only simulate a galloping motion in place. Furthermore, it only consisted of a back and half a head. This was prepared specifically for Ian McKellen and Billy Boyd's double.

"Duke, riding this thing..."

Billy Boyd wasn't exactly short. He patted the prop horse and called out, "Gandalf is never going to reach Minas Tirith."

"I'm old, Billy."

Ian McKellen walked over, staff in hand. "If I rode a real horse, my bones would fall apart. If I had horsemanship like Viggo's, I'd choose the real thing too."

Duke looked up from his director's chair and called out, "Billy, we're about to start rolling."

Although Billy Boyd loved a good joke, he knew when to be professional. He immediately cleared the set. His dwarf double, wearing a silicone mask, climbed onto the white prop horse with the help of the crew.

At Duke's command, filming began. The shot on the monitor was a close-up of Ian McKellen, so the horse naturally wouldn't be fully visible.

The prop horse bucked up and down, giving the resulting close-up of Ian McKellen a great sense of momentum. After about a minute, Duke called cut. The prop horse was dragged aside, and the crew moved forward slightly to continue shooting the sequence.

However, the next person up was Ian McKellen's stunt double. This was a wide shot, and galloping at full speed was a piece of cake for a stuntman. The two times Duke called cut were actually due to minor issues with the camera tracks, which caused John Schwartzman's main camera to drift slightly once it started moving.

This was Hollywood's most typical method of filming. Not every actor was a master equestrian like Viggo Mortensen. For most actors, horseback scenes required stunt doubles. In fact, distinguishing whether a riding sequence featured the actor or a double was very simple: the ones galloping wildly in wide shots were mostly stuntmen, while the ones in close-ups where only the horse's back was visible were generally the actors themselves.

Cinema was a visual art, but equally, an art of deception.

As the shoot progressed, more and more horses joined the production, and large-scale cavalry scenes soon followed.