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| Where LOTR was filmed.; Various locations. | |
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| Topic Started: 14 Apr 2014, 04:20 AM (461 Views) | |
| Sandy | 14 Apr 2014, 04:20 AM Post #1 |
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There was a number of different locations filming took place, for Hobbiton the filming was done in Matamata which is about 2 hours south of Auckland.. The whole site is still in tact and is no doubt a real tourist attraction.. The hobbit homes would be a real sight to see.. For the shots in the gardens of Isengard, River Anduin, Osgiliath Wood, Rivendell and 'Paths of the Dead, the filming was done in Wellington, our capital city.. Chetwood Forest and Dimrill Dale filming was done in the Nelson area, a great scenic part of or country and on the top centre part of the south island.. Fom Nelson we go to Canterbury which is mid way down the east coast of the south island for filming of scenes for 'Edoras'.. After that it's on to the McKenzie Country which is southern Canterbury for filming of the Pelennor Fields.. The Southern Lakes are in Otago and were used for filming 'Ford of Bruinen, Gandalf's ride and was used for Middle earth panorama shots.. Fiordland Southern Otago was 'River Anduin' and Fanghorn forest shooting.. If you'd like to read a little more about the above, GO HERE and have a little read.. It's not mentioned on the above link, but all the scenes where we saw the cast going through snow and over snow covered ranges was filmed down south in central or southern Otago and is real New Zealand landscape, as was all the snow, Otago gets a lot of snow during winter, especially the higher areas, so no snow making machines were needed to make snow as there's snow in abundance down in the region... |
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| Sandy | 14 Apr 2014, 04:24 AM Post #2 |
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If you'd like a slightly more detailed list of places filming took place, GO HERE and you'll see a slightly more detailed list of places where filming took place.. |
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| funnysis | 20 Apr 2014, 05:30 AM Post #3 |
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I always wondered where they filmed the movie and now I know. |
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| Sandy | 20 Apr 2014, 01:34 PM Post #4 |
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I remember during the filming it wasn't uncommon to have filming going in 5 or 6 different locations at once, Peter Jackson spent a lot of time either traveling, or producing and directing on the phone... |
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| Sandy | 17 May 2014, 12:28 PM Post #5 |
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I thought I'd try and describe, at least a little each area filming took place in one post and region at a time.. I've either visited, or lived in most of the areas at some point over the years.. Some areas like the McKenzie Country don't tend to change too much, the population in some of the small towns may fluctuate a little, or farming practices may change so farms stay economical, that may see some of the land get developed a little more so farmers can graze stock on it, so a bit of gorse or reeds get cut out and grass put in.. Many of the small townships seem to have stayed much the same over the years, I can remember passing through several small towns 30 plus years ago and taking pictures, then seeing the same towns 30 years later and the only things that've changed is the buildings will have got a paint job or some new guttering after the old iron guttering rusted out.. Some of the small towns may have had a few new houses built, usually because more farmland has been developed in the area, so they've needed accomodation for the workers.. Much of the McKenzie Country remains much as it was, if you look in the films at the areas where the cast passed through hilly countryside, without the snow, that sort of area has been like that for many years.. The area would've been developed by the original settlers for farming, and while it's still mostly farmland, little has been done except sons taking over the farm from dad may have cleared a bit more off the land so it's a little better for grazing stock.. The problem with parts of the McKenzie Country is it's pretty inaccessible, while it may be easy enough to get to parts of it by helicopter, horse, or maybe farm bike, getting machinery in to do some of the major work is either far to costly or impossible, so the most that's happened is a farmer will have had a few trees chopped down, or possibly workers in there spraying gorse or reeds in the hopes a bit more grass will grow.. Some of the mustering can take a week or more to get sheep or cattle from the back of the farm to close to the homesteads, and this is usually done by horse, mainly because it's too difficult carrying extra fuel for motorbikes, so mustering is usually done with horses and dogs, sometimes just musterer's and dogs who get dropped off by helicopter, with supplies of course.. Many of the musters can take over a week from the back of the farm to near the homestead, and is over some very hilly countryside... |
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| Sandy | 19 May 2014, 07:43 AM Post #6 |
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Canterbury was another area used during filming, Christchurch being the central part of the area or region.. While a lot of the McKenzie Country is very hilly and mountainous, a lot of Canterbury is flat.. I can remember driving both two hour north and south of Christchurch and still being on flat land, a lot of the area is also flat for quite a way inland in areas.. There's some resemblances with Canterbury and the McKenzie Country in that some parts are only semi developed, so look like they don't get used for anything, mainly because the land doesn't look like it'd be economic to use for anything, but a lot is used for farming whether it be sheep or cattle.. The areas closer to the coastline and Christchurch are used for other things like growing fruit, veges and there used to be a vineyard or two down there that used to produce quite good wines.. Looking at the films, we could almost be mistaken in thinking a lot of the inland areas weren't used, so were ideal for filming on as they have that wild untamed look about them.. I used to enjoy driving through the region because of the way it looks, wild untamed land, but actually quite productive if you're a farmer and prepared to work.. One thing I found while living there was that the weather could be fairly extreme, temperatures there could range from the mid to high 30's, in celsius to snow down to low levels and daily highs in winter of between8 and 12 degrees celsius, I can remember the windchill there being pretty nasty at times and get a 12c day down to 0 degrees celsius in the middle of the day, so the locals are pretty hardy folk.. Maybe the range between summer and winter temperatures added something to the look of the landscape though, I always think it had a wild, rugged kind of untamed look about it in places which probably makes the region unique... |
