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Day 6 Shire Reckoning: Highday, Foreyule 10th. -- Barad-Dur 'Bigature' - Premiere Day!
The most incredible thing just happened. We got woken up by a phone call from Eron and Linda. They want to talk to us. Wonder what this is about....I'm thinking it has to do with meeting up before the grandstands or something so we can walk over together. Linda comes in...she's really excited. She says she can get into the Premiere Party....and asks if we want to come! HELLL YEAH! They want that to be our wedding present. That rules! Then she tells us that if we go to the Party...that means we have to go to the Screening...and are we cool with that? Gee, let me think... --------------- Spent the rest of the day looking around town and shopping. Went to the post office to buy more stamps and got a ton of post cards later on to mail. We also bought some limited edition New Zealand coins with Middle-earth themes, they are tremendously cool! Bought one coin for Eron and Linda to thank them, but really there is no way to thank them at all. Then we headed over to the Te Papa museum which is the big New Zealand museum in Wellington. Very cool place. When we got there, a whole lot of people were leaving and a ton of press, I wondered what was going on. Turns out we missed the whole collective cast and P.J. Who were there talking about the Barad-Dur "bigature" that was taking up most of the lobby. Let me tell you, they are not joking when they say Bigature! The thing is two stories tall! Just massive! Really cool. Shot a lot of pictures...but wishing I had a motion control camera and about 30 minutes alone with that thing! To give you an idea of how they filmed this thing, the picture on the left is a photo taken at the museum, the picture on the right is a screen-cap from TTT. Notice the bridge where the Orc army is crossing?
Then we went to the LOTR Exhibit shop. Lots of Noble collection stuff and sideshow weta collectables on sale. Wasn't going to buy any at that time, but it was cool to see the stuff in person that I'm sure I'm going to buy in the future! Then we went down to the main museum store and Penny bought a ton of little knick-knacks and souvenirs for friends and family. I was looking for the stuff made from the special wool (Stansborough Fibers) that the Elven Cloaks were made out of. All they had left was the stuff in the display window! I dropped a small fortune and got a tie (which is very cool and unique), a scarf (though I'll probably keep wearing my Gryffindor one), and a throw....which was a little pricey but is more usable than the shawl I suspect. Most expensive. Ran into Eron and Linda (the Valar) on the way out.
Got back to the hotel and trying to find folks who needed grandstand seats since we now have 2 tickets that we don't need since we are actually going. Penny seems disappointed we didn't get to see the red carpet hoopla...but I don't care...we'll see plenty of the stars on screen and hopefully later at the official party. This may very well be the second greatest night of our lives! Anyway...here's hoping our luck holds. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop....stuff like this never happens to me....except for today! Out for now...30 minutes before we are scheduled to meet up and go. I am soooo anxious....I'm trying not to ping.....which is impossible.... Will ROTK live up the hype I'm feeling now? Can any movie? ------------------------- For impressions about the actual film ROTK other than that it is amazing and awesome and absolutely lives up to all the hype. See my "Initial Impressions upon first viewing the ROTK" entry. ------------------------- What follows is play by play of what happened the rest of the night. We went to Eron and Linda's room at roughly 4:45. Then we headed to downstairs to meet their driver...in a limo....cool. Then we all piled in and started heading towards the downtown area where a bunch of theaters were screening the premiere. But then Linda tells the driver we need to head to Taranaki street and I think Linda's got it wrong, because Taranaki street is where the red carpet is and that whole area of downtown is blocked off and the limo won't be able to get down there. So I tell Linda. And she says that I'm right and that Taranaki is where the red carpet is at and that is where we're going. (bear with me I'm a little slow). So then I ask whether or not it will be hard to get to the other multiplex if we're fighting the red carpet crowd. She answers no....because we'll be walking the Red Carpet to the Embassy for a screening with the cast and crew!!! HOLEEE CRAP! And surely enough we get to Taranaki street and cross the barrier and bam! We are on the Red Carpet...about at this time I'm expecting to wake up at any second. We walk past the grandstand holding the other members of the tour...I feel kind of bad that they aren't doing what we're doing...
We are walking the red carpet with 100,000 screaming fans shouting at us....okay...not at us...but in our general direction anyway, because a young man named Orlando Bloom is about 3 feet from me.
