My Research/Influences... Alan Lee...

I first came across Alan Lee's work when i became a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It always amazes me how they made those films and it has always interested me to find out about the pre-production, production and post-production stages during a film's making. I'd say The Lord of the Rings were the most influential films in my life because they helped me settle on what i wanted to be when i grew up. Anyway, I was looking through the library for some books to research from and i came across The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee which i've vaguely seen before but i haven't looked much into. But, it is clear to see how his artwork has influenced the whole of the final product, as his sketches are almost an exactly replica of the film itself, only they were done befor the film. This always amazes me, because planning is something i've always struggled on, but it is clear to see that with good pre-production and planning the overall product can be a major success, based on an equal contribution from the other stages. But, it is with the thumbnail sketches and the concept art where the film begins.

I particularly like looking at the sketches he's done and then seeing the coloured drawings he's created. they never fail to amaze me, and it helps show how he developed the ideas, which is important for this unit because it is all about concept art which usually starts with the roughest of thumbnail sketches and can eventually and will hopefully turn into lovely environments. His work has particularly influenced me because it is nice to see the different stages of conept art development, although i'm pretty sure my standards aren't quite up there with Alan Lee yet. He has since gone on to do concept artwork for movies like King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia and the televison mini series, Merlin. He is currently working on The Hobbit with Guillermo Del Toro, and if it's anything near that of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then i'ts going to be pretty amazing, especially considering the development in technology and software.