If, like us, you just can’t wrap your head around the idea that Amazon has spent close to $500 million on the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, then perhaps this new interview with director J.A. Bayona might be able to shed some light on the extravagance of bringing the Second Age of Middle-earth to life on the small screens.
In a new interview with Collider, The Rings of Power director has detailed an aquatic action scene in the Sundering Seas that cost them a fortune and almost their sanity to shoot. Apparently, the sequence in question involved 195 shots filmed during a span of three to four weeks, with two water tanks with the capacity to hold 2.5 and 1.2 million liters of water, respectively. The tanks, simulating the waters and current of the endless sea, had a maximum depth of 16 feet, further helping to sell the illusion.
“We did a lot of that when we shot The Impossible,” Bayona said. “If you extend the set, it’s very difficult if you work indoors because you cannot match the light from the outside with the inside, the artificial light, with the light that we had in the studio. It was a massive endeavor, but it definitely delivers. When you see the scenes, you will see how beautiful they are.”
J.A. Bayona has directed the first two episodes of The Rings of Power, so the scene in question, involving Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel, takes place in the first episode. If the report by Collider is anything to go by, however, the events of that particular sequence also comprise the majority of the second episode.
The first full trailer for The Rings of Power is premiering in two days on July 14, so stay tuned.
Published: Jul 12, 2022 01:07 pm