The Lord of the Rings: New Zealand's Impact on Film Production Success

This extended essay examines the significant impact of New Zealand on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It delves into the co-existence of Middle-earth and New Zealand, exploring how the country served as both a landscape and a cultural influence. The essay analyzes the use of CGI, the impact on tourism, the geography created by the camera, and Peter Jackson's personal influence. It considers the various processes of filmmaking, evaluates the success of the filmmakers, and explores the interplay between the fictional world and the real-world location. The essay also addresses the representation of Maori culture and the overall contribution of New Zealand to the award-winning trilogy's success, ultimately arguing that New Zealand was, in fact, the true star of the films.

“New Zealand was (and continues to be) the real star of The Lord of the Rings”
A view into New Zealand’s impact on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film
trilogy
Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Art (Honours) Film and Television Production

Abstract
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-3) is a set of films that focus heavily on
creating a realistic fantasy environment in order to assist the storytelling of JRR Tolkien’s
much revered books. This extended essay examines the impact that New Zealand had on the
wide overall success of the films. To understand the different ways in which New Zealand
played a part in Jackson’s creation of Middle Earth, this account considers the various
processes that take place throughout a film production, and then evaluates the success of the
filmmakers in the light of differing viewpoints on the topic. By recognising the use of New
Zealand in the films as both a landscape and a culture, this essay views its impact through the
lenses of the co-existence of Middle Earth and New Zealand; the use of CGI in the trilogy;
considering the actuality of the tourist situation created by the films; the geography created in
the films by the camera; and Peter Jackson’s personal influence on the portrayal and use of
New Zealand in the trilogy. With added insight into the processes of filmmaking, this
extended essay utilises available literature to evaluate the impact of New Zealand’s
contribution to the award-winning trilogy and analyses the stardom that is imposed on the
country via the films.
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Extended Essay
“New Zealand was (and continues to be) the real star of The Lord of the
Rings”
A view into New Zealand’s impact on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the
Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings (2001-3) film trilogy by Peter Jackson is among the most iconic, loved
and critically acclaimed films in history. The trilogy, consisting of The Fellowship of the Ring
(2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003), was nominated for a
combined total of thirty Academy Awards, with a staggering seventeen wins. Notably, The
Return of the King (2003) completed a clean sweep of wins from its eleven nominations,
therefore giving it the record for highest Oscar sweep, as well as being tied with Ben-Hur
(1959) and Titanic (1997) for the largest number of Academy Awards won. Clearly the films
have cemented their place in cinematic history, and their success came about through an
extensive number of factors, and some truly astounding work from the cast and crew.
However, one of the keys to its astonishing success that is often overlooked, perhaps because
of the lack of an award, is the use of the landscape of New Zealand. In fact, “immediately
following four awards for The Fellowship of the Rings at the 2002 Oscars, print media
advertisements in the United States promoted New Zealand as ‘best supporting country in a
motion picture’” (Jones & Smith, 2005, p.936). The films effectively put the islands on the
map, and it has become common knowledge that they are the home of the films, but what is
often not known is just how crucial they were to bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s books to life. In
this study I will be showing that New Zealand was the real star of The Lord of the Rings
(2001-3), by outlining the co-existence of Middle-Earth and New Zealand within the films,
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and accrediting Peter Jackson as the primary influence behind the rewarding decisions made
both technically and logistically in using his home country as the backdrop to the trilogy.
When using a real location in a film, rather than a specifically created environment, there is
always going to be an overlap in the history of the location in reality and the location in the
world of the film, and this is certainly no different in The Lord of the Rings (2001-3) trilogy.
The Production team obviously create remarkable sets for the locations in the films, but the
natural geography and architecture of the country cannot be entirely scrubbed away, and it is
to the credit of the filmmakers that a co-existence of both Middle-Earth and New Zealand is
created. Stephen Turner and Misha Kavka appropriately note that the New Zealand presented
in the films exists as “both the magical land of Middle-earth and a tourist paradise” and
becomes a “composite graphic where one map slides easily over the other” (2008, p.230).
