I was delighted to hear the confirmed announcement last week by Amazon Studios that their new mini-series set in Middle-earth will commence filming in New Zealand next year. Since I first read The Lord of the Rings almost fifty years ago, there was never any doubt that the world meticulously created by JRR Tolkien was my own home – New Zealand. With the release of the Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, New Zealand was indelibly stamped as Middle-earth and the many thousands of film and book pilgrims that visit the country as a result of the films continues unabated. The promotion of the country alongside the films is an abject lesson in film tourism and has been cited in many scholarly publications to showcase how “set jetting” became mainstream. One could argue that despite winning 17 Academy Awards the most important omission was an award for the country itself. Film Production Another important facet of the series success has been the development of film production in New Zealand. Despite its relative isolation, the country has seen the growth of Weta Workshop from the small Wellington bedroom of Richard and Tania Taylor to […]
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Next week I return to Mesna in Norway, to take part in Birkebeinerspelet 2018. The following is an interview I undertook for the programme. Photographer and author Ian Brodie has many years’ experience in the film industry. He has specialised in film location tourism, and has published a number of location guidebooks that showcase the beautiful places in his native New Zealand where both the the Lord of the Rings and the The Hobbit film trilogies were shot. In 2012 he was invited to speak at a film tourism conference in Lillehammer, having never been to Norway before. At the conference he met representatives from the Norwegian film industry including Paradox Film. In 2014 they asked him to be unit stills photographer on Birkebeinerne. The rest, as they say, is history. Ian now spends many months every year in Norway working on a number of varied projects. – I fell in love with Norway immediately, says Brodie. – To me, it was a lot like home, like New Zealand, another Middle-earth, but with a long history and a broad mythology that actually inspired Tolkien. – The people, too, are similar: sensible, practical, reserved till you get to know them, but […]
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An image from the archives. Jonathan Skogstad flies the Biplane Adventures Tiger Moth over Lake Wanaka with Travis Brodie occupying the front seat.
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Today we celebrate 15 years since the release of The Fellowship of the Ring and our introduction of New Zealand as Middle-earth. My favourite location? Glenorchy and Paradise. From here we can see many locations used in the first film. Can you name them all?
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