kolff: de colve: VII: 2
Article from De Colve VII - 2002: The Lord of the Rings (2/2)
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| As greensman, or greenie as he was called, Andrew was
employed to maintain the newly formed access roads to the town, which
during the height of construction and filming carried a huge amount
of traffic. Roads and paths around the village had to be constructed.
Rock and stone walls both retaining and ornamental had to be built.
“We worked in rain, hail, and snow," says Andrew, who says
it was a marvellous experience. Water had to be pumped up to the hilltop
town, and gravel carted up its precipitous road. Drainage systems
throughout the town had to go in “to prevent everything turning
to slush it can rain like cats and dogs up there". Areas had
to be levelled. Only when all that was done could the planting commence. |
On one Lord of the Rings website a Taita resident details
the reconstruction of a dismantled ancient oak tree for a film sequence.
There was no such contrived goings on in Mid-Canterbury. For Edoras,
no vegetation was trucked in, says Andrew. "We didn't introduce
grasses, the ones we used were there already."
The native tussocks, grasses, and pasture were removed before construction began, and set aside in a purpose built nursery nearby. Andrew tended them there before carting them back and replanting. Newly cut banks were aged and naturalised with the nursery stock. It was also used in the specially created cracks and crannies in the rock walls. |
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| "The landscape work there was amazing. There was
a specific look they wanted, things had to be changed a few times
because it wasn't right," he says. Mere tricks of the trade for
those masters of illusion, the film's makers, but they have given
Andrew a "whole new outlook on constructing rustic or natural
landscapes". One which he cannot wait to put into practice with
his Christchurch clients. "I specialise in hill work," he
explains, although he doubts any will be as structurally challenging
as those he tackled on the Lord of the Rings set.
Nor the surroundings so dramatic. Andrew's face lights up as he recalls it. "I never got sick of the scenery. The vast valley, surrounded with huge snow capped mountains, incredible sunsets and sunrises, and rainbows like I've never seen before.” "It was a very harsh and extreme climate. The whole spectrum, snow everywhere, and yet there were many days that were very hot. Very strong nor west winds. Frosty mornings, crystal-clear days." |
The perfect setting for Lord of the Rings? Andrew shrugs
and laughs, saying he can't comment en that yet. Give him a month
or two and he'll be up to the chapter in Lord of the Rings where the
village he helped create features. They built it up and then they
ripped it down.
“'When I tell people that we restored the area back to how it was, the most common comment is 'oh, what a shame'," he says. But you have to understand that this town was not built to last. The year before last they recorded 190krn winds on the top of Mount Sunday. "The whole valley would be littered with debris had we left it. It was really not an option and there were many business reasons not to leave it there too." Edoras has gone for now but will rise again in the opening sequence of the second Lord of the Rings film, expected to be released in New Zealand on Boxing Day. |
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