Stan Jones concurs and adds that rather than the country being fixed historically as the site of
the trilogy, it instead essentially combines the two and creates a living reality, a ‘virtuality’,
of New Zealand and Middle Earth being one and the same (2006). This is an interesting
concept, and Jones is right to make the connection. It is particularly uncommon for a film to
carry such a tight connection to the location of the shoot, and it is possible that no film has
had such an impact on the country it was made in as The Lord of the Rings (2001-3) did on
New Zealand (Thompson, 2007, p.283). Jim Smith and J Clive Matthews provide the
information that New Zealand could provide scenery that many filmgoers had never seen
(2004, p.97), which meant that “New Zealand became Middle-earth to millions of fans who
previously wouldn't have been able to locate it on a map” (Thompson, 2007, p.97). This still,
however, begs the question of how did the filmmakers go about creating this unusual co-
existence without wiping out one of the two parts? Turner and Kavka state that “a physical
place always carries the residue of its own history” (2008, p.230), however one of the huge
benefits of using New Zealand was that it was one of the last places for mankind to inhabit,
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meaning that there is thousands of years of history in the landscape that has been completely
unaltered, which would be extremely difficult to find anywhere else on Earth. “New Zealand
was used as a landscape of unconstrained filmic possibilities, a primordial land before history
and without a cultural past” (Woodward & Kourelis, 2006, p.198). Therefore, Peter Jackson
had the license to imprint his vision of Middle Earth onto the New Zealand landscape whilst
still embracing the natural history of the area, and create the ‘virtuality’ that Stan Jones
presents. Jones describes that the filmmakers “removed the location from the postcolonial
present, and instead made it correspond to an imagined prehistory of the settler-culture
origins” (2006, p.292). The trilogy uses the islands of New Zealand as a springboard to
picture a fictional terrain (Cubbit, 2005, p.8), which then, as Rodanthi Tzanelli rightly
suggests, allowed the trilogy to start taking on a life of its own and blur the boundaries
between real and imaginary worlds (2007). In The Social Construction of Destination Image:
A New Zealand Film Example, Gretchen Larsen and Veronica George use information
gathered by a survey from tourists of New Zealand about their reasons for visiting and their
experiences, and the evidence gathered only confirms that Peter Jackson was successful in his
creation. One of the respondents stated that the films “made New Zealand appear interesting
and intriguing and slightly undiscovered – almost “a world untouched by man”” (Larsen &
George, 2006, p.126). This view from one of the tourists that was attracted to the country
because of the films complies with Ian Conrich’s observation that the country has been
repositioned not only as Middle Earth, but subsequently as a nation that is becoming globally
recognised as being the heart of a production with tremendous international cultural attraction
(2006, p.135).
Nonetheless, there is evidence that is presented that suggests The Lord of the Rings trilogy
does not allow for the co-existence of both Middle Earth and New Zealand. Tzanelli suggests
that although the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, any notion of the country itself was
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overwritten by a fictional history that was imprinted onto the locations (Tzanelli, 2007).
