Interview with Richard Taylor and Barrie Osborne

Richard, can you explain specifically what your company does?
RICHARD TAYLOR: We had the great fortunate at the beginning of the films, which started about seven years ago for us, with Peter Jackson coming and offering us which departments we would like to take part in.
I chose that we would look after the design and the fabrication and all the on set operations of the special make-up effects and prosthetics, the armor, the weapons, the creatures, the miniatures, and the special effects. So that’s a fairly sizeable piece of work. Obviously it’s a very tricky task over the manufacturing of the film.

What do awards mean to your crew?
RICHARD TAYLOR: We certainly never set off with the thought, “Wow, this is going to give us opportunities to win awards.” But when the awards ceremonies come around it’s been very nice for everyone who works in those departments because they’ve been recognized at some level.
The Workshop was fortunate enough to win an Oscar for Special Make-up Effects and Prosthetics and Visual Effects for film one. We also won for Visual Effects in film two. We’ve been fortunate enough to win four BAFTAs so far, as well.
It’s been interesting with the awards. The best thing that they’ve done for our group, because we’re very distant from things like the Oscars - possibly to a young New Zealander they don’t have the same cultural impact as they would in this country - but what they have done is they’ve certainly empowered young people in our Workshop in the self-belief that they can now stand on the world stage and be counted. That has been invaluable because we are humble and we tend to go, “We can’t really make it in the world. We do well in New Zealand, but we can’t reach out.” But the Oscars have really told people that they can. We’ve felt a huge uplifting of optimism and vision in these people.

How did your company work with the visual effects production?
RICHARD TAYLOR: Our involvement in visual effects is the construction of the miniatures. The Visual Effects department goes on and creates all the digital enhancement that’s brought to the film. I think what’s the success of the film above all else is that it’s all stitched together by really beautiful art. Because we co-own both companies WETA Digital and WETA Workshop, we don’t get into that awful abrasive competitiveness that happens often on films. We always look at the storyboards and determine which are the best techniques to use. That’s a good way to make a movie, ultimately.

I’ve heard the cast was asked to read the books. Did you read the books?
RICHARD TAYLOR: I don’t think the cast was ever asked to read the books. It was sort of expected of people. Elijah [Wood] said last night that hasn’t yet read the books, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. He was here to pursue Peter’s vision and it was actually important at times that he actually didn’t start to get lost in the wonderful tomes of literature. I read the scripts over 86 times in the pursuit of Peter’s vision. I read “The Hobbit” initially, which captured me up in the world of Middle Earth.
BARRIE OSBORNE: For me, I know that Peter actually did say to me that he expected everybody to read the books. He did ask that we read them as part of accepting the job that we had. Occasionally Peter would ask me to go out and direct some 2nd Unit thing for him. It’d be one line in the script and if you wanted to understand what that one line meant, then you needed the novel. I remember doing this scene of Frodo and Sam and Gollum going towards Mordor, they weren’t really too far along yet. It’s near the point where they had the rabbit stew, near that point. Peter wanted me to pick some coverage up for him. The novel gave a whole chapter on that one line in the script. So you can read that and understand what the mood was that you’re going for. It really gave you a lot of backstory you would never get in the script.
RICHARD TAYLOR: We photocopied the pages and highlighted text and put them on the boards around the Workshop. It was incredibly valuable. We actually blew them up and colored them in with those yellow highlighter pens, the segments I was trying to get people sculpting the orcs … Peter gave us his vision but Tolkien’s vision is so rich. You know, these black haired creatures… Just this much more poetic influence would let people be much more inspired.

What would have happened for the release of the second and third films, if the first film had not been a hit?
BARRIE OSBORNE: We were budgeted to do all three films; we had shot all three films. What would have happened is I think it would have been a lot tougher and the budgets, money would have been taken out of them.
We would have been forced to go make a much lower-grade product in post-production.

Why do you think this series of films has really been able to touch people emotionally?
BARRIE OSBORNE: I think that’s a tribute to Peter as a director, and also the cast themselves. They brought a three-dimensionality to their characters. You could identify with them and be drawn into the journey that they were on. That’s what compelling storytelling is all about.

Did New Line give the production a lot of independence?
BARRIE OSBORNE: Yes, we were in a unique set of circumstances for a number of reasons. Number one: we had distance. I always like doing things out of the country. You have more freedom and they’re seeing footage so their understanding is good. Certainly after the first movie, that was even more true. After Cannes, that first screening at Cannes of 20 minutes of film was crucial to our well-being because that convinced everybody.
RICHARD TAYLOR: The elation from the press people was tenable at Cannes, and that just heightened the enthusiasm of New Line. The press people were a godsend because the press people invariably at Cannes are tired, they’ve walked the paces around these bloody screenings and they came out of there and they were explosive in their praise and their cheering.

There have been other attempts at bringing Tolkien to the screen and this film must have had to overcome lots of potential setbacks.
RICHARD TAYLOR: The greatest issue had been that everyone had tackled it as a fantasy film and it’s not. It’s a historical document, a historical reality – it just happens to be in a fantastical environment. Peter set about doing exactly what Tolkien did, which was draw on every historical reference he could from Northern Europe to bring it down to a piece of writing that has a substance and a historical reference that fits it. Grandeur on an epic scope.
At no time, unlike so many fantasy movies, did the actors ever have to turn to the audience and sort of wink at them to ask them to just kind of keep buying into it. The audience was in it, even without saying.

Are the visual effects the best in the third film?
RICHARD TAYLOR: We definitely improved everything about what we were doing. We always said it was about 'heartware,' not 'hardware.' The people who have learned the technology have upped their skills.

What was the hardest effect to work on?
RICHARD TAYLOR: Without question, Gollum continues to be the most difficult thing. Gollum now suggests that anything that humans can dream up can be on the screen. I believe Gollum has had such an impact on the world stage because as an audience, we stop analyzing him as a technical achievement. We now accept him as a character in his own right.