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| Sandy | 4 Jun 2014, 08:07 AM Post #7 |
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I was in the Matamata area for lunch with a friend while on holiday about 18 months ago, so decided to go have a look at the Hobbit homes.. I got up there by about 9.45 a.m. instead of midday, so it was an early start that day, lol.. the motel I was in was about 1.5 hours drive away.. Anyway, I was quite surprised when I got there, at first I didn't see anything except a large slightly hilly paddock, no real obvious signs of homes or anything there, I actually wondered if someone was having me on and saying they were there when they weren't.. A friend was running things there at the time, so I got to look round for free, withe the only thing being paid for was petrol getting there.. However, I followed what looked like a sign and almost straight away noticed a couple of doorways built into what looked like a bank.. I found Frodo's house seeing his was in the film, and filmed in for several scenes.. Not surprisingly the home was almost a normal size height wise, I was expecting to have to bend over and walk round hunched up like Gandalf did when he visited Frodo and banged his head on a hanging light.. I thought the house was quite well made, as I say, it looked pretty much just like a hilly paddock, so a lot of work was put into building things under the hilly bits.. I suspect they had a few Hobbit sized rooms elsewhere for filming that were smaller because while Frodo's home felt small compared to our homes, it wasn't so small that we'd have to walk round doubled over and hunched up in my case seeing as I'm big.. All the furniture and such looked like it was from the 18th century, or perhaps the early 19th century and there was a real lived in feel about the place, a few dishes on the bench and books and such on tables, it was almost like going visiting a friend or family member in that respect, I even noticed a bit of a cooking smell, lol.. It was almost as if someone had not long cooked breakfast.. I've been told that the area is now quite easy to find your way round now, everything's well sign posted and such, they did things that way as there's a lot of tourists and locals visit the village, when I got there they were still adding things.. It was surprising in a way to see gardens with the places and even a vege garden or two with veges growing of course, but looking in Frodo's home I was surprised as to how realistic it looked, it had everything a home would have, and was quite warm once inside, I got there in winter time, so expected the homes to be cold. perhaps having soil and grass over them insulated them well, I almost felt as snug as a bug I was so warm inside, so a lot of thought was put into things.. If Frodo's home was a bit bigger I would've happily lived there, it even had a reasonably good book supply on various bookshelves in the lounge.. If we went into the kitchen or a bedroom, everything you'd expect to find was there, so it was just like going to a lived in home and had that comfortable lived in feeling.. I suspect someone put a lot of thought into them when they were built for the films as everything was there to make a comfortable home.. I'd like to go back one day and spend more time there, my trip was a bit rushed, so didn't see as much as I'd have liked to, I was glad to have got there and see what I did, I felt it was time well spent.. Maybe next time I'll get to spend the day there and get a thorough look round, and get some pictures... |
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| Sandy | 6 Jun 2014, 11:50 PM Post #8 |
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Many many moons ago I lived in Nelson, the region is quite varied really, it ranges from Nelson city of course while the surrounding areas cover several smaller townships and the Tasman National Park, which in itself is quite varied.. Some parts of the National Park are flattish land and has little more than tussock on it, while other parts are fairly hilly and is reasonably well covered in bush and trees.. I tramped a few parts of the National park in my younger days and had permission from one of the government departments who look after the area to shoot deer and rabbits in there.. Back when I did a bit of tramping the area had quite a lot of deer, pigs and rabbits, all of which damaged the land, so the government encouraged experienced shooters to go in and cull what game they could.. I remember that as long as we kept tails as proof of the shoot we got a little compensation for each animal killed.. The other upside was that we also had free meat if we shot it, wild pork, venison and rabbit was always a welcome treat as it was much tastier than any store bought meat, so we were on a win win thing there.. We also got to see some really varied landscapes in there as it was so varied.. I remember eating at least 6 times as much as I did at home, but because we were walking some pretty rugged landscape with 50 to 60 pound packs, we'd get home after a week or two, and were a lot fitter and had usually lost at least 20 kg from all the excersise while in there.. If I still had my health I'd gladly go back if I could and go through some of the areas I didn't do.. Each visit I did there amazed me with the scenery and how varied the area was.. I'd recommend a visit to the park to anyone who's reasonably fit and wants to go tramping, the only thing I'd tell people is to go in prepared, the weather can change fairly quickly there and get quite cold and wet.. When I went with a friend or two we always took a good supply of dried foods and a good range of clothing so we had both dry and warm clothes if the weather turned bad on us.. We also hired a radio so we could keep in touch with the government staff on a daily basis, the radio's were a handy thing if in the unlikely event something ever happened to one of us, which luckily never happened.. It's always well worth the trip.. If you look at the films, you'll see some of the open hilly areas they travelled through while travelling to Mount Doom, some of that filming was done in the National Park... |
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| funnysis | 29 Aug 2016, 10:41 AM Post #9 |
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There is some beautiful scenery there and it shows in The Lord Of The Rings movie. |
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| Sandy | 29 Aug 2016, 02:08 PM Post #10 |
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Which film? All of them were filmed in various locations from just south of Auckland to Southern Otago in the south island..Some of the scenes with snow could've been filmed in either island, I know some filming took place off the desert road which is in the middle of the north island.. |
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