The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition

The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition was a traveling exhibit, created for the Te Papa Tongarewa museum of New Zealand by Wellington exhibition design company Story Inc, featuring actual props and costumes used in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, as well as special effects demonstrations and "making of" documentary videos. The exhibit developed and changed slightly as it moved from one museum to another.

brochure from the Mos Boston exhibition

Props and costumes

While the Exhibit could not possibly hope to contain anywhere near a majority of the props and costumes used in the making of the films, many of the most major elements were represented, as well as most of the major characters. The One Ring was displayed in its own small room, dark and with its engraving projected onto the walls. Quotes from the film echoed through the chamber: "Cast it into the fire! Destroy it!", "Azg nazg durbatuluk". Many intricate costumes were on display, including various suits of armor of Gondor, Rohan, the Elves, Rangers, Orcs, Uruk-hai, and Nazgûl, as well as the costumes, robes, weapons and suits of armor of Gandalf the Grey, Saruman, Frodo Baggins, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, Arwen, Galadriel, and Théoden. Most of the Rings of Power were displayed as well, the only exception being the Seven Rings of the Dwarf-lords, which were barely seen in the books or the films.

Special effects

The traveling exhibit had one 'permanent' interactive special effects demonstration. A cart, like the one Gandalf rides into Hobbiton on at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, is set up, using the principle of forced perspective. Visitors who sat on the cart could see themselves in video monitors shrunk down to Hobbit-size, or enlarged to Gandalf-size. Even though the two halves of the cart were different sizes (or, as in the movies, a different distance from the camera), our eyes were tricked, with a little help from digital editing, into thinking that the two halves of the cart were in fact one cart, and the people on it are vastly differing. The same basic process was used for much of the size-changing special effects in the films, including the scenes where Gandalf sits down to tea at Bag End. This is actually one of the simplest and oldest movie special effects, just aided a bit by modern digital technology.

At the Museum of Science, Boston, two more interactive demonstrations were created and added to the Exhibit. A laser scanner, exactly like the one used by Weta Workshop, was used to scan the contours of visitors' faces, creating a digital model of their face in the computer, which was then shaded and textured to look like one of the Argonath, the Statues of the Kings. These hand-held laser scanners were used to scan in all the main actors, as well as a large number & variety of models and maquettes to create digital creatures and characters for the movies. This allowed everything from Shelob to the cave troll to have more realistic size, proportions, and shapes. For some scenes, such as the crossing of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm as it collapses, the entire cast was replaced for a few seconds by digital doubles; the laser scanning technology helped make these doubles look like the real characters/actors.

Also, a motion capture demonstration was created by the HITLabNZ, in which visitors wielding colored foam weapons could move against a green screen and watch an Orc, Elf, or Gondorian Soldier move the same way they did. In the making of the films, especially for the motion capture process that yielded Gollum, a special suit had to be worn, covered in sensors. This allowed for a much more accurate and precise motion capture result than the suit-less camera-based demonstration in the Exhibit, but the basic idea remained the same.

Tour schedule

See also
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