The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, page 11
Aidan Turner and Adam Brown show it’s barrels of fun, while William Kircher looks on; James Nesbitt invents the barrel-stroke.
Referred to as the ‘Dwarves’ washing machine’, the river rapids set presented problems for, among others, the Head of Make-up and Hair, Peter Swords King: ‘The fact that they were repeatedly getting dunked gave us a lot of trouble, because their wigs and beards were made of yak hair, which simply repelled the water. Of course, that’s why yaks have it on their backs – so they don’t get wet! But even when the Dwarves went right underwater, they still came up looking perfectly dry. So we used a special kind of gel that goes into globules like drops of water and makes the hair look wet. The next problem, however, was that because the gel is water-soluble, every time the Dwarves got re-dunked, it washed out of their hair and we had to stop and put more on to make them look wet again, while all the time knowing that the moment they really got wet they’d appear dry again! It was crazy: we got through pots and pots of gel, trying to make characters look wet who were wet but didn’t look it!
The Company of Thorin Oaken-barrel!
Peter Swords King, Make-up & Hair Designer
MAKING UP STORIES
* * *
‘I’ve never worked on such a hairy movie!’ Peter Swords King, Make-up and Hair Designer, is surrounded by shelf upon shelf of dummy heads – or, as they are properly called, wig-blocks – each wearing the hair of a particular character from The Hobbit: the long, luxurious locks of an Elf, the braided, beaded hair of a Dwarf or the slightly shaggy curls of Mr Baggins himself.
* * *
‘We’ve tried all the wigs on, at some point, and taken photographs: sometimes to try out different looks for characters before going to work on the actors, and sometimes just for fun (and strictly not for publication!), although I must admit, I thought I made quite a good Galadriel – before I grew my beard!’
The wig made of fine Russian hair, as worn by Legolas, stands on its block.
Despite his jesting, Peter takes very seriously the manner in which the wigs are looked after: ‘They’re made of real hair and have to be treated with the same care as if they were the hair on someone’s head. At the end of a day’s shoot, the wigs are taken off and put onto a wigblock in order to keep their shape, using hundreds of tiny pins called ‘blocking-up pins’ and with tape holding down the front edge ‘lace’ where the wig joins the actor’s forehead. The wigs are then washed, conditioned and left overnight to dry before being redressed in the morning for the next day’s shoot.’
So where does all the wig hair come from? ‘The human hair is mostly Russian,’ Peter reveals; ‘we use it because northern European hair is actually finer. You find the colder the climate, the finer the hair; whereas the closer you get to the equator, people’s hair tends to be coarser.’
Finer hair, it seems, is better for making wigs, because the hair is knotted – a hair at a time – and with fine hair the knots are small enough not to leave any telltale evidence. ‘Not only that,’ adds Peter, ‘but fine hair moves better, and if you are looking for wavy hair then it’s easier to obtain fine hair that already has a wave, than attempting to make straight hair wavy. Essentially, we prefer to use natural hair in its natural state, because then you don’t have to mess about with it and that means it always looks better.’
Peter Swords King.
In addition to human hair, Peter and his team also use some animal hair, and in making the Dwarves suitably hairy, one particular species made a major contribution: ‘Bos grunniens’, better known as – the yak! ‘It was very difficult,’ explains Peter, ‘to get hair that was thick enough and in sufficient quantities for so many large wigs and beards; but yak hair is big and frizzy and has plenty of volume because it has a much coarser texture – something that seems not inappropriate for characters who are generally considered short, coarse people!’
Peter is a one-man authority on yak hair: ‘It isn’t cut from the animals, it’s combed, and there are two kinds: very coarse hair off the top and what is called “belly yak”, which is the hair underneath and is a little finer and softer. We’ve used forty kilos of yak and that is a lot of hair. As a result, we’ve pretty much decimated world supplies and there are now a great many bald yaks shivering on the mountains of Tibet!’
Although Peter worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and has an Oscar to prove it) the demands made by The Hobbit are considerably greater. ‘Every character,’ he says, ‘has at least three wigs: for the actor, the stunt double and, in many cases, a taller or smaller-scale double, all of which must be made out of the same hair and look identical. That also means if a character has curly hair, then we have to make the curls on the wig worn by his small-scale double slightly tighter, so they remain in scale, which is no easy task.’
Peter’s team on Rings numbered twenty-two, whereas on The Hobbit it’s almost twice as many and the department has had to contend with many more tasks arising from the new improved-style silicone hobbit feet not to mention thirteen sets of Dwarf hands: ‘They’re like a pair of silicone gloves that make the actor’s hands look slightly bigger and so help create a convincing sense of proportion for the Dwarves. Actually, they all have two different kinds of hands: a regular pair and another with pads on the palms for when they’re holding their weapons. We had to develop these because as soon as they started swinging their swords, axes, maces and hammers around the weapons were slipping out of their hands and flying all over the place!’
Graham McTavish as Dwalin displays the artistry of Peter’s team of hair-punchers, as well as the Make-up & Hair teams’ wig and prosthetics.