Turner and Kavka delve further into this idea, and add that the “physical details of body and
place have been scrubbed away in order to overlay the history of another time and place”
(2008, p.231-2). It is a common criticism of the films from a portion of the New Zealand
public that the indigenous Maori tribes of the country were not represented in the films, and
this extends to the depictions of the locations. Leotta states that a great part of the tourist
imagery of the country is represented through the violence of the Maori warriors, namely
through the Haka and rugby, (2011) and that the Maori and New Zealand have become
synonymous with each other in the public eye. It is therefore problematical to believe that
New Zealand can be represented in the film without the inclusion of Maori architecture and
scenery. However, Leotta goes on to provide evidence that the indigenous people of the
country are represented, through the overarching story of the trilogy. He suggests that New
Zealand as Middle Earth is a land where the threat of the ‘Other’, being the indigenous
people/the forces of evil, is defeated and the story is concluded by the victory of the Western
Self, being the British settlers/Frodo Baggins (2011). This is an important connection to
make, and it ties right back in to the idea that there is in fact a co-existence between Middle
Earth and New Zealand, but perhaps not an obvious one. The “New Zealand landscapes are
characterised by overlapping layers of meaning” (Leotta, 2011), and simultaneously evoke to
overseas visitors and subsequently viewers of the films, pre-colonial conflicts between the
settlers and the Maori, and also the battles between the forces of good and evil of Middle
Earth. This almost subliminal recognition of the history of the landscapes aligns with
Tolkien’s representation of Middle Earth as the “legendary land of Anglo-Saxon origin”
(Leotta, 2011). As indicated by Turner and Kavka, “New Zealand is signalled in LOTR in
ways other than landscape” (2008, p.232), and the Maori have further representation from
within the film. A large majority of the stunt team that played the Uruk-Hai warriors in The
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Fellowship of the Ring (2001) were Maori, and it is noted in the DVD Appendices for the
film that the choral voices that can be heard in the scenes in ‘Moria’ and ‘Khazad-Dum’ were
indeed Maori (2001). From this we can determine that New Zealand was the star of The Lord
of the Rings (2001-3) in more than just a scenic and natural viewpoint, but also as an
influence for the races and areas located within the story itself, and hence supports the co-
existence of both the fictional location and the real country. Consequently, we can see that
“the identity of New Zealand/Aotearoa resists the closure implicit in a culture of global
perspectives and becomes, forever, the once and future Middle Earth” (Jones, 2006, p.298).
The Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) created by Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital for the
trilogy was ground-breaking, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for each
of the three films. The use of CGI has always been a controversial subject within the industry
and indeed the wider public, over whether it is truly effective. Verlyn Flieger provides us
with an interesting perspective on the CGI in the films, albeit an alternative one. She suggests
that “the attitude seems to be that if it can be done it must be done – and all too often with
computer-enhanced technology, done to death, resulting not infrequently in effect for the sake
of effect rather than to support the story or the theme” (2011, p.47). In immediate opposition
to this opinion, Jones and Smith propose that the film’s “creative authenticity resides in its
believable fantasy world” and hence is “celebrated for its innovative special effects” (2005,
p.933). It is hard to comprehend how it is possible that a film that is renowned for its success
in the VFX department could possibly be a hindrance to the themes of the trilogy. This being
said, there were groups of fans of the books, that agree with Verlyn Flieger, and were said to
be “infuriated by the ‘CGI-induced hypnosis’ of the films”, that pay “no attention to the plot
and the idea of a ‘well-told story’” (Tzanelli, 2007). Whilst initially providing some evidence
in favour of Flieger, Turner and Kavka come to the support of Deborah Jones and Karen
Smith. They indicate that when not directly computer-generated, the scenery of the film is
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digitally coloured and enhanced (2008, p.235), however they also articulate that “the
connection through landscape between film and place is unusually strong, even over-
determined, for a film whose backdrop could just as easily have been computer generated”
(2008, p.230). It is imperative to note, in reference to the scenery being digitally coloured and
enhanced, that colour grading is an essential part of the post-production process, and it is
almost certain that every shot seen within the film will have been digitally coloured, therefore
the suggestion can be seen as invalid. Conrich assists the argument in favour of the CGI by
correctly stating that “through a consideration of the post-production” of the films, it can be
seen that the “Edenic garden” of New Zealand is being “exploited” (2006, p.119). Whilst his
assessment may come across as hostile, it is essential to consider that Peter Jackson had every
right to exploit the landscape for the benefit of the films, and in fact it was a wise decision as
a filmmaker to do so, as it provided the ideal backdrop for the trilogy. Stan Jones uses the
specific example of Mordor to aid this theory by observing that the primeval volcanic plateau
used for Mordor had the history of the area digitally applied to it to provide the allegorical
imagery for the destruction wrought by evil on nature (2006, p.292). This example explains
that the use of CGI in the trilogy was used to add to already existing areas of the New
Zealand landscape, rather than completely replace it. Peter Jackson himself addressed the
issue in the ‘Digital Grading’ section of the appendices to The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).
