The cinematographer worked behind the camera on Episodes 6 and 7 of the Prime Video show, two of arguably the most technical episodes, which saw several characters come together and also revealed Mordor to the audience.
‘The Rings of Power’ Mordor Scenes Were All Real—Here’s How it Was Done
Episode 6 saw Mount Doom erupt following a battle between good and evil in the Southlands, with Episode 7 following heroes like Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) as they return to their encampment, but for long stretches of time they are stuck under the billowing cloud of the volcano, bathed in a red glow and covered in ash. This was all done for real.
Disenhof called the opening scenes of Episode 7 “very challenging,” but remarked that he and the creative team were “really proud” of how it turned out “because it took a lot of planning [and] a lot of thought about how to achieve these things.”
“It started with a pre-visual of ‘what does it look like inside of the maelstrom of a volcanic eruption,’” Disenhof said. “And so I ended up turning to photographs of different events, specifically the California wildfires in 2018 and then in Portland I was actually very close to a wildfire in 2020. I had photos of the atmosphere that we were in, and it’s a very eerie and otherworldly, red, orange, yellow kind of mixture in the air.
“That was our kicking off point, everyone involved agreed, the showrunners [J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay] and the director [Charlotte Brändström], they all liked the idea and so we ran with that and then the challenge became, ‘okay, how do we create that and sustain that over a several scenes?’
“So we ended up building the ruined village inside and surrounding the entire set with muslin, huge muslin cloth wrapping around the stage, and an ash dressing. Being inside was the only way we could contain the atmosphere, get the levels we want and then also I surrounded the set with LED lights that I programmed to a very specific colour.
“Again, that took many, many tests, bringing our cameras and testing different colours, seeing which worked and which really gave us that sense of being inside of the firestorm without making the image so garish that you wouldn’t want to watch it. So, we found a nice color palette, where it naturally had this kind of beautiful contrast of colours, where you had yellow highlights, and orange mid-tones, and then red in the shadows, all of it was from the lighting of the film and the sensor, and it was all done in camera.
“What you see on screen, the colour [on set] is almost exactly what you saw, the structures, the atmosphere, all that is mostly in camera, things that we couldn’t accomplish in camera usually came down to health and safety— the embers floating through the air, the high winds that you see whipping through certain areas of frame.”
He continued: “And then, we digitally extended that set, but we didn’t use any green screen or blue screen, the muslin created this beautiful, hazy background so that the visual effects department was able to extend the set. So it was a great collaboration between the camera department, lighting department, special effects department in visual effects to create it.
“Then the challenge from there became how are we matching this look when we go out into the real worlds because as you watch Episode 7 you see all the characters travelling away from the epicentre and I came up with this whole roadmap of a palette.
“So, I wanted the intensity of the colour to lessen as they get further away from the epicentre, and because we were going to be outside, no longer on stage with very controlled lighting, I ended up using filters in the camera to filter the light to be a more red look, and then I did color correction. While we were still on set I had the ability to live-grade it, so we were able to match it very close to our stage work and then visual effects really augmented a lot of it.
“We had as much atmosphere as we could, but New Zealand winds and variable weather was difficult. So, visual effects really helped sustain the atmosphere there and created more chaos but, again, that colour palette and shifting colour was pretty much all done in camera.”
On Creating That Familiar ‘Lord of the Rings’ Atmosphere
While Prime Video is giving its own take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, the show follows in the footsteps of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit films, and in some senses it can be visually similar.
In Episode 7, for example, a scene between Galadriel and Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin) sees them hide from orcs underneath a tree, and the scene brings to mind the moment in The Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took hide from a Nazgul.
Disenhof said the similarities were merely a coincidence, but that Jackson’s The Return of the King was one of the films that inspired him to enter the film industry and he and the creative team’s love for Tolkien’s work probably meant there would be some overlap.
“It was written that they were hiding under a log, so it was ultimately led by the scripts I don’t think we ever consciously went back to the films and said ‘we want to do it like that.’” Diesenhof said. “That said, I am a huge fan of the films. I was in high school when they came out, and actually watching Return of the King in theaters, I remember the moment I said ‘I need to make movies for a living.’ So, to get the call come and be in Middle-earth was just a dream come true.
“And so I think there’s a certain feeling that those movies gave people that we wanted to recapture, you know? We wanted people to feel like they were back in Middle-earth and a lot of people equate Middle-earth to Peter Jackson because he made these amazing films.
“I don’t think it was ever a conscious decision, but I do think that underneath all my layers of years of filmmaking, I still am that little kid who just absolutely loved those movies.”
Disenhof added: “I do have to say, all of us on the ground who’ve made the show, before all of the kind of press and all the stuff, we approached it with love and so many of us are huge fans, and we just want people to live in Middle-earth again, just like we want to live in Middle-earth again and have that experience.
“And so I do think whether people love it or hate it, don’t care much, whatever, I think our intent is to bring that joy to people.
There Are Visual Nods to Fuel Fan Theories
Fans of the show have been speculating for weeks over certain characters’ true identities, from Halbrand to The Stranger, to Adar—with many viewers wondering who is Sauron and where he could be hiding.
Disenhof admitted that the show does give visual cues to aid viewers with their theories, and that it’s fun to see all the different ways in which fans are speculating over the characters and their story.
“I love it, I love that the fans are coming up with all sorts of things,” he said. “And the thing I love the most actually is we do intentionally put in all sorts of things to lead people in a certain direction, but, actually, it’s amazing how many times fans will pick up something that we weren’t even thinking of on the day and say ’this must mean this,’ and they might be completely wrong, or they might be right, but it is amazing.
“It’s sometimes very funny to see where people go, but what I could say to it all is that it’s lovely to have people so into [the show] and get so engaged in it, that they are firing these theories and taking the time to think about it. So I love all of the theories, good, bad, and everything in between.”
Disenhof said he couldn’t reveal which fan theory he found the most wild simply because it’d give away the fact that the idea is untrue, but he added: “I have to say, it’s so exciting to be able to be part of a team that gets to bring these moments to life.
“And as fans of Tolkien and his collective writings you imagine it in your head, and it is a real privilege to be able to bring to life the creation of Mordor. I mean, I remember when I finally got the script, and I’d only been told they wanted me to come do these two episodes […] and it was Lord of the Rings so, of course I did. I didn’t get to read the script until I got there and when I read that [I thought] ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing I get to do that, I get to be the person, part of a team of people who get to visualize what that is for the first time and really bring it to life.’ […] It’s really, really fun.”
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power airs Fridays on Prime Video.
