The design process for any culture
is never random. We start the whole process
by trying to find the central graphic motif... ...the design signature
that speaks across a whole race of people. In the case of the Dwarves... ...it's about thinking of their cultural reference
and architecture... ...how they mine the granite
below their feet... ...how they're empowered
by the riches of the world... ...and their need to hoard those riches... ...and how that brings a signature
to the way they may dress... ...the way they may adorn their hair. All of these things
start to build a rounded design... ...that hopefully gels them as a culture... ...and makes them significant
in the eyes of the audience. This is the first time
that we'll have the opportunity... ...to actually get to know a Dwarvish race. And I honestly believe
that Peter is going to do for Dwarves... ...what Tolkien did for Elves. Removing what nursery rhyme and folktale
have done, which is to diminish them. If you talk to the man in the street... ...and said the word "Elf"
before Lord of the Rings... ...an Elf would be similar to a fairy,
something quite small... ...lives underground, perhaps in the garden. And after The Lord of the Rings... ...the whole nature of Elves has changed
in people's imaginations... ...and they've reacquired a certain grandeur
that they lost. And I think honestly
that Peter's going to pull it off... ...with Dwarves. So the fictional race of Dwarves
as told by Tolkien... ...a very unique group of characters
in their physiology, their stature... ...they almost see eye to eye with a Hobbit. But they couldn't be further from a Hobbit. They have a very short stature. But at the same time, we wanna reflect
that they're little armored tanks, they're very-- You know, not someone to be trifled with. They're warmongers at some level. They've been hardened in the mines... ...and therefore they're these wonderful,
tough, nuggety, stout characters. JACKSON:
They are people of the earth. A tough race. But they're also a very insular race. In other words, they don't mix with people. They're not a social type of people. They're one of the most intriguing races
because they're so secretive. Secretive with their language,
secretive with where they came from. They're also an incredibly noble race,
and proud race. They're a powerful, resolute folk... ...who will fight you as intensely as possible
on the things that they disagree with you on... ...and be your most loyal companion
on the things of which you agree upon. TAYLOR: Very early on,
Jamie did an early Dwarf sculpture... ...that humanized
and gave a quality to the level of design... ...that we were pursuing. It was just a quick maquette.
Just, you know, a hooded Dwarf. I mean, I--
You know, it obviously goes back... ...to a lot of the Scandinavian and Norse,
Teutonic kind of myths. So it's a very European-based concept
of what these individuals were seen as. We know that that's what Tolkien
had drawn on. Developing the characters of the Dwarves
came mostly maybe 10 percent from Tolkien... ...because that's really just about all there is
for most of them in the book. It came from, you know,
5O percent, 60 percent... ...of choosing the actors
to play the characters. But then the other 30, 40 percent
came from WETA Workshop. There was, as always,
a lot of speculation in the Workshop... ...as to what a Dwarf was going to be. Now, the only character reference
we actually had, I guess... ...from Peter's interpretation was Gimli
from Lord of the Rings. We realized really early on... ...that if you have 13 Dwarves
that all look like Gimli on screen... ...it's just, you know-- It's gonna be, one, visually uninteresting,
and two, confusing. Your thoughts wander to... ...some of the Dwarves
that are sitting next to Gimli... ...in the Council of Elrond... ...who were basically hairy squares
and frowny, big square foreheads. So they're the Dwarves
you've only ever seen. As a concept designer... ...who has been briefed and watched
Fellowship of the Ring and everything... ...that's your starting point. We took an original cue
from some of that stuff in Moria... ...the quite geometric forms and sort of
indicative of them as craftsmen. All the straight edges and angles
as reflective of their mastery of their art form. Whenever Tolkien offers anything,
we'll hang so much on it... ...and that's never more the case
with Tolkien's development of his alphabets. The Dwarven alphabet has got
an amazing architectural quality of it... ...as if hewn from the rock. And those elements, those graphic motifs,
play a huge part in developing the graphics... ...and everything
from the simple embroidered band... ...on the edge of a piece of clothing... ...right through to how the pillars of a mountain
may be held up. There is such wealth in those original ideas. That one, the angles are pleasing.
They kind of follow-- They follow the logic of what's already there
and then geo-- The geometric lines. He's gonna be a terrific soldier. TAYLOR: Often we start design
many, many months before an actor is hired. But you've got to get going. So you utilize any means available to you. We were doing a lot of drawings and stuff... ...and then Alan and John, they took
a photograph of each other and then they-- In Photoshop, they changed how they looked
and turned themselves into Dwarves. LEE:
John and I took photographs of each other... ...and then just Photoshopped
large noses, beards... ...and ears and mustaches. TOBIN:
Peter saw that and loved it. He saw-- I think he saw
how you could take an actor... ...or a designer, in this case... ...and very quickly, and in Photoshop... ...come up with a very realistic exploration
of what a Dwarf might look like. It's not in the contract, but it's almost
a byline of working at the Workshop... ...that you are gonna be put into something
at some stage in your career there. So very early on, we were testing
the male Dwarven characters... ...on a couple of the Workshop guys. Of course, it makes for great entertainment... ...when we finally get
to the first makeup test... ...and we get to glue a Dwarf prosthetic
on to the mold maker. -Bigtime.
MAN: That looks fantastic. Thanks.
I haven't even got the makeup on yet. In our first test,
we had Dwarves with huge ears... ...massive faces,
noses that overhung their mouths. We definitely tried the extreme first. Really trying to try every trick in the book... ...to make these guys feel
really squat and powerful. Made a huge difference
when we actually had the actor... ...who was gonna be cast in each role
confirmed to us... ...and we started seeing pictures of them. Because we're all imagining
what these characters might be. We gave WETA Workshop
a photo of that actor... ...and they Photoshopped different designs
over the top of those photos... ...and looked at them on the wall... ...and they were the actors' faces,
photographs... ...with this wonderful Photoshop artwork. We went through an extensive,
very fast period of design... ...interacting with Peter almost daily. You might wanna try some-- Not so much big, pointy noses like this
but something with a noble line to it. I mean, that's almost there, actually. Just maybe a little bit too curved on top. In the very early stages,
you get to do your version of it. So, you know, you're getting paid to do
the character that you read in the books. And they would come back to us with maybe
six or seven different designs for Bombur... ...or six or seven different designs for Balin. You know, they'd just try different things. JACKSON:
Ori, for the most part, Ori is a total mess. This guy is a comedy Dwarf, okay. -You know, this guy is a mommy's boy.
