Like many people, I’m very excited for the coming release of the third installment of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. I can’t say how impressed I am with the job that Peter Jackson has done with these films and am confident that the third and final installment will live up to the precedent set by the first two films. After all, part of the genius behind the making of these films is that they were all shot together without interruption before any of the films were released.
In fact, to hear it from the filmmakers, it was the first time in history that three films had been shot at once. It’s time that I step forward and correct that misunderstanding.
In my sophomore year of high school, I was enrolled in a course entitled French 2. Not surprisingly this was my second year of the study of the French language. It was at this time that I pioneered the idea of filming a trilogy in one fell swoop.
Though submitted to the class at different times and for different assignments the films “Nous Faison Du Shopping (We Are The Shopping)”, “Nous Faisons Du Cuisiner (We Are The Cooking)”, and “Nous Faisons Du Diner (We Are Having The Dinner)” were all filmed on the same extended shoot. Yes, my trio of films chronicling one group of friends shopping for, preparing, and eating food were filmed not only in one shoot but in one single day!
Filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy together offered many of the same advantages as the filming process for “Nous Faisons”. For instance, there’s no fear of losing an actor for one of the sequels. Nick Krohley, who played Pierre in my films, had lacrosse practice after school on most days and was really only available that one Sunday afternoon of shooting. I only needed to shoot the shopping film that day. But already in my mind I had the vision of the greater whole: the complete trilogy of films. And it wouldn’t have made any sense for Pierre to be out shopping and then not participate in the cooking or eating process.
Also, Lauren Cuneo (“Emilie”) changed her hair color like two weeks after we shot the films and that would have been pretty hard to explain. We would have had to throw some lame dialogue into “Nous Faisons Du Cuisiner” like, “Ah, Emilie, comment ca-va ta visite au coiffeur?” You know, or something like that, I don’t really speak French anymore.
Oh, and it should be noted that additional editing occurred for both sets of films throughout the release process. Much of the CGI work for Gollum was done after the release ofThe Fellowship of the Ring in the same way that the claymation character Pepe the talking Croissant appears only in the last two films with the exception of the rerelease of “Nous Faisons du Shopping” during our class film fest on the last day of school.
Was it tough on that kind of extended shoot? Yeah, I mean we did all those shopping scenes at the Food Emporium in town and then had to come back home for the next two films, so it was kinda rough. When it came to the eating scene, we were pretty psyched because at that point we were all pretty hungry. Nick even remarked that he’d “never been that hungry in his whole entire life.” Hyperbole? Maybe. Anyway. I guess that’s still not the same as committing two years of your life to running around New Zealand.
And that’s what I’m getting at. I admire everything about the Lord of the Rings films. I don’t mean to try and say that what they did wasn’t special. And I’m not accusing them of stealing the idea. It’s entirely possible that Peter Jackson never laid eyes on the “Nous Faisons” series (though I have the feeling he did). I’m just making this point for the purposes of factual accuracy. That’s all. Well, and also to write a Thought with Lord of the Rings in the title so that people searching for info on those films might come across on our site. That’s all. I’ve made my point and that’s all I wanted to say.
Je suis fini avec le typing. (I am now done with the writing.)