He described the process of applying CGI to the scenery of the film as “nudging” New
Zealand across in order to create Middle Earth, so as to “challenge the traditional perception
of cinematic reality held by contemporary spectators” (Leotta, 2011, p.173). Consequently, it
is evident that New Zealand was still the fundamental factor behind the films, but was greatly
assisted by the use of CGI to differentiate Middle Earth from New Zealand.
Following the release of The Lord of the Rings (2001-3), “the tourism industry rose to
become the country’s number one export” (Thompson, 2007, p.284). Aylin Gurkaya explains
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how “promoting material was developed rapidly in form of posters and web-banners on
which the country was presented as the ‘Home of Middle-Earth’” (2013). The tourist spin-off
from the films was both unprecedented yet largely welcomed by the population of New
Zealand, as it was cleverly manoeuvred and adjusted into a world that could be reached
through mass culture and corporate packaging (Conrich, 2006). It is essential to consider the
actuality of the situation in New Zealand for the tourists that are attracted to the country
partially because of their adoration of the films. Reynolds, Bial & Keramidas give insight into
the situation of touring in New Zealand by explaining that it is unlike typical tourist
destinations that are acknowledged via markers such as tourist signs or admission fees,
instead their status is brought with the tourists themselves in the form of memory (2009). The
large majority of the scenery of New Zealand remains unspoiled as the locations offer, as
Jones previously proposed, “a virtuality beginning with physical reference but depending on
recursion via a range of correspondences” (2006, p.298). The Lord of the Rings (2001-3)
films have given an “iconic status to the New Zealand landscape” (Jones & Smith, 2005,
p.937) and the authenticity of the locations is now constructed in marketed ‘experiences’
(Tzanelli, 2007). The most famous example of course would be Hobbiton. When Peter
Jackson approached the Alexander’s, whose farm the set was built on originally, for the
filming of The Hobbit (2012-14) trilogy, they requested that the site become a permanent
fixture to be used for guided tours. The site now draws in over 350,000 visitors a year
(Avakian, 2015) and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in New Zealand. Stan Jones again
makes an appropriate comment, when he says that “through the trilogy, it identifies this place
as a cultural product to be acknowledged by others, who do not live there, and then goes on to
offer the reader/viewer/fan a further role as an agent or ‘performer’ in permanently
maintaining the fantasy-as-process” (2006, p.285). Hobbiton is a prime example of this idea,
as it now even offers the opportunity to dine in the ‘Green Dragon Inn’, where you can be
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“treated to a banquet feast fit for a Hobbit” (Hobbiton Tours, n.d.). Tzanelli accurately makes
the point that “subjecting landscape to scrutiny and enjoying it as a tourist commodity, is
often equated with the specific cinematic technologies that the makers of the LOTR use” and
hence “watching the film becomes more real than actual touring” (2007). If this is the case,
then the creation of Middle Earth in the trilogy was clearly successful in capturing the hearts
and minds of the audience, thus enticing them to visit the locations for themselves, further
confirming its status as the leading role of the films. Although the “aesthetics of spectacle
cannot alone explain the conspicuous tourist spin-off generated by LOTR”, New Zealand was
and continues to be clearly associated with stardom.
Naturally, it is of course the camera that constructs and conveys the locations that are shown
within the film, and the unparalleled work from Peter Jackson and the camera department,
namely the late Director of Photography Andrew Lesnie, plays a monumental role in
establishing the landscapes of New Zealand as the unexpected hero of the films. The trilogy
is filled with architectural associations (Woodward & Kourelis, 2006, p.190) that create the
environments of Middle Earth in the landscape of New Zealand. This architecture is then
propped up by the camera creating, rather than mirroring reality, and endowing it with
meaning, discourse and ideology (Leotta, 2011, p.38). Woodward and Kourelis rightly
suggest that “Peter Jackson has created an alternate universe of intricately realized spaces and
places, a materially bound Middle Earth visualized through the perverse amalgamation of
stone with polystyrene and of flesh with latex” (2006, p.190). The combination of reality and
fantasy created a “two-way branding” where New Zealand is not only branded as Middle
Earth, but Middle Earth is itself branded as New Zealand (Turner & Kavka, 2008, p.230), and
this connection indeed reflects the appeal of the films themselves. The story of the The Lord
of the Rings (2001-3) represents a return to the history of Anglo-Saxon Western civilisation
for the viewer, where conflicts with the ‘Other’ have been largely eradicated (Leotta, 2011).