Yes ladies, that would be Orlando Bloom. (the guy on the right...) But being the consumate nerd that I am....I'm more interested in the costumes of the Uruk Hai that are on the red carpet. Hehe. The costumes are surprisingly realistic and film does not do them justice, they hold up even when I'm just inches away!
We move on and make room for Hugo Weaving to go by us and then Jim Rygiel walks by and he's standing behind me. We can hardly hear anything because of the hordes of young women shouting "Orlando!" at the top of their lungs. Someone next to Jim (might have been Joe Letteri?) makes a joke that they can hear someone shouting "Rygiel!" (Jim Rygiel was the visual FX supervisor for LOTR trilogy...as cool as Orlando is, I'd rather have a sit down with Jim...but then again....I'm a nerd and not a teenage girl...good thing). We walk past more guys in unbelievable screen-used costumes Haradrim, Easterlings, Rohirrim, Peter Jackson doing an interview (eh?), Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan, Gondorian soldiers, Liv Tyler (who is unbelievably hotter in person if that's even possible), Ithilien Rangers, and nasty Elveses...
We check our stuff and go upstairs and sit down . There is a small army of waiters foisting drinks on us faster than we can drink them. We sit down to have a chat and learn a bit more about Linda and Eron...Wow is all I can say. The stuff these two have done! Unbelievable! We talk for a long time and I'm having such a good time that I almost forget that I'm there for the screening of ROTK. Quickly they start calling for everyone to take their seats. P.J. is outside introducing all the members of the cast. They pipe it in to the screen of the Embassy as we take our seats. Then before I know it, PJ and cast are entering the theater, the lights dim, and the familiar Howard Shore ring theme comes on and there comes up the title "The Lord of the Rings"....and it starts with an incredible scene. CUT TO: The movie is over. I'm an emotional wreck...I've got nothing more to give...been riding an emotional roller coaster for too long. We try to grab some of the bags as souvenirs for folks on the tour that I know will appreciate them (after all they are just going to throw them away). Unfortunately, I can't grab a whole lot. In the lobby we see Sir Ian and Andy Serkis. Sir Ian is looking a bit tired, but then that is expected...a whole freakin day of press junkets and the premiere and all, plus fans wanting pix and autographs....its gotta wear on a guy. Plus the man had the wherewithal to come to the TORN party the night before. Character.
Andy Serkis looks as chipper as ever. I swear it looks like this guy has just volumes of energy. We move out to the coaches that are going to take us to the Queen's warf for the premiere party. We walk another quick red carpet with more screaming fans....normally I'm on the other end of this.....from this side things are a little intimidating.
We go into the party. It is packed out. In the center of the room is the white tree of Gondor with flower petals raining down from above. Statues of the Gondorian kings ring the side. There is live music of some kind that sounds Maori but everything is so loud I can't tell. There is a massive tableau of Minas Tirith with the armies of Mordor coming towards it. The shot holds up remarkably well.
I get to meet and talk shop with Jim Rygiel!! Can you believe this....actually talking visual FX with this guy. He has to move on though. Then I'm off to get some drinks and I run into Howard Shore, I ask him what was making that great clanging sound during the Isengard Leitmotif. He explains that it was a gardening glove with a chain wrapped around it banging on the inside of a piano with the pedal held down....totally ruled btw! Like I said before...genius! Mingling around while I can move and chatting with Linda and Eron the rest of the time, the more I talk to these two the more my respect grows for these guys. It is very crowded at the party though. Very hard to move around. Richard Taylor comes within earshot and we chat him up about his current projects and "Master and Commander", I can't believe this....just awesome. As the night winds down....we sit down at a table and talk about all sorts of stuff as the night winds away. Sometime during the party we hear this horribly loud screech. All attention is drawn to the two Nazgul mounted on fell beast statues at the ends of the room. The screech again, people actually hold their ears, not a good sound. Then to my complete disbelief, the Nazgul take flight! They fly from one side of the room to the other and then are covered up! WOW!!! At one point, Linda tried to get me to dance...that didn't work out so well. Folks like me shouldn't dance...ever...for the good of all mankind. Also, I believe that there are now U.N. sanctions in place to prevent me dancing ever again.
Anyway, it is nearly 4:00AM when I finally get to the rack...up in 4 hours to fly to Christchurch tomorrow....what a unbelievable day. |
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Day 7