MAN: Yeah. Yeah. So he's got to appear pretty dorky. So, you know,
putting that haircut on this guy here... ...could be quite funny. In turn, what you're doing is you're funneling
from the widest possible spectrum of ideas... ...down and down and down
until you get to the thing that's built. And we got to a point
where we chose one look... ...which was then sculpted in clay, full size. A sculpture can be rotated 360 degrees... ...so a director can look at it straight on,
just like the image... ...but then can move around it,
can stand above it... ...look underneath it,
and understand it as a form. When you see where his eyeballs are... ...it feels like you could afford
to have a little bit more meat in there... ...underneath his hair. You know, I remember endless meetings
at WETA Workshop... ...in trying to get points of difference
with the Dwarves. And we always would explore
battle injuries and scars. And somewhere
in the middle of all those conversations... ...I just thought it would be cool
to have a broken Orc ax... ...embedded in one of their heads. And Bifur was the one
who got the gold ticket. TAYLOR:
The ax in the head is just pure Peter. We were rolling our eyes
as he's explaining it to us... ...and we're like, "Really, Pete?" JACKSON:
It's ridiculous, but part of that appealed to me. I mean, I-- You know, to me, there is a-- You know, a childish charm about
the Dwarves, particularly in The Hobbit. I mean, that's kind of where it came from.
It was just something that's rather silly. We like this Dori. Dori, he's very fussing. He fusses about a lot. A very fussy Dwarf.
He's all like this and he's a bit finicky. KING: And so we thought
giving him a very fussy hairdo... ...would suit his character quite well. FRASER-ALLEN: These are two of quite a few
different head patterns because they-- Peter liked the beard enough
and it's ornate and it's plaited... ...but it's also functional because
it's keeping his beard out of the way... ...because they're gonna be going through
forests and thorn bushes. All sorts of stuff like that. We did a round of designs, Photoshop work,
with John Callen... ...giving him the long, skewed up nose
and a huge, great big mustache... ...and a long, very droopy beard
that then flicked up at the end. lt was all going very, very well. Meanwhile,
Frank Victoria and Lindsey Crummett... ...were doing some amazing stuff for Balin... ...with a very intricate beard
that had these curls... ...and a little stinger thing on the back
and-- Very woolly. And then at some point, Peter and Fran
and Philippa looked at them, went: "You know, these are gonna work better
if we switched them." So they literally switched the two designs
and that Balin design became Oin. And at looking at them, it's like,
"Yeah, actually. That works really, really well." Bombur. He is the fattest of them all. And therefore he needs to be portrayed
as that. One of the ideas that we had--
That I had for Bombur was the idea that-- Because he's fairly food-orientated... ...that his beard and hair
could actually be small containers... ...that he secrets away particular tidbits
that he'll nibble on later. So the food influence for Bombur
was quite big. Almost as a bit of a lark... ...I designed Bombur with this beard which was
just this big doughnut, this big circle... ...because it's just one more circle
that emphasizes his character. And in the meeting, Peter was like,
"Yep, yep. That one there." WOMAN:
Bombur looks amazing. MAN:
Yeah, we think Bombur's great. By this stage,
Peter had seen a lot of designs... ...and he really wanted to see
something different for Nori. Something that's crazy,
that hasn't been seen yet. And so I came up with the kind of--
What's called the starfish now. Ancl yeah, Pete really liked it. BESWARICK: They did a very good job
of pushing the variation. And that's, I think, where Peter
was quite clever in that respect... ...that he would allow these huge,
diverse differences. And then when you see them as a group,
they work. There was a great moment, I remember,
when we were in the meeting room... ...and the actors had arrived in New Zealand
a few weeks before we were to start shooting... ...and they had no idea
what they were gonna look like. All right. So I will welcome you all here. Thank you. It's nice of you to travel all this way,
and those that haven't-- It's fantastic. This is the Dwarves and Bilbo. So we tried to make everyone iconic. Everyone has a very distinctive look... ...that's still keeping in the essence
of what a Dwarf should be. Nori. ALL:
Ah! MAN 1:
Yes. Yes. [ALL CHEERING AND LAUGHING] MAN 2: Mark.
MAN 3: Amazing. They all clapped and cheered
as each photo came up... ...to see what basically they were gonna be
looking like for the next two and a half years. Ori, being the youngest of the troop. MAN 1:
Whoa. MAN 2:
Lovely. And after you'd seen one,
like you'd seen your one, and you said: "Well, how can it get better than that?
Or how can they equal that? How can anybody be--?" And they managed it. -They really did.
BROWN: Yeah. [ALL CHATTERING AND LAUGHING] Rusty remains of an Orc ax
stuck in his head that can't be pulled out... ...without doing worse damage
than what's already been done. Surviving the ax in his head. I'm epic. [ALL LAUGHING AND APPLAUDING] One of the things we found
in the Lord of the Rings days... ...is if you take a regular-sized actor
and you reduce them to the height... ...of, you know, one of Tolkien's Dwarves... ...they do just look like a person shrunk. I mean, they don't actually have the status
and the gravity... ...and the nuggety kind of quality... ...that you imagine
one of these fantastical Dwarves to have. What we had to do, and it was a real trick... ...and we spent a long time
trying to figure this out, is we bulk them out. So that when they were reduced,
they didn't feel like a little human being. You have to give the illusion
that their limbs are thicker. Their groin is lower, their knees are lower... ...so therefore their legs are shorter,
their feet are larger. Their hands are larger. And in turn, the head is larger. Head-to-body ratio
was one of the big things. A Dwarf has a 5-to1 head-to-body ratio... ...as in their head will fit inside their body
five times. A human is usually around seven or eight
for a fully grown man. So increasing the size of their head,
increasing the size of their hands... ...all came into our initial prototyping. Peter did something really interesting.