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Peter Jackson uses this appeal to prop up the work of the films, where he successfully
constructs the historicity that is required in order to set the heroic ancestral tone of the trilogy
(Woodward & Kourelis, 2006). The “timely architecture” that was created “balances the
timeless sublimity of the landscape” (Woodward & Kourelis, 2006). Alfio Leotta’s book,
Touring the Screen (2011) speaks about the films from a geographical standpoint,
highlighting how an alternative reality is constructed by the camera through its clever choice
of what to shoot. He speaks of the use of varied shooting locations all over the two islands
becoming an essential part of the film narrative, with the landscape crucially being
constructed cinematically. Leotta notes the power of cinematography in forming an on screen
connection between multiple different locations, and wisely expresses that the pleasure and
power of film lies “in its ability to create its own cinematic geography” (2011, p.38). Jackson
employs the strategies of using dizzying camera movements and spectacular locations to
reiterate the importance of space and movement in the films (Leotta, 2011, p.173). An
example of the process would be the creation of The Argonath on the River Anduin in The
Fellowship of the Ring (2001). There is a sequence where the Fellowship go between the feet
of the two colossal Pillars of Kings, and the camera spins up and around the statues, whilst
unsettling some birds. Obviously the statues aren’t real, and neither were the birds that were
disturbed, nevertheless Jackson “attempted to convey a documentary feeling to the scene
emphasising the realism of the virtual landscape” (Leotta, 2011, p.171). Through this
triumphant attempt, we can see that Peter Jackson considered the reality of the locations seen
in the films to be of utmost importance. Whilst there is still some hostility towards the
creations in the films, such as Flieger who says that “Jackson’s Hobbiton unfortunately puts
me in the mind of the set for Teletubbies” (2011, p.47), it is clear that the filmmakers
considered New Zealand to be a significant part of the storytelling, where the scenery is
“integrated into the cinematic narrative” (Tzanelli, 2007). Turner and Kavka provide a
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suitable summation of the idea, stating that “the cinematic effect is to add greater texture and
realism than could be provided by digital manipulation alone” (2008, p.232).
Peter Jackson acted as the Director, Co-Writer and one of the Producers on The Lord of the
Rings (2001-3) and The Hobbit (2012-14) trilogies, and so the creation of Middle Earth that
we see on screen can be credited largely to him. It is because of Jackson and his fellow
screenwriter, producer and wife, Fran Walsh, that the films were even made in New Zealand
in the first instance. Smith and Matthews explain that the couple were “adamant that the film
could be made in their home country, a place of vastly contrasting weather and impressive
landscapes, thus far underutilised by the film industry” (2004, p.97). Unfortunately, this
decision provoked a number of the English fans of the novel, as the mythology from
Tolkien’s books had become a part of the English cultural heritage (Tzanelli, 2007). Indeed,
there has been hostility towards the films from the Tolkien Estate itself, in particular
Tolkien’s son Christopher, who said that his fathers work was “eviscerated” by the films
(Rerolle, 2012). Jones and Smith provide us with some information as to why these views
may be unfounded, when they assert that the historical links that New Zealand has to England
and Anglo-Saxon imagery gives a cultural plausibility to the choice to use New Zealand as
the basis for Middle Earth (Jones & Smith, 2005). Ken Gelder demonstrates further evidence,
by considering the use of New Zealand logistically, relating the country to the general view
from the outside. He asserts that it “offers a safe, secure place … a remote and tiny nation
identified both locally and globally as terrorist-free”, which is precisely what is at stake in the
story of Tolkien’s trilogy (Gelder, 2004). It is clear, then, that Jackson and Walsh made a
well-informed decision in choosing New Zealand, rather than one that could be seen as
biased. This still, however, begs the question as to how and why other productions shot in
New Zealand didn’t gain the same international reception as The Lord of the Rings (2001-3).
High profile films such as The Last Samurai (2003) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion,
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