Lily of the Valley Productions
Behind the Scenes
The Princess Bride is considered by many the modern day equivalent of the Wizard of Oz, even going as far as calling it "the perfect fairytale". This is because the movie seamlessly combines comedy, action, and adventure into one one and a half package. Another element that makes this movie is that it appeals to all ages and can be passed down from parents to children, just as my parents did for me. However, no good movie comes without its trials. After the book was published, Twentieth Century Fox attempted to make a movie out of it, but just as the the movie started to go into production, the head of Fox was fired. This was followed by about a decade of one studio loving the idea, but that studio closing down the next week, or another studio loving it, but their executive being fired the day before the movie deal was supposed to be made. After this series of events, the movie finally began the beginning stages of production. The writer and director spent an extensive amount of time to fine what they thought to be the perfect cast for the movie. They had over 500 women audition for the part of princess buttercup before Robin Wright-Penn auditioned and was cast for the roll.
They also wanted to make the stunts of the movie as authentic as possible. The makers of the move were inspired by the sword fights of Douglass Fairbanks and wanted to replicate such a sward fight as authentically as possible. Therefor, there were no special effects or stunt doubles used in the making of the sword fighting
scene. Instead, Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes, the actors who played Inigo Montoya and Wesly respectively, dedicated their time and energy into mastering the art of fencing in both their right and left hands.
Similarly, the scene with the ROUSs (Rodents of unusual size) in the fire swamp was done with minimal special effects as the film was made in the days before CGI was well developed. Instead, there were actual people who would dress up like like the rodents, each of them specializing in one aspect. For example, one would be the rodent that was good at "scurrying", while another would be good at "pouncing".
Another difficulty that The Princess Bride faced was marketing. One of the things that makes this movie so good is that it is not just a romance movie, but a fantasy movie, and a comedy movie, and an adventure move all in one package. However, it is the uniqueness of the movie that made it so hard to sell.The movie had been completed but they had no marketing tools to help sell it to the public, which concerned the director especially as he did not want it becoming "the next Wizard of Oz", as the movie made no money and was a "complete flop" when it was originally released, and didn't become the classic it is today until years later.
The Princess Bride didn't start seeing rapid success until the VHS edition came out and news of the movie started to spread by word of mouth.
Although being considered "the next Wizard of Oz" may have some negative meaning to it, I personally believe that the title is resoundingly positive, as the Wizard of Oz is a beloved classic.
Both the director and the producer were massive fans of the novel, the princess bride and had a very clear image of what exactly they wanted the film to look and feel like. Therefore, they dedicated themselves to making every detail perfect, from the casting, to the scenery, to the stunts. It is fair to say that all of this hard worked payed off in making this movie the Wizard of Oz of my generation.
Behind the Scenes: ROUSs in the Fire Swamp
The ROUSs were not, as some believe, special effects, but actors.
The creators of the movie wanted to create a sword fighting scene that would mimic those of Douglas Fairbanks.
Sword Fight Scene between the characters of Inigo Montoya and Wesly.
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The two actors practiced for months so that they could shoot every frame of the scene with themselves actually sword fighting.
Behind the Scenes #2
Game of Thrones is a television series that I admire very much for almost every aspect of it: its writing, cinematography, story line, acting and character development. Watching this behind the scenes featurette only gave me more appreciation for the filming of it, and everything that goes on behind the camera. The series succeeds in making special effects, locations, and costume/makeup so flawless that you do not even notice it(which is a VERY GOOD thing).
The visuals in Game of thrones are so magnificent and grand, that it transports the viewer into that place. That the viewer doesn't know however, is how much CGI and green screen work goes into creating the castles and kingdoms that fans of the show have become so familiar with. I did not realize this either, but the fact that all the people working behind the scenes were able to be creative and this off, is truly impressive. On that note, there are so many people working on the scenes it is incredible. There is an entire arts and construction department that builds structures and brings scenes to life, literally building bridges to make them as realistic as possible in the world of the film. There were a few specific moments of this that particularly interested me and particularly made me appreciate the creative process.
There is no question that the costume, hair and make-up department is amazing in this series, but the length that they go to to bring some of these
mythical creatures to life is insane. It usually takes 7-10 hours to create the children of the forest. Customising prosthetics and combining the right color tones that make them look as "forresty", ancient, and myth-like as possible. And this does not only go for the face; the entire body, or at least those parts exposed to the camera, have to be made up as well. To get all of this work done and do it right, the actors have to arrive at hair and makeup at 3:00 AM in order to be on set and ready to film by 10:30 AM. That is CRAZY!! But even the actors believe that all this time is worth it, as there is no doubt that they look incredible as a result. Things get even more chaotic when you consider that scenes shot with the white walkers have to have every extra(sometimes over 100) in full icy. undead, makeup
The use of green screen and CGI in this show is also something that people do not realize plays such an important role in this show. Part of what makes it so important is so that it looks realistic but also so that it is fairly accurate to the scenes and places originally in the books. One of the most important aspects of the series are dragons. These are not real dragons, but only structures or images which are entirely CGI and green screen, which actually seems pretty crazy at first because of how alive they look on TV, So, whenever Dani is riding a dragon, she is the only non-artificial part of the shot, and in some cases the entire scene. The actress is not on a dragon, believe it or not, only on top of a structure that looks like a bull riding machine. However, for some scenes, it appears that CGI is in use
when there are in fact, no special affects in use at all. This is the case with a certain shot just before a battle starts where the character, Jon Snow, is standing alone positioned to fight, while an entire calvary runs straight towards him. This shot looks like it would have to be CGI, but it was all real. The horses ran at full speed towards the actor and somehow did not trample him. This is most likely due to the horse master of the production who coordinates the horses in scenes and fight sequences, and takes care of them on set.
This is an example of how it truly takes a village to create shows like this. The crew of this show is so extensive that it is even broken up into smaller departments. One department, the arts department, is pretty central to the production of these episodes. Essentially, the writers/directors/DPs give members of the arts department a sense on what they are trying to capture in an image, often relying on them to "figure out" the nearly impossible, but creative as they are, they always find a way. For one scene in particular, a draw bridge needed to be a central part of a scene but there was not one in the location they were using and the immediate crew
was especially worried about making some CGI element of it and the surrounding parts of the castle it was attached to. They then returned to see that a fully functioning and beautiful draw bridge had already been built by the arts department. In the video, a member of the production team of the episode described it as "a perfect example of blurring the boundaries between set design and civil engineering".
When it comes to this show and this level of film making, there are endless things to think about. It was pretty astonishing to see just how much effort goes in to every aspect of every episode and the sheer number of people that play such important roles in making it a reality. Some of these people we don't even recognize exists. On that note, doing this project and watching this behind the scenes video has given my valuable insight into how a real show is put together, down to the very last detail, and only hightened my respect for every aspect of the filmmaking field
Not CGI! the guy almost got trampled by 40 horses!
Built the exterior of a castle and a fully functioning draw bridge for one scene!