Very early on, he said... ...he wanted to be able to pick each Dwarf... ...out of a silhouette in a group. You could tell who you were looking at
just literally by their silhouette. How do you get an audience
to watch a shot... ...where silhouetted actors
are walking across the top of a mountain... ...and you go, "There's him and there's him,
and I know him and I remember him." Because without that,
it just becomes a mush. We did several drawings
between myself and WETA Workshop. We literally just drew around the photographs
of the actors and got a basic silhouette shape. I mean, there were about eight or nine rows
of 13 Dwarves... ...with just silhouettes. You know, some with round shoulders,
big shoulders. All guided by what Peter had said
about certain characters. Some had to be more specifically heroic... ...and some had to be extremely rotund
and sort of more comedic. That sort of shape is quite funny for Bifur. You know, it's quite a comical-- Slightly comical shape
because his head looks quite large and he-- But he look-- He's got this little tummy and-- I think that's quite funny, you know,
quite humorous. At that point, we started making the fat suits
and getting that silhouette... ...to the point that Peter had chosen. We had a rough sort of outline,
a silhouette... ...that we were trying to achieve
for each of the Dwarves. Um.... And basically piece by piece,
body part by body part... ...we had to trial-and-error
to create those shapes. So these basically became components. And so you'd have a thigh component,
a calf component... ...a chest, a belly, a shoulder, you know. It's almost like replicating the anatomy. How fiendishly clever how they're able
to articulate with your body so that no-- There's no part of you that doesn't look
as if it's that actual size. We have many different sizes of fat suits. -Makes us look wider and therefore shorter.
WOMAN: Tell you what, why don't you put...? So as soon as you make everything bigger... -...just makes you look shorter.
MAN: Yeah. All of them have
the same basic principal body suit. So they all have a chest piece,
and they all have thigh and calves. And they all have their own
individual body type. We had heroic characters,
you know, Thorin and Fili and Kili. So, you know, it's keeping a heroic form
but also getting it Dwarven as well. Thorin's physique is very much based
around his experience on the battlefield... ...so he has very wide, broad shoulders
and sort of strong arms... ...and a strong butt as well,
which is quite useful. Some of us have fat suits. I, of course, refer to mine as a muscle suit
because... It's not a fat suit. Uh, Bombur's is a fat suit. This is the piéce de résistance. He has quite a round belly
that's about 2 meters in circumference... ...and his moobs. The moobs as we call them, the man boobs. They kind of rest on his belly in some way... ...so they sort of have this
really organic feel to them. We did it looking at a lot of fat
naked men pictures, to be perfectly blunt... ...in order to get to the point
of knowing what he should look like. When he first put it on
and sort of ran around the room... ...everyone was in fits of laughter. He loved it. And it was like, you know-- He can't see his feet or anything like that. But it just moved.
He'd be like that and it just did its thing... ...and it was just-- It was fantastic. WOMAN:
Well, at least we got the size right, gang. Yeah, yeah. I think that's very good. -That's very good.
MAN: Sweet. It's like building anything, a house or whatever,
you have to set your foundations. And our foundations
were the body shapes and the silhouettes. And then from there,
we started bringing in details... ...and we can actually start
making the costumes. Costume design
is really helping the director tell the story... ...in the way that he wants to tell it. When you think of The Hobbit,
it's kind of very easy... ...to think of almost 13, you know, clones. Like, even the way Tolkien describes them.
I mean, they've got different colored hoods. Their individuality
is because one's got a red hood... ...one's got a green hood,
a yellow hood and so on. And it was important to me
that audiences get to know them individually. I may have various shades... ...and textures in browns,
and the next person's got reds... ...and there's someone over here
who's greenish and grayish. Those kind of things... ...help identify who these people are. MASKREY:
Bifur, Bofur and Bombur are the plebs. Tolkien says they're not part of a royal line. And so you were having to make sure
that they looked scruffier in their appearance. You sort of drop down quite a few pegs
in the world standing... ...or the Dwarven world standing. Um.... And, you know,
the fabrics are a lot more textural, the-- I'm using Hessians and really rough silks. Many layers of gorgeous beautiful details... ...kind of heavy, braided cotton and wool
and da-da-da. And then, finally, I've got a hat.
Uh, a very funny hat. MASKREY:
And when we first put it on him... ...it did have this sort of wonky shape
that Fran really liked. It just sticks up by itself
and it does this thing. And, suddenly, you've just got this attitude,
this fabulous sort of wackiness. Of course, it's just another layer
on top of your head... ...and we all know that hats
keep your head warm. So he's got, you know,
that Dwarven head, the wig... ...and a fur-lined hat. Poor Jimmy, sorry about that. BUCK:
And then we get into Dori, Nori, Ori. The mauves and the sort of lilacs
and purples. And they're sort of quite hard colors
to work with, really. WALSH: I would send Adam Brown, Ori,
into a kind of lavender. Because, you know,
the sort of softer, more girly purple. -So I think that might work for him.
MAN: Sure. WALSH:
I think he can be less of a bloke. BUCK:
The lilac-y sort of thing... ...did lend itself quite well to Ori in the end. It all sort of came together... ...and then mixing that in with the gray
and with the knitting. He's a mommy's boy. MASKREY: He looks very cozy and cuddly,
you want to mother him. You've just got--
He's not got to look like a warrior. I think Ori has the best costume. It may not be the most macho of costumes... ...but it's very practical when it's cold.
