COMMENTARY
Photographing Narnia
A first-hand account from a photographer and author who spent four months on the set of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, documenting the filmmaking process for a new book,Cameras in Narnia
By Ian Brodie | posted 10/18/2005
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NOTE: Click each of the photos in this story to see a larger version.
Watching films being made is a passion of mine. As a teenager I visited the cinema frequently in an era where I could chase distant suns with Kubrick or enter the minds of students with Antonioni. I was enamored by the idea that a piece of moving celluloid could create a window in the mind where real emotions could be triggered, where worlds could be entered. How could this craft of film and mechanics lead to something so believable?
I also devoured the texts of Tolkien and Lewis. I forayed through Middle-earth and Narnia many times, as the words on a page created films in my mind. I followed my father with a love of photography and captured my own Middle-earth in the landscapes of New Zealand.
In 2002 I was one of the fortunate few "outsiders" allowed on the set of The Lord of the Rings. My book guiding visitors to the locations of Middle-earth had allowed me a ringside seat to the creation of this film epic.
While on set I talked to the actors, looked through lenses, listened to orcs roar, and spent hours sitting behind the master Peter Jackson as he directed. I learned the protocols of set, where not to sit, when not to speak, how to be a very quiet fly on the wall.
When it was announced that the most well known of the Narnia Chronicles would also become a film, the idea of a similar book was born—a tome that would allow readers to enter into a world few get to see. A book that would explain in simpler terms how a film was made.
That book, Cameras in Narnia: How The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Came to Life (HarperCollins Publishers), is now available. And the process of putting it together—including four months on the set in beautiful New Zealand—was a thrill I'll not soon forget.
In the Company of the White Witch
I remember vividly my first day on location as the White Witch (played by Tilda Swinton) was gathering her army together in a forest camp north of Auckland. I drove through the forest to the set with anticipation and apprehension: The first day is always the hardest, like going to a new school.
Sitting in a theater watching an emotional scene belies the reality of the situation. As the White Witch plans her attack she is surrounded by swirling smoke, animals and darkening forest. The reality is that a group of hundreds have spent months planning this one scene. Builders and arborists have created a Narnia that is now populated with actors, extras wearing uncomfortable prosthetics, electricians, computer-toting reality benders, cameramen, cooks, beauticians, producers and directors. That is what I love about filmmaking: A seemingly disparate group of people that are all being driven by their artistic ability to create something that will live forever as a movie.
As these scenes are recorded for the film, it is my art to document their art. To capture the intense concentration of the cameraman, the delicate hand of make-up being applied, the adept scrutiny of images by editors, the emotional intensity of not acting but being that person portrayed.
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