The Ring has awoken, it’s heard its master’s call.
Amazon Prime has premiered the title of their new $1 Billion dollar series, The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power. They did so with a flashy Title Announcement video.
When I had originally watched the announcement, I thought it was entirely 3D. Turns out it wasn’t cg, but footage capture in studio with some practical effects, including real molten metal and reclaimed redwood.
Here’s the IGN exclusive behind-the-scenes video.
I love seeing these quick glances at the set, because it’s not often productions get the budget to do really cool stuff like this. We have done similar work creating video element packs using fog, haze, liquid nitrogen, sparks, fuller’s earth, and ice sprays on set. When you need materials, crew, locations, and high-speed cameras, the cost goes up real fast.
Most of the time, studios and agencies end up passing on practical work and opting to go with some 3D VFX thinking somehow it’s easier and cheaper. That’s definitely not true.
In the Behind the Scenes video from IGN you can spot a Cobra motion capture robot shooting all that molten goodness in high speed on a Phantom Flex 4K.
It looks like the crew had multiple wooden titles depending on the shot. Even a few larger “O” shapes for the close ups. The haze is definitely from some argon pours and liquid hydrogen or nitrogen. They probably also used some sparkler dust to get those nice sparks.
The letters were finally all carefully laid to avoid fingerprints and then hit with some meticulously placed lights.
In post they probably did some compositing to clean up some shots or add a few more little touches, but in the end the whole sequence looks great. Cheers to that whole crew for their stellar work.
All images via Amazon Prime / IGN.