Ha-ha-ha. There's two Dwarves
with that blood red color, really. Gloin's has it and so does Balin. And the difficulty with Balin was the fact... ...that they very definitely wanted him
to have a gray beard. And so it immediately steers you
towards Santa. But he still had to be red,
that was the key color mentioned by Tolkien. FALCONER: So Balin had that very distinctive,
sort of ski ramp, I call it, shape to his beard... ...and it rolled off his nose. Everything zoomed down
and then had a little flick on the end. And I was really pleased to see... ...the Costume Department
also integrated that into his costumes. That became a signature of his character
and he had the same things going on. The flicks in his toes, of his shoes. Just a little wee accent in his collars. The cut of his cloth,
all had that same shape. BUCK:
Balin and Dwalin, family members... ...but, you know,
they are quite different fellows, you know. Balin's more the philosopher,
sort of educator... ...as opposed to Dwalin, who's a big
battleship sort of thing of a Dwarf. MASKREY: And he has a fur collar
which we've shaved into to create a pattern. So it looks sort of sharper and strong. Um, he has very distinctive boots, very furry. He's a bit wolf-like, really. We've all got different styles of boots. I've got the ones with the little furry tops,
which I'm obviously very partial to. MAN: You know what that is?
-Tahr. It's a kind of goat. It's a mountain goat, basically. And all the Dwarven boots
are completely unique. BUCK:
Really well-grounded, solid, chunky boots... ...with straps and things like that
for the more warrior types. And then sort of Bombur's got a bit more
of a sort of a shoe... ...which is sort of very round and rotund
and sort of girded up. A bit like he is, sort of all squashed in
and sausaged sort of thing. And it's just taking ideas... ...and making them sort of a metaphor
for what that character is. You've got to make somebody look short
and squat when they're 6-foot tall. And they've got to have
a heavy, solid-looking Dwarven boot. So you have to exaggerate their foot size. Otherwise, they'll look like
they've got dainty little feet. Well, the boots are brilliantly constructed.
Um-- They-- We're wearing a boot that fits us... ...as a human actor
for support and everything... ...which is then built around
to make the actual boots. So that's your inner boot and that is the boot
which is actually fitted to the actor... ...and that gets screwed-- Put the sole over there. With packing around the toe,
around the heel... ...so it actually feels
like a natural pair of boots. For me, the footwear
is the foundation of any character. It makes an actor stand differently,
that makes them walk differently. It helps them get into the character. ARMITAGE: I actually can't play
the character without the boots now... ...because sometimes they'll just do,
like an upper body shot... ...and they'll say,
"You can take the boots off." I can't do it. I can't play the character in flip-flops.
It just doesn't work. TAYLOR:
The tips of noses are very challenging... ...because if they look too droopy,
they change the character... -...of the person dramatically.
MAN: Yeah. Probably, the largest single daily challenge
is that of prosthetics. It's immense, you know,
because on any given day... ...not only do you have the main cast,
you have their stunt double... ...which is also put in the full makeup. This requires in our company
to do an unprecedented... ...manufacturing of prosthetics every day. Hi, I'm Kim Docherty
and you're at WETA Workshop. You're off in the encapsulated
silicone prosthetics room... ...where we've been making
all the hero Dwarves. We have been making
around 30 to 40 prosthetics a day. ARMITAGE: For daily Dwarfing,
it starts with the head piece... ...which is like a cowl on the back of the head
to widen the ears... ...which was like having two cups
over your ears so you can't really hear. It's like having headphones on. Some of the ears come way out to here. BROPHY: Yeah.
LANE: It's really like living in a fishbowl for them. [BOTH MUMBLING INDISTINCTLY] So I probably don't need
one of those little trumpet things... -...that Richard's got there.
-Yeah, Richard's got. Yeah. I found some baby comforters
that are made of silicone... ...so I chopped the ends off
and stuck that inside the ear... ...and glued it to my own ears
so it creates like a little ear trumpet. Yes, Richard--
Richard, it's a baby nipple that he's cut up... ...and he puts in his ears
so he can hear better. Um, so before the wig goes on,
I look ridiculous. Everyone looked so weird. [BUZZING] [WOMAN CHUCKLING] -Hello, man baby.
-What? -Put yourself in the fetus position.
-Just stop it. WOMAN: He spends half this job
in the fetal position. Spread your feet up in fetal-- Look. Fetal man baby. Ha-ha-ha. This is the kind of abuse that I get. [BLOWS RASPBERRY AND
MAKES SQUISHING NOISES] Just like a big piece of steak. WOMAN:
It won't kill you. Peter was very vocal about the fact
that he didn't want to have prosthetics... ...glued on to the actors' lower faces. LANE:
He didn't want anything under the eyes... ...to create any type of irritation
or puffiness or anything. Because I know they had huge problems
with Gimli... ...back in the days
of doing Lord of the Rings. And John Rhys-Davies, I know,
was really uncomfortable. And they've come a long way now
with prosthetics. lt was only Bombur who ultimately ended up
with a full lower facial prosthetic. Stephen's head's so large
we have to have two makeup artists. Yeah. Bombur's the monster, and he has, uh-- What goes on
is he has a foam cowl with ears. This is part one of five. MAN: Part one of five pieces.
There goes another one. Bombur's chin. Oh, neck really. That goes underneath all his other prosthetics
just to fill him out a bit. Piece number two. O'GORMAN: He's got such
a huge double chin, on the first day... ...I saw him he actually kept his BlackBerry
tucked into his chin. And he was talking to me, he went,
"Sorry, I got to--" He reached in
and he pulled out his cell phone. Make sure I got my phone on me
all the time. MAN 1: You're the one without any pants on.
MAN 2: God. -Well, I don't know. It's hard to tell.
-I was in the change tent. His facial piece goes all the way,
like a Gimli style. I call it a Batman piece.
It just goes around the nose to the cheeks. Piece number three. LANE:
And then he has another chin bit... ...that goes on over top of the foam,
that's silicone... ...and then he has a top of head. He has that kind of Friar Tuck haircut. There's piece four and five going on. The only part that's me that you can see
is just-- Just below my eyes and my lips,
and the rest is stuck-on Bombur. Ta-da! Ginger-head man. Not you, mate. We only use a prosthetic once. It's all about the edge. Once you blend in the edge into the skin,
virtually, you can't use it again. So each piece is one use only... ...then it goes in the bin. One of my assistants started counting up
all the pieces that we've used... ...according to call sheets. She didn't complete the count yet,
but she was up to 4200 pieces. And that's not including Hobbits
or other characters. It was just for the Dwarves. -Eyes feel good today.
