We are moving on to a different set now, going into one of the enormous studio buildings, and I’m excited to get a look at what they’ve built. It’s quieter now that the big outdoor set pieces in the city have been shot, and there’s a general feeling in the air that the stress levels have dropped notably. There’s only a handful of us guards on, and no other extras so, rather than the holding tent, we are to make base camp in a dark corner beside the set and within view of the snack table. This is great news – being able to actually see the snack table being refilled guarantees you the chance to grab all the tastiest morsels. This is the first time I’ve been in one of these huge studio hangars, and if big dark warehouses lined with miles of lighting rigs and cables are your thing then they’re pretty cool.
This is not what the outside of the studio looked like.
The set itself is nuts. Not literally. That would be stupid. It takes up most of the building, and there are multiple access points, mostly a few levels up via staircases. It’s a circular construction and from the outside it is just a maze of timber framework. The first time I get to see the set from within we were taken up what appeared to be the main staircase. Stairs are a little more challenging in full armour and my glorious cape was a constant tripping hazard. But when you reach the top of the stairs, wow. A pair of golden doors about 20ft high open up into a vast round room well over fifty metres across. We’re on the upper level, which encircles the room, then there is another terrace, then the floor level. Everything looks incredibly convincing, as if we’ve just walked into a courtroom in ancient Greece or Rome, the illusion only spoilt somewhat by the ground floor entrance at the far end of the set with its wooden frame and enormous blue screen. It’s incredibly impressive, as are the fake flames burning in big stone bowls around the set which I find out the hard way aren’t in fact fake.
We’ll shoot some big scenes in here in due course, but for now the room is rather empty, and perhaps all the more impressive for it. We’re on set very early, and while we wait for the cast to be ready it’s quiet and empty enough for me to indulge in my favourite past time of having a wander around the set being nosey while hoping not to get told off. The whole thing is built out of “marble” and “gold” and, unlike the flames, only touch reveals that it is not real – the eyes are entirely convinced. There’s a dais with stairs either side and what I presume is a throne but is not really actually very throney at all. It’s more like a bench that you might see in a fancy gallery or museum. Nevertheless I sit in it anyway and pretend I’m Elros, the first king of Numenor, and walk away feeling very honorable and important. Presumably if I’d pretended to be Aldarion then I’d have felt like being a complete dick for a bit and then going to sea for the next decade or so. Opposite this and across the round floor is a larger dais, but without the stairs from the top level. This will in fact prove to be something of a design oversight that we’ll come back to later!
I’m astonished to discover that there is actually a sort of mote around the central floor, just a couple of feet wide and filled with water. The idea seems to be that it is filled by a spring, and when the show airs you can see that the water exits the building through the arch and over the waterfall, as per the image in the first picture on this post. It’s hard to imagine that nobody will fall into this at some point in the future, and I will not be disappointed. Other than the ornate arch in the picture below – and the view over the city from it – the whole set was entirely real, no CGI.
It’s only a small scene they are shooting today. I’m not even sure if it made the cut, there was just Míriel and I think Elendil, looking at a map on a table and talking far too quietly and conspiratorially for me to learn anything! A handful of us guards were placed by the doors on the upper level, ensuring security for the map readers as well as multiple witnesses to their quiet meeting. Mercifully on this occasion we have been given only spears, and no shields. We guards are absolutely the easiest extras to direct. It’s basically ok guards, do your guard thing and stand still for the next two hours. And this is good, because as things progress (and on subsequent shows in the future) I learn that quite often extras are given absolutely no direction at all.
It’s a weird thing. So much time, effort and money goes into every show, especially the big ones, and you watch on as the director discusses the scene with the actors, the cameraman, the lighting guys, painstakingly mapping out exactly what is required of them all. But then on many occasions the background talent are just sort of forgotten about and left to get on with things. Many’s the time when I’ve heard the shouts of “rolling” and “action” and panicked because nobody has told me what we’re supposed to be doing. Obviously we’re not doing anything very demanding a lot of the time – especially the city guards – but if an AD hasn’t come along and explained the gist of things and given you a rough idea of what to do, e.g. on this cue, walk hurriedly across the road and carry on up the path, then it’s very easy to end up looking like an idiot.
When it’s a scene that you have a specific action or cast interaction to perform then you tend to get some actual direction, often from the main director, and this makes things soooo much easier. It also makes things a bit more interesting, ramps up the pressure and thus the adrenalin, and is all the more rewarding for it. You’re also likely to get a nice bit of screen time! Luckily in subsequent days of shooting on this set I will end up getting plenty of both…