DecipherArchive:decipher.com/content/2004/07/The Making of the Weta "Book Cards": Concepts and the Photo Shoot

In the previous "Making of..." article, we got a backstage look at the casting and costuming process for the Weta "book cards," with photos and commentary from Decipher's Creative Director, Dan Burns. This installment picks up at that point. (Photos courtesy of Dan Burns and Daniel Falconer.)

Once the cast was chosen and dressed, the next step was deciding on the conceptual imagery. Weta Workshop senior designer Daniel Falconer and his team would find a book passage for each character and present it to Dan Burns as a concept for "storytelling" in a card image, and together they would determine the final concept for the scene.

Concept art for Ghân-buri-Ghân, by Daniel Falconer.

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  The final Ghân-buri-Ghân

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  and Glorfindel cards.

Concept art for Glorfindel, by Daniel Falconer.

A series of Polaroid and digital camera action shots (taken during the inital costuming) then helped them find an appropriate background from the archived shots available, which in turn would determine lighting angles and color tone for the actual photo shoot, set up for a couple of days later. The selected background would later be composited with the character photo in the Decipher Art Studio.

Come the day of a character photo shoot, the actor would spend a few hours in the hair and makeup studio.

A selection of "Wildmen" Beards...

...and some slightly more civilized wigs.

Makeup artist Susan Durno begins the transformation of Peter Lyons into Grimbeorn.

... and the results.

Susan gets Norman Cates ready to hoist his beer barrel as Fatty Bolger.

Makeup for Anárion.

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Harry Wellerchew becomes Tom Bombadil.

Here John Harding goes from makeup chair...

...to photo shoot...

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  ... to card: Radagast The Brown.

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  His staff got its own place in the Weta Collection as an artifact.

Makeup and wig work could in fact take longer than the actual shoot, which would generally run only two to three hours. The photographers weren't idle while waiting for their next subject to arrive, either; between character shoots, they had plenty of prop shots to check off their list. More on that in the final installment of The Making of the Weta "Book Cards."

Related links:

The Lord of the Rings TCG to Feature Original Images From Weta Workshop (News Release) 3-8-04

An Interview With Weta Workshop's Daniel Falconer 4-5-04

Where's Tom Bombadil's Hat? In the Weta Collection 7-21-04

The Making of the Weta "Book Cards": Casting and Costuming 7-22-04

Kathy McCracken Web Writer

July 23, 2004