WOMAN: That's good. We were coming up with the tattoo idea. What they were... ...and one of the thoughts was that... ...it's a sort of pictorial history
of what's happened to the Dwarf race over.... A memorial almost... ...to our suffering. ALLEN:
He's my favorite part of this job... ...is coming to work
and being able to put this on him... ...and hear his stories and laugh with him. -And put up with the abuse.
-Mm. Abuse. BROPHY:
How many freckles do you have? Five, six, seven, eight, nine,
10,1112,13,14. -Foufleen.
-Foufleen. I think you should start adding one a day
till the end. As well as all the makeup on the face,
we've got these hands... ...that we put on like a rubber glove, really... ...but made out of thick, thick rubber. And they mold with our joints
and our fingers. They make our hands look incredibly real
in proportion to the rest of the Dwarf body. It's a brand-new hand, especially for you. I mean, Bombur's hands are,
you know, really, really, sausage fingers. We need someone to put hands on. WOMAN:
Should I put his hands on? First day they put it on,
I found myself just staring at them. Because they look so lifelike,
but they're bigger. -Oh, there we go. That's it.
WOMAN: Yes. And they allow us
to do whatever we need to do... ...in terms of fine work,
in terms of fingers and holding things... ...holding weapons and fighting. Um-- But they're also quite hard work. You know, the tiredness, the heat. [WHIMPERING] This is the worst part. If I can delay putting these hands on,
I will. WOMAN:
Come on, you can do it. My face and my beard
is really not a problem. But when your hands,
you can't feel the air on your hands, it's, um-- That's the thing where I,
"Take them off. Take my hands off." Blowing on them and then put them back on.
That's the thing... ...that is the least enjoyable of it. Torture. If there was a way of seeing more
of Dwalin's arms. Graham, we sort of bring your skin up-- We hide the elbows
so we haven't got the issue with the creases. That from there onwards, where we give you
nice, bulgy Dwarfula biceps... ...with tattoos and scars and-- Because it just feels like you're too covered
and too sort of protected. Everybody else has prosthetic hands. Um-- And I have to pull on
this really enormous gloves, I guess... ...that go to just above the elbow. WOMAN:
One, two, three.... LANE:
So on top of everything else... ...I think each arm weighs 8 pounds or 7.
Seven to 8 pounds. Those forearms are huge. -How does that feel? You okay?
-Yup. Cool. McTAVISH:
The forearms... ...they're pretty good. I love my forearms. I know this is coming
for a little bit of stick... ...from Mark Hadlow,
who's just a bitter, small man... ...with a limited imagination. For a Scotsman who's got big muscles... ...he's got the worst, you know,
from here down. They're like little string beans. It's amazing, his real arms. They're terrible. I mean, it's like he's got witch's little arms. [IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE]
"Oh, look at me, got little arms." [IN NORMAL VOICE] He puts these big arms just
to make himself look tough, which are tattooed. [IN DEEP VOICE]
"Look, I've got tattoos. I'm Graham McTavish and I've got tattoos." [IN NORMAL VOICE]
Take that off, he's got nothing. He's a weed. Yeah. But it does make him look a lot cooler.
He does have pretty decent forearms with them. I don't really need them, girls tell me... ...the forearms are one of my strengths
I do have. We're talking about a diameter
of at least 7 or 8 inches there... ...which is a lot more
than anyone else would have. A lot more than Mark Hadlow, for instance. He wouldn't have forearms like this.
Are you kidding me? WALSH: Yeah-- I think his fingers
may be a little too fat, you know? -Is it just me'?
WOMAN: Yeah. No. JACKSON: ls there--?
Have you got a smaller set of hands? No, but we could sculpt some small ones
if they're a problem. WALSH:
I feel because he's younger... ...that you could probably get away
with slightly finer fingers. Very early on, Pete said to us: "I want to be more bold.
I want the Dwarves... ...to look like a race of Dwarves
from Middle-earth... ...as Tolkien would have imagined them." So when we first presented the Dwarves,
in the case of some of them... ...Fran and Phil were concerned
that maybe we'd gone too far. We'd lost these amazing characters
that have been hired to play the Dwarves. You know, a lot of these actors have been cast
because of who they are, you know. James Nesbitt had been cast
because he's a particular kind of actor... ...and he's got his Irish humor,
and so on and so forth. So the first show-and-tell we did with him,
we didn't recognize him at all. We had lost James completely. So much of what's critical of Jimmy's face... ...is this beautiful sparkle
that he has in his eyes... ...and this cheeky grin
that makes him who he is. KING: So we did about four different prosthetics
on him in the end... ...to get the proportion right. So he still has a little bit but only a little bit. Oh, my God. [ALL CHUCKLING] WOMAN:
Oh, darling. I did a few show-and-tells when I came out
in all my costume and makeup... ...and, instantly, Fran and Philippa and Pete
were like, "Yes! But the nose is too big." BOYENS: Yes, the nose is too large.