In the case of one particular Dwarf, the silicone limb requirements are even more demanding: Graham McTavish’s character, Dwalin, who always has his sleeves rolled up, wears an extra long pair of gloves representing not just his hands but also his arms. Like the hobbit feet, the arms and hands have to be made appropriately hairy which is, itself, an arduous task, as Peter explains: ‘We have a permanent team of hairpunchers, putting hairs into the silicone – a single hair at a time – so that in any close-up shots the skin and hairs look natural and convincing. Punching hair into silicone hands and feet all day is, frankly, a pretty tedious job, but the results are fantastic.’
On the face of it, it might seem that the Elves would be relatively stress-free compared to the Dwarves but, says Peter, that is not the case: ‘The Elves have lengthy, sleek, beautiful hair, but finding adequate supplies of extra long, straight hair wasn’t easy and, as a result, quite a lot of hair-straightening goes on. It’s crazy but we often find ourselves having to straighten curly hair for Elves while, at the same time, curling straight hair for Dwarves!’
Evangeline has the seams of her glorious auburn wig touched up with gelatine to hide the join.
It was decided that Thranduil and Legolas were to be the only really pale blonds in Mirkwood while the remaining Elves would have hair of a slightly darker hue in order to help the father and son characters really stand out from their people. ‘The trouble was,’ says Peter, ‘we had already bought forty kilos of very blond hair! There was no alternative but to tone it down with dyes, and, believe me, dying that much hair takes a long time!’
Thranduil was a favourite make-up and hair subject for Peter: ‘Lee Pace is a lovely, affable, gentle man but we turned him into this scary-looking character with pale skin, penetrating eyes, silver-blond hair and amazing eyebrows. He looks stunning and it is perfect for his character because Thranduil is intimidating and takes no nonsense and, let me tell you, when Lee comes on set in character, people just clear out of the way!’
Another favourite is Radagast: ‘Peter Jackson wanted there to be something decidedly quirky about him, so if you look closely, everything’s asymmetrical: one side of his beard is really short, the other really long; one eyebrow and one side of his moustache twirls up, and the other side, down. He also has a prosthetic nose that was made slightly broken and twisted off to one side so as to ensure that everything about him was totally lopsided and odd.’
Sylvester McCoy plays the decidedly asymmetrical Radagast.
Another Peter Jackson suggestion was that, because Radagast is a child of nature, he should have an inhabited bird’s nest in his hair and guano running down the side of his face: ‘It was wonderful doing all the research and we looked at lots of different bird’s nests for reference. Then, one day, Peter’s son, Billy, found a nest that was perfect and that became the model for the one in Radagast’s hair. All we then had to do was create a hairstyle around it that was ratty, matted and full of bird-poo.’
And, for those interested, the recipe for bird-poo is quite simple: corn flour, ordinary flour, pigment (various colours: off-white, grey and green), water and a few drops of glycerine.
Ryan Gage in the make-up chair having his ‘monobrow’ carefully applied.
Radagast may not be the most attractive-looking character, but he is a delight to behold when compared to the Master of Lake-town and his odious sidekick, Alfrid: ‘With those characters, Peter Jackson really stepped up the disgustingness! Take Ryan Gage who plays Alfrid: he has a truly amazing and beautiful smile – with so many teeth! – but we’ve certainly fixed that by making them look so rotten that they’ve turned green! We’ve also given him a lanky beard and hair, a single brutish eyebrow and innumerable spots and pimples as well as nasty little whiteheads in the corners of his nose – fantastically unpleasant!’
In talking about Lake-town’s leader, Peter refers to the official portrait of the character displayed in the Master’s Chambers. ‘Alan Lee created a painting of how the Master would like to see himself portrayed, whereas we got on with the unpleasant business of depicting the reality! The truth, which is a far cry from the image hanging on his wall, is that he is going bald and what little hair he has is an awful gingery red, and thin, lifeless and very greasy. He has a weird little chin-beard and, while one side of his moustache is waxed and turns up, the other droops feebly down. Completing the look is a set of teeth that are bucked, crooked and filthy dirty. The final result is the vilest looking character imaginable and totally not how you would ever expect to see Stephen Fry!’
Perhaps the biggest day-to-day challenge has been in response to the numbers requiring make-up and hair: ‘We have been working with sometimes four hundred extras a day, all of them with beards and wigs and often prosthetics, so we start our day at three-thirty a.m. in order to get everyone ready and on the set for an eight-thirty start. We stick on quite a lot of the beards using double-sided tape and we’ve got through over seven thousand metres of it so far – which is about the same length as twice round an average racetrack! Moustaches are not applied until the very last moment before everyone goes on set. We let the extras have their breakfast without their moustache, otherwise they get totally trashed, and when the crew are ready on set, there’s a shout of, “Go moustaches!” – or “Go-mo!” for short – and then it’s time for several hundred moustaches to be applied!’
The Make-up & Hair team hard at work on location in the mobile Costume tent, preparing a production line of extras ready for their scene in Lake-town.
