Boromir's last battle question

[Aragorn's Hope]

Okay I was watching the EE last week and it looked like the arrows where acttually being shot into Boromir. So I'm confused did the computers do that or did they really stick the arrows in him everytime an arrow hit him? :mmmm:

[IronHills Dwarf]

It's a pretty simple compsite shot. Whatcha do is attach the shaft of the arrow to his shirt (I seem to remember that you can see pictures of him talking during that day's shoot with them screwed in), then you shoot is reaction as IF he's getting hit. Then you digitally add the arrow flying through the air. It's such a quick action that with the proper editing its really quite simple to string together.

[Aragorn's Hope]

I know this is going to sound weriod of me asking this but how did he know when he was to react to the arrows and in what way? Just curious about this stuff. Hope you don't mind too much. ;)

[Steve the Great]

I guess he practiced a lot before shooting... ;)
Since they (the archer and Boromir) never can be seen together (as far as I can remember), it might have been a little bit easier...

[IronHills Dwarf]

Well as Steve said the archer and Boromir are never in the frame at the same time. So what happens is you shoot the archer firing. Then you shoot Boromir with an arrow (or two or three) screwed on reacting as if he had just gotten hit (pretty basic stage fighting), reacting to the impact. Then you splice the shot together so you have the archer shooting and then you cut to Boromir (usually with a pan in the direction the archer shot) reacting to impact with the arrow in place.

[Aragorn's Hope]

So Boromir has the arrows in while he is reactting to them? :o This is confusseing to me because it all looks so real!!!! The pan is to cover the sight of the arrows right? I am trying really hard to understand this. ;)

[IronHills Dwarf]

I'll see if I can break it down a bit more for you.

1: We see the archer fire his arrow

2: We have a pan away from the archer (you're eye assumes it's following the arrow, a natural human reaction, in reality it's either not there or digital)

3: The pan moves to Boromir

4: We see Boromir at what would be the exact moment of impact, in other words, we don't see the arrow hit Boromir, you see it the split second after he is hit. Again your eye assumes you saw him hit because the pan looked like it followed the path of the arrow.

5: We see Boromir react the shot and the SFX for impact. This is what sells the sequence, because of his reaction, again you assume (or they digitally assist with a CGI arrow) that you actually saw him hit. If he just stood there it would be obvious he just has an arrow sticking out of him and he never got hit. But because you see the motion of his reaction it covers up the shot.

6: I'm not sure how well they covered their tracks with CGI (if at all) but if your DVD player has a step feature try stepping the frames of the sequence. If I get a chance I'll do it myself later in the week.

7: It may not be exactly as I described, because I'm trying to generalize, in fact its probably different but the basic mechanics are probably similar.

[Aragorn's Hope]

Thanks. :) That makes much better sense now. lol Boy I sure am getting stupid this week! Okay another question how does Boromir's face turn white?

[IronHills Dwarf]

Don't worry these are all good questions. Certainly not stupid. :cool:

Films are put together in weird and wacky ways.

I'm not sure of the exact shot you're referring to but it would be makeup.

[Aragorn's Hope]

Okay I kinda thought that was it or they used the digtial [sp] gradeing. It's when he's on the ground talking to Aragorn. Can you tell me how they did that? I mean I know they shot Sean bean's scenes first. Then they all took a break to eat and then went back for Viggo's scenes. What kind of paint did they use to get him to look that way? Still very curious. :)

[IronHills Dwarf]

Ahh, okay I'm assuming (this is how its usually done) they used a light foundation and then of course touched up his lips with blue. Certainly not paint though (nasty stuff, dries a bit hard ;)) The degree of the effect would of course depend on how long he'd been dead and of course how much time his veins had to drain. They could well have graded the shot to sell it.

[Aragorn's Hope]

Okay. :mmmm: Another question I had was do you think the arrows shot into Boromir where poisioned? Also one of the arrows looks really close to his heart. Is it or does it just look that way to me? Where are the fatal places arrows can kill someone at? Just curious. I would like to do some stories where one of the people in LOTR get shot and someone has to help them or something.

[IronHills Dwarf]

Orcs were known to use poisoned shafts, but such are not directly attributed to Uruk Hai. The Weapons and Warfare book gives not indication that they were poisoned. So I'd say no.

Vital spots you'd attempt for are pretty much anywhere in the torso region. Heart is good, vitals (guts, stomach) is another prime area. A head shot could be quite effective but far to small a target to attempt at range. So basically a torso shot is your safest bet, often from range you have to take windage into account anyway, and if you're aiming for something bigger to begin with less chance of having a gust knocking your arrow completely and uselessly off course. The important thing to understand with an arrow is the impact is often huge, pulling them out can be hard and potentially create more damage than leaving it in. Because of the force involved if you're lightly armored one hit can easily put you out of commission. By going for the torso you have a chance to inflict, a pierced lung, heart damage, liver damage, gut damage (highly debilitating), bowel damage (basically falls under gut). I can get more graphic if you want but I'll keep as much gore out of this post as possible.

[Aragorn's Hope]

Thanks please pm me so I can get more details from you. So Boromir was shot in the heart right? Is that why Boromir refused to have Aragorn take the arrows out or was it because he was in so much pain already?

[Steve the Great]

Or he knew that Aragorn can't help him, he will die whatever happens... :(

[Aragorn's Hope]

That must really be hard on Aragorn because he was hopeing he could have a better friendship with Boromir and now Aragorn's friend is dying right before his eyes. It must be hard to see someone die. I know one thing if it involve onions to make Viggo cry it works because the smell of onions are so strong. In fact someone cuts onions beside me and I get teary eyed every time or my eyes really hurt. I wonder.....Did they do that to poor Viggo during the death scene? What do you think. Also do you think Boromir was comforted when Aragorn held his hand and do you think Boromir actted restless before he died?

[TrueSwordsman]

I think Boromir felt two things as he was dieing. I think the first was a sense of deeds unfulfilled. The first was dieing before he was able to lead a great battle and save his people, and the second was failing to protect the Hobbits. Boromir was raised and cultivated to be a great warrior and leader of men. He died in an unknown wood fighting alone against unbeatable odds. With nobody to see or be inspired by his honorable defense he died in obscurity without an ounce of praise or exaltation of heroism from his people. His dying words were the acceptance that Aragorn was meant to be king and that his hope and dreams of being the savior of his people was about to end, in failure, in a far away wood, and without acclaim.

[Huan]

He did have some praise, Aragorn comforted him when boromir said he had failed. And aragorn said "No Boromir you have conquered". Aragorn also said he did his duty and Boromir respected Aragorn as a king, brother and friend when he died. So he must of felt some pride.