WALSH: The nose is too large. JACKSON:
Yeah. BROWN:
And that happened, actually, three times. My nose was too big three times. It went from being like this
to kind of the size of my nose... ...which is still fairly big. The big design challenge for us
was giving the sternness, the weight... ...and the thickness in the forehead... ...without causing it
to overshadow the eyes. TURNER: Kili started off with quite a lot of
prosthetics. There was a lot of latex going on... ...and different dimensions
and much bigger nose... ...and a bigger forehead
and different shaping on the eyebrows. What became apparent, I guess,
to Fran and Phil... ...is that Aidan's face
had to all but a hundred percent... ...speak through the makeup. For his handsome demeanor
and twinkle that is in Aidan's eye... ...and then the way he presents
this character... ...we had little ability to encumber that
with prosthetics. And ultimately, Aidan is wearing a cowl... ...that slightly increases his head size
with the extension ears out on them... ...and then just a tiny little prosthetic
on the tip of his nose. Have you seen this? WOMAN:
Yeah. Aidan Turner, Adam Brown. Aidan Turner, Adam Brown. If you were to draw the long straw,
he drew it. Ha-ha-ha. He has changed quite a lot,
but I think a lot of people have. I mean, Thorin has too. On this character,
you do need to be able to read... ...a huge amount of information
from his face. I think up to now, Thorin's had five faces. KING: We started off,
he had quite a heavy forehead... ...and he had a much larger nose
than he has now. WOMAN 1: All right, I think the forehead's
a little bit too big. WOMAN 2:
Bring it down, yeah. It wasn't sexy. That was the issue. We were still testing
while we were shooting... ...so we've had to go back... ...and reshoot certain close-ups. We also decided that too long a beard
on Richard was too distracting. Tolkien described Thorin having
a forked beard that he tucked into his belt. We have had to depart from that. I know this is controversial
because the king of the Longbeards... ...people feel he should have a long beard. But there was something I found
to sort of ease my conscience a bit. It's in The Hobbit that
when the Dwarves emerge from Erebor... ...they had singed beards,
so the reason Thorin wears his beard short... ...is in reverence to those Dwarves
that have died in the mountain, you know. When he becomes king,
he'll grow that beard back. -The beards, they're all real.
-Yeah. -All of them were real.
-Yeah. They-- No, they're yak hair.
Most of them are yak hair. You like totally gave it away there. -Oh, sorry.
-God. A lot of things were done
to make these people, who-- In all size... ...to make them look like they're short,
4-foot, 4-foot-6 people. We used yak hair,
which is coarse and thick... ...and we can very easily get a lot of volume
to help us with the proportion. This lot is about a kilo of hair. So we've used a hundred lots of this
to make wigs and beards. -You find you have a little itch going on here?
-Yeah, every day. -The netting comes away a little bit. My gosh.
-Yep. Yeah. HADLOW: Jamie Leigh puts up with the shit
that I give her from the perspective-- "Do I need the facial yet? Please, leave the mo off
just until we're ready to go." Because I hate facial hair on me. I just-- I'm just like: [SQUEALING] -Thank you so much.
-We'll do this after. Yeah, okay. Can we leave it off for five minutes? Then she'll come up to me and be hovering,
"Can we leave it off for another five minutes?" Drive you both crazy, but you're saying: "Can we leave the facial hair off
for another five minutes?" The makeup,
I haven't found a problem at all. I like the makeup. Sticking on facial hair, though... It's never good. I did grow an enormous beard
before I came here that I was very proud of. But then they told me I had to shave it off. I was really, really pissed off. Really pissed off. And now of course, Richard Armitage... ...Aidan Turner... ...Dean O'Gorman,
they've all got their own beards. We had a 10-week break and I thought... ...well, here's a good opportunity
to grow something real. There's so much of the head
and the face that's, uh-- Doesn't belong to me,
I thought it'd be good to mix it up. I had a few months off before the shoot, I went,
"I bet I can grow a wicked beard." And I could. And when I got over here,
and Peter looks at me and went: "No. We're gonna shave that.
We want you with some stubble." They had a stick-on one of these. You know, and sometimes they're a bit
troublesome because they can-- With the heat and stuff, they can peel off,
so I grew my own, you know. Not realizing quite how ridiculous
outside of costume I would look. In the costume it's great.
I have a mustache that goes over it... ...and this here is fantastic. And it saves me some time in the morning
as well, but in real life: [IN HIGH-PITCHED VOICE]
"Oh, look at our beards." [IN NORMAL VOICE]
Then I've got to stick one on. Anyway, it's fine. [GRUNTING] Another opportunity
to define each character... ...is define them by the weapon they carry
and how they carry it. I mean, the axes of the Dwarves
are just kind of a cliché... ...that that is their signature weapon,
and indeed it is. But if you read The Lord of the Rings,
Gimli has axes. You go back and read The Hobbit,
they talk about swords. So there was the opportunity there... ...to design what does a Dwarven sword
lookfike. You couldn't just have all the characters
carrying exactly the same weapon. So with the weapons,
it kind of goes hand in hand... ...with designing the silhouettes
and their different appearances. We wanted to make singular statements
about each of those characters. FALCONER: Some have axes, some
have hammers, some have boar spears... ...some have slingshots, as it turns out. Some have bows, some have swords,
all different shapes. So the idea then became,
"Let's develop something... ...very distinctive for each individual Dwarf." The weapons particularly,
we had a huge involvement... ...in how they would come out. If any of you have been thinking about ideas
for potential weapons that you want to use... ...through the movie... ...now would be a good time
to have an initial check. We were asked to come up with ideas,
not just axes and swords... ...but what other weapons we thought
that our characters might come up with. And those weapon choices were informed
by our back-story of where we'd come from. They kind of threw their ideas out to us
to say, you know, like, "Well, maybe-- You know, my character could have
this son of weapon." At that point, it was sort of a two-way street
of throwing ideas around, so it was quite neat. Balin wanted a weapon
that was a cross between an ax and a sword. What you are talking about
in terms of like kind of a combination weapon... ...is a weapon that kind of looks more
like that: Yup. Yeah, yeah. And so out came this rather
weird-looking effect with a bit-- With tenderizing bits on it. VICTORIA:
You have no idea where it comes from. It's a weird weapon
that is really not of our world... ...and that really belongs into this world,
but it's still plausible as a weapon. I have to be honest, I think it's one of the most
standout bits of design in the whole film... ...in terms of just a totally unique piece
of weaponry. So there's a lot of strange, weird
and wonderful ways to kill people. Ha, ha. McTAVISH: I just thought that Dwalin
would have names for his axes. Because he's that kind of guy, you know.
Uh.... And I remember that Emily Bronte
had two dogs... ...called Grasper and Keeper.
