“I all the time attempt to inform a narrative, no matter I do. And there’s a lot of efficiency and loads of storytelling in motion. So, I centered on that,” Brandstrom says. “[Because] it’s not solely in regards to the combating on the battlefield, you additionally must attempt to do as a lot as you possibly can to elucidate not solely who’s standing the place, however what’s at stake, and what they’re making an attempt to perform.”
However whereas this focus gave Brandstrom a “roadmap” to observe, the precise filming course of was greater than a bit difficult: “The scope by no means felt too large, since you actually can put together for something,” she laughs when requested in regards to the sheer dimension of the onscreen battle she was tasked with bringing to life. “But it surely was powerful.”
Throughout the battle, Adar’s choice to dam the river that protects Eregion from assault is a turning level within the orcs’ assault, permitting them a lot simpler entry to batter town’s partitions. But it surely required the collection’ solid and crew to work in some…let’s simply name them often tough circumstances.
“It was [filmed in] a riverbed that was really drained, and we needed to do the fights on the riverbed. That meant we wanted loads of mud. The issue is, not solely did we put in loads of mud, but it surely was additionally raining on a regular basis. Which made much more mud,” Brandstrom says. “So even simply strolling round, not to mention operating, the actors would get caught in it. I fell half right into a gap and somebody needed to come carry me out. It was in all places, this mud. It was as much as our knees! And it was raining, raining, raining, consistently. Plus we have been up all night time, and it was like that for a complete month.”
Since Elrond is without doubt one of the main focal characters all through the battle, Aramayo needed to cope with among the most tough stretches of filming.
“It was a extremely, actually difficult interval,” Aramayo says. “It took eternally. There was a lot combating that needed to change frequently. There was a author’s strike. So many night time shoots. A lot mud. At first of the battle, you’re in all this clear and shining armor and also you suppose, ‘Wow, God, this really seems to be form of cool.’ However by the tip of it, I’d simply be trudging again to the tent at 4 within the morning, actually dripping, soaking moist, and coated head to foot in mud and garbage. So for me, the transformation of Elrond, and what he goes by means of in the course of the battle, it was undoubtedly linked with what I used to be going by means of [on set].”