Contemplating the eventual end of filming, Peter says, ‘It’s been a great challenge and fantastic fun, but, sometimes, just really, completely mad! The one thing I won’t miss when it’s over is hair! We’re surrounded by it! We sweep it up every day, but it still gets everywhere – in your food, in your mouth, all over your clothes. I mean, I could never complain in a restaurant about having a hair in my soup because it would probably be off one of the wigs! Not only that, but when I get home my wife wants to know who the redhead is, and doesn’t really believe me when I say, “Oh, no, no, darling, it’s just part of my work!”’
BEARDED LADIES
A hot topic among Tolkien enthusiasts is the question of whether or not female Dwarves had beards. Whilst there is no direct answer to be found in the texts of either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, there is sufficient evidence elsewhere to suggest that the females looked more than a little like their male counterparts.
When it was decided that the Prologue to An Unexpected Journey would feature the Dwarves of Erebor fleeing from the onslaught of Smaug, the question for the Make-up and Hair team was what sort of beards the female Dwarves would wear.
‘I took a look at some of the first concept work that came through showing Dwarf women with full beards,’ remembers Peter Swords King with a shudder, ‘and I was saying, “No! It’s too over-thetop, I’m just not buying this!”’
Peter spoke to his director namesake, and got approval to come up with a few looks of his own, starting with their hair. ‘The Dwarves of Erebor were wealthy people, so I dressed loads of wigs, making them big, elaborate and decorated with jewels. As far as their facial hair was concerned, I knew that it couldn’t be like male beards because it would simply look ridiculous. It was a crazy challenge and trying to make it work was really difficult, but I decided the beards needed to be softer and finer; so we used mohair, which is what’s often used to make doll’s hair and is incredibly fine. Unlike ordinary hair, it is soft and downy rather than coarse and brittle. Some of the female Dwarves have sideburns, some have chin-beards and by plaiting some of them and adding beads and gems, we created a very feminine version of a beard.’
Approval came when Peter Jackson agreed that, despite their facial hair – not to mention their larger-than-average ears and noses! – they still looked feminine. What surprised Peter Swords King was the willingness of women to don the beard!
‘That was a big eye-opener,’ laughs Peter. ‘True, they don’t look silly – actually, they’re rather cute! – but I was astonished by the number of women who wanted to enlist as lady Dwarves, including Cate Blanchett!’
Orcs
SERVANTS OF THE SHADOW
* * *
In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, audiences were introduced to the grotesque and terrifying armies of Sauron’s Orcs and Saruman’s Uruk-hai through the compelling physical performances of actors wearing prosthetic make-up created by Weta Workshop. The results were astonishing and memorable.
* * *
When embarking on The Hobbit, the initial intention was to use similar methods to create the Orc hordes that relentlessly pursue the Company of Thorin Oakenshield. Led by Richard Taylor, the talented team at Weta set out upon an intensive period of development. ‘As we went into The Hobbit,’ Richard says, ‘we turned to traditional filmmaking techniques of actors in costumes and prosthetics, but with the knowledge that Peter would be taking The Hobbit far beyond where we had gone with The Lord of the Rings.’ Their work, which was enhanced on set by the Prosthetic Make-up department led by Prosthetics Supervisor Tami Lane, would be used by Peter Jackson as he shot all key scenes with the cast during principal filming.
But ultimately it was agreed that the demands of shooting in 3D and 48 frames per second (with its merciless scrutiny of detail), plus the tireless ambition of a director committed to the pursuit of technical sophistication and the creation of creatures and beings beyond our imaginings, led to Weta’s costumes and prosthetics being augmented and then fully replaced by digitally realized and animated characters.
‘On Rings,’ says Visual Effects Supervisor, Eric Saindon, ‘Weta Workshop came up with a great many designs for Orcs that Peter really liked but which couldn’t be easily realized because we knew that there would have to be a guy inside that prosthetic. This meant that we were simply limited by the physical proportions of the human body. With The Hobbit, Peter wanted to take the Orc image established in Rings and skew it slightly to give a different look to these characters – the eyes might be further apart or the nose off from where you would expect it to be – and so accentuate the fact that they are not human.’
This has been achieved by using motion-capture in order to enable the skills of the performer to be more clearly discernible in the characterizations, as Eric explains: ‘Azog, for example, was an exploration that went through a number of iterations before we reached what Peter wanted. Manu Bennett is a great actor but he’s not the eight-foot tall creature that Azog is supposed to be! However, by capturing Manu’s facial expressions and the nuances of his performance, we can reflect them back into his on-screen portrayal of Azog and can achieve something we could not have done if we had created him using prosthetics, which would only have given audiences a “blurred version” of what Manu conveyed with his acting.’
Whether filming in the studio or on location, the sets are ‘captured’ using 3D scans with LIDaR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging) technology that provide a digital version of the environment enabling the digital characters to be put into those environments. Nevertheless, sequences such as those in The Desolation of Smaug involving Orcs fighting with live actors as Elves are still challenging: ‘You are severely limited by what the stunt guys representing the Orcs did on set and which then has to be digitally replaced; whereas scenes in which lots of digital Orcs interact with one another are relatively easy because we can make them do whatever we like!’