And I always remembered it. I just thought,
what an extraordinary pair of names. Not Fluffy and Fifi. Just-- These are dogs
that are gonna do stuff to you. Um-- And I mentioned, as you do in passing,
to Peter... ...that Grasper and Keeper
would be good names for my axes. Just for me. Just as a character thing for me. And Peter was like, "Yeah. That's great. Yeah, we can have them inscribed
on the blades of your axes." Heh, heh. Okay. And practically the next day,
there they were. Grasper, Keeper. That's one of the great things
about this job is the-- Well, A, the attention to detail... ...and the speed with which they're able
to accomplish something. This one grasps your soul... ...this one keeps it. Nothing's just thrown together. It's just over and over and over again
the amount of show-and-tells you have. Showing your costume and makeup
and weaponry... ...and seeing what works and what doesn't. JACKSON: If Graham is gonna
end up wearing large hands... ...rather than put Graham into... ...fingerless gloves like that,
which will hide a lot of the skin... ...why don't we think about
turning it into weaponry? -Like he's got knuckle-dusters.
MAN 1: Knuckle-dusters. -Knuckle-dusters woven into his knuckles.
WOMAN: Right. Why don't we design something
that's not a leather... ...fingerless glove like that? That it's more like a chain metal thing... ...and it could have
knuckle-duster type points on it... -...so it almost becomes a weapon component.
MCTAVISH: Nice. But it does a little-— It could be bits of nail,
it could be seeing skin in between, you know? -It's like strings of mail--
MAN 2: Yep. -Could it come back to a wrist strap?
-Yeah, yeah. -Because that would be fantastic.
-Probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be great
to be able to, you know-- Yeah, I don't need my ax
because I've got this: MAN 3: You have a good weapon....
-Bang. And before you know it, we actually have
these whole leather strappings... ...that go right down his forearms... ...and on to his hands
that carry these heavy steel blades. Asymmetrical, both are different. Richard, being the genius that he is... ...just came up with these knuckle-dusters
that I wear. That are amazing. I can't wait to use them... ...do some serious Orc damage
with a pair of knuckle-dusters. Insult, Injury. That's how I view my hands,
as one is called Insult, one is called Injury. I think everybody's got amazing weapons. I mean, even Ori,
who essentially has a slingshot. [CHUCKLES] But it's really deadly. I was fortunate enough to start drawing
some of those ideas up. And then I said to Richard,
"Well, I've got a slingshot at home." It actually was my father's.
He made it when he was a boy. Um, carved it himself. And I said,
"Should we just show it to Peter?" And so we popped it in a bag,
sent it down to Peter... ...and it came back with a Post-it note on it. "Fantastic. This is great.
Just make it Dwarven size." BROWN: It might look nothing in comparison
to the big swords of Fili and Kili, but, um-- No, it's deadly. I designed quite a few of the weapons
for Fili. Twin swords and twin daggers
stashed down his sleeves... ...and twin throwing axes. The throwing axes for Fili... ...we played with a lot of different arrangements
as to how they'd work. We had them strung in a series,
like a bandolier across his chest. Uh, and they ultimately ended up
being in his boots. He's like a hedgehog. He's just like bristling
with all these armaments. He's got his weapons at the ready,
so to speak. There's always a single prop
that causes some trepidation... ...and everyone wants to have a go at it. And ultimately
probably everyone did have a go... ...and of course, that's Orcrist... ...the quintessential defining weapon
of The Hobbit. There were certainly some quite
strong thoughts right from the start... ...as to what we could pursue with this. It's the mate of Glamdring. And that basically
is as much as we knew about it. So the first thing that myself and Paul did
was start drawing swords... ...that looked a lot like Glamdring. We also looked at trying to include
some of the shapes that were in Sting... ...because that's also a sword that's came from
the same vintage as Glamdring and Orcrist. My feeling was that it could have
the same profile as the edge of Glamdring... ...but then a straight edge on the other side. Which would also give it
quite an unusual-shaped blade. And potentially a strong and broad blade which
would look good in the hands of a Dwarf. That was exactly the route I took. I love Sting, I love Daniel's design... ...and I based most of my designs
off that wider blade. JACKSON: I like the blade. It's a good shape.
TAYLOR: Lovely. It's an unusual shape
and it's just got the right balance to it. Peter was really adamant
that he was wanting to see something different. Like a lot of our designs
were falling into the category of: "I've seen it with Glamdring,
I've seen it with Sting." JACKSON:
Well, it's quite interesting. -And we're saying it's Elven-made.
TAYLOR: Yeah. JACKSON: Why don't we do
something different with the handle... ...so it doesn't look like a wound-up Sting? So that's when I kind of went down
a kind of slightly crazy road again... ...and, you know, Biter is the sword. And so I thought,
"Well, what about a tooth for the hilt?" So I offered that up, and Peter went for it. I wouldn't like to say
that it's a dragon's tooth... ...because, you know,
when we were researching the lore... ...certainly there's no indication
that that's the case. But given that there's a dragon in the film... ...again, there's a nice theme
running through there, so maybe it is. So Orcrist, of course is the Goblin-cleaver,
and it says that on the sword. But then also on the blade
it says "the serpent's tooth." Which is really cool because
that's in reference to the fact... ...that it has a dragon's tooth on the handle. And then on the scabbard, it says: "Born from the maws of dragons"
and "I am always hungry and thirsty." How cool is that? That's awesome. And then, of course,
that design has to be made... ...and that falls firmly on the shoulders
of Peter Lyon, our swordsmith. I tend to do the finishing
on all the heroes' swords. Because basically I've been doing it
for 25 years... ...so I've gotten very good at knowing
just by feel what's going on with the grinders. That blade was an unbelievably
challenging thing to make. Because you're hand grinding,
by eye, a blade... ...that has to have
immensely accurate tolerances... ...so that as the light glances off it,
it has no wave pattern through it. lt has to look absolutely pure
in its linear form... ...while still capturing the subtlety
of the design. ARMITAGE: That's terrific.
-This will have an aluminum armature in it. -And that will be in polyfoam.
-And it will be lightweight. Very, yeah. ARMITAGE: There was an idea that I came with
at the very, very beginning... ...which I didn't think
would go anywhere... ...but it was something
that Peter quite liked the idea of... ...which was that at the battle of Moria Gate
where this branch of the tree saved his life. I thought that maybe he'd kept the branch. Richard did a little illustration,
conceptualized the idea... ...that if this branch had had
such a significance in his survival... ...surely he, therefore, would give it mythology,
would heirloom it... ...would hew it into a usable weapon,
a usable form of defense. ARMITAGE:
He's kind of created a gauntlet from it... ...which goes from the fist to the arm
and it's got two metal hooks on the back and-- It's a kind of multipurpose weapon
so it can punch and it can be a shield. So that's something that's evolved. Got rid of the knobbly fescue. -It had those splits that look like fingers.
JACKSON: Yeah. Yeah. -Popped that in and that in. Put the curve in.
JACKSON: Yep. Yep. Well, I think it's good. I mean, it looks more like a tree trunk. It's almost like the personification of a Dwarf
that rather than getting old with age... ...they kind of harden with age... ...and they become more fierce warriors
with age. I think you can do what you want.
I've obviously killed him, so he's dead already. MAN 1: No, he's not.
TURNER: He's dead. He's dead. -I got him right between the eyes.
MAN 2: I know. I remember. We've got a ridiculous array of weapons.
After a while, they can get very heavy. Very heavy with the fighting.
They can get very heavy. Props, weapons, costumes, bags. Dean O has a spade. If anyone--? -If anybody needs a spade, I've got it.
-He's got a spade. CALLEN:
Put all those things together... ...and you're looking at 25,
28 kgs in my case. If I've got absolutely everything going. And that's quite a lot of weight
to be carrying around for any length of time. This is the patented Oin cooling system. With your hands
shoved down these tubes... ...you'll never ever become overheated... ...either in the delivery of your performance
or the rubbish you speak to the camera. We're the most useless race. We cannot do anything. When the camera's off.
I mean, the state of us. I mean, we're all just half baked and dead
by the side of the set and would-- You know, fans in everyone's faces and-- You know, makeup artists
coming over, "Okay. My back, my back. Just keep the cooling stuff on." And Peter raring to get going again
with another take. It's hilarious. McTAVISH:
Sweat literally pools in my arms. And what happens is that the combination
of the talcum powder and the sweat produces... ...this really disgusting milky consistency... ...that starts to just leak from your fingers. Dwalin milk. Fresh Dwalin milk. There we go. Ready for the milk. MAN:
Just me-- Oh, your own-- WOMAN:
Thanks. That's really-- McTAVISH:
They don't like taking them off. Because the poor person
that has to take my arms off... ...they have to get a hold of the top
and they yank it. And in the yanking,
well, the milk just goes everywhere. Mainly on the face of the poor makeup girl
who's taking my arms off. Do I deliver or what? There you go. Enjoy. WOMAN:
You got a towel? I don't normally spray it quite that much. You do get extremely hot. So we have this cooling suit
that racing car drivers wear. The cool vest has a hose,
the hose plugs into a cool pack... ...which is then filled with ice
and cold water. So within about 10 seconds of plugging in... ...this little puppy will start pumping water
all around their body... ...underneath all of their layers
of fat suit and costume. So as soon as we finish a take,
when they call "cut"... ...we plug in to the little chilly bin
that's got the iced water in it. And then we're like astronauts
carrying around our little pumps... ...that is pumping cold water
around our bodies. People would shout,
"Could you plug me in?" Ha, ha. And it's pumped through
and it is wonderful. BROPHY: Oh, yeah.
WOMAN: Can you feel that already? MAN: Do you feel that?
-It feels like I am pissing myself. [ALL LAUGH] It's great. TURNER: I think in the second day, we all kind
of-- We're all complaining about something. About how hot it was and we thought-- We just need a big place for us to hang out.
A big tent. We'd just stick in loads of air conditioning. Put in loads of it and pump it in. We can
wait in there. It was done the next day. -Here we are in the quarantine tent.
-Yeah. NESBITT: At the end of the night,
you're looked after by an incredible crew. They've had 18 months
of sweaty, grumpy Dwarves... ...coming into them at the end of the night,
and they have to take off all their layers. I stink. JACKSON:
When we went into The Hobbit... ...we had this notion... ...that this was gonna be a somewhat smaller,
easier film to make than The Lord of the Rings. And we came to realize very quickly
that that is just absolutely not the case. Each Dwarf has to travel
with a crew of five dedicated people. When you think
about the number of people there are... ...who have to dress us,
who have to find all our props... ...and then we all have stunt doubles,
a scale double... ...suddenly the number of people in the cast
has trebled. TAYLOR:
There's sometimes a picture double... ...there's sometimes a stunt double
for the scale double. Uh, and it makes for an amazing array
of different performers... ...required to deliver a single role. -Hi.
-Ha, ha. Hi. One day, we made up all the Dwarves
and all their scale doubles. That was the day that we realized
what we were doing. That was when you realize
it was going to be absolutely mammoth. And it was gonna be much larger
than Lord of the Rings ever was. Yeah, it was quite surreal. Really quite surreal. Especially with the--
When the scales walked in. lt was just like,
"My God. Ha, ha. Have we really done this? Look what we created." -Are we all done?
ALL: Yes. -What?
MAN 1: Yep. MAN 2:
Are there any women here? WOMAN: No! I'm not a woman!
ALL: No. [CREW LAUGHING] When we all put our gear on
and we all stood together... ...to look at the guys
that were going on the quest... ...yeah, I got a real tingle up my spine. That was actually quite genuinely moving. Seeing all of you together
and looking into each other's eyes. All of these characters
give you your own character as well. So when I met Balin and when I met Dwalin,
it was a-- lt really feels like you're stepping
into Middle-earth... ...and I don't feel like myself at all. It was just an amazing experience
to see them realized in their true form... ...watching the actors express
through the makeup that you sculpted... ...is just so rewarding. It's just a wonderful experience. And all of it, you know, very worthwhile
process to get it exactly right. So that they're--
I guess their overall presence there... ...their personality, their prosthetics,
their hair. Everything is sympathetic
towards the character that they're playing. And all the Tolkien fans, they can
rest assured that there's a team here... ...that have their heart and soul
into creating something very, very special.
