[Ask Weta] Questions for Daniel Falconer

[Weta]

If you have any questions for Daniel Falconer, please post them here. Daniel is a leading member of the Weta Workshop design team. He has been with Weta for 13 years and was a key part for the design team which helped create The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He also played a key part in the design and presentation of Weta's original line of LOTR collectibles. He is one of our Middle-earth experts.

He also worked on Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia and The WotWots.

Daniel is part of the design team working on The Hobbit and is currently developing designs for our new LOTR collectibles.

Please understand Daniel is not allowed to answer any questions on The Hobbit or any other movies which are yet to be released. Please make it easier for him by not asking questions about these future projects.

Here is his profile http://www.wetanz.com/daniel-falconer/

[LOTR Fan]

Your style is so unique and identifiable (referring to your drawings/sketches), do you have any particular influences?

[Daniel_Falconer]

Thanks for the intro Tim!

[Daniel_Falconer]

Originally Posted by LOTR Fan

Your style is so unique and identifiable (referring to your drawings/sketches), do you have any particular influences?

Thanks LOTR. I am certainly influenced by all the folks I work with, but in terms of artists whom I admire and have attempted to emulate at some level from outside of Weta, I'd say both John Howe and Alan Lee would be high on the list. Brian Froud was a strong influence early in my career, having been raised on the Henson movies. I love Iain McCaig's stuff, the art of Terryl Whitlatch, Tony Ditterlizzi and Dermot Powers, to name a few others whom I have paid great attention to. Arthur Rackham's incredible work has always been dear to me.

[Daniel_Falconer]

Oh, I should say, there's also a French comic artist called Vatine whose work I have been impressed by.

[wetanut]

Do you like older, wiser women?

Seriously.....
- Your knowledge of and appreciation for Middle-earth came through loud and clear in the DVD extras for the trilogy. Other than Treebeard, which character or design did you like most working on?
- Which design work on subsequent projects (movies) did you most enjoy or found to be the most challenging? Why?

Thank you for Treebeard!!!

[CharlesSong]

Daniel, no questions from me at this time, but I am jazzed to hear Tim's 'official' confirmation that you will be working on the new LOTR stuff

Oh, there is one question.

Have you ever seen The Falconer?


http://www.hulu.com/watch/1590/satur...---time-travel
(a Saturday Night Live sketch)

[Daniel_Falconer]

Originally Posted by wetanut

Do you like older, wiser women?

Seriously.....
- Your knowledge of and appreciation for Middle-earth came through loud and clear in the DVD extras for the trilogy. Other than Treebeard, which character or design did you like most working on?
- Which design work on subsequent projects (movies) did you most enjoy or found to be the most challenging? Why?

Thank you for Treebeard!!!

Thanks WetaNut. I like older wiser women but my wife doesn't so much and has a mean arm with that broom.

Thanks for the kind words regarding my LOTR interest. There were a few of us on the project that were big Tolkien nerds, but I would say I'm not an expert by any means (thank you Tim for that generous description nonetheless). We all made it our business to get as much Tolkien inspired detail as possible on screen and Peter was always very receptive to it, to his great credit.

As to designs that I was involved with, well, given we tended to tackle things in small teams it's hard to lay claim to any one design entirely. Most were collaborative efforts, or at the very least were in part inspired or informed by other designers' work. For example, while it is fair to say I had more to do with how Treebeard ended up looking than any of my colleagues, there is no question that parts of that design were inspired by the Ents and Treebeard designs that Jamie Beswarick and Alan Lee had created. So, for that reason, I am loathe to claim many designs as 100% mine. It wouldn't be honest of me to do so, but I am certainly happy to say I had a big part in the designs of many items including the following...

Sting, Galadhrim Armour, Easterling Armour, the Watcher in the Water, some of the other Ents, Theoden's Armour, Eowyn's Armour, Eomer's Armour, the Mumakil, some Haradrim Armour, Gimli's Armour, Legolas' Lorien Quiver, Legolas' White Knives, Gondor Infantry Armour, Denethor's costume, etc...

I loved working on the Elves because they're a culture I adore and because we really pushed that around many iterations before getting where we did on them, but really, it was all fun stuff and any time peter picked one of my designs it was a happy day.

Man, listing that stuff brings back some memories. It sure was a fun time to be working. Thanks for the questions.

As to subsequent projects, there has never been anything like LOTR for me, though I have enjoyed being associated with the WotWots. it's a beautiful show. I didn't design anything for the show itself but have been working with the licensees who are creating product for it and that has been both educational and exciting. With folks like Hasbro signed up, we've got some incredibly cleer and talented folks working with us. It's been a great learning experience.

You know, now that I think of it, Halo was a thrill to work on while it lasted. As you all know, that film was shelved (for the time being at least), but during the time we did spend on it, I had a blast. It was a lot of fun to be working in a genre and design style so different to Middle-earth.

[Daniel_Falconer]

Originally Posted by CharlesSong

Daniel, no questions from me at this time, but I am jazzed to hear Tim's 'official' confirmation that you will be working on the new LOTR stuff

Thanks mate. Now you know who to blame!

Oh, there is one question.

Have you ever seen The Falconer?

Hah, that looks hysterical. No I haven't seen it and unfortunately that site is region restricted, so I can't click through, but if it follows the usual SNL standard it should be pretty darned hilarious. I'll keep an eye on Youtube incase someone uploads it.

[Dave Mac]

Hi Daniel and welcome

Is there anything you have a passion for as far as collecting ?

[xtj]

All I can say at the moment is a huge welcome and thank you for a great Treebeard design, he's definately one of my fave characters.

Oh... and also, have fun designing Bagend

[Leaflock]

Hi Daniel

Welcome and thanks for the answers so far .

I have a question, but I have a feeling you won't be able to answer it fully. I'm curious to know what you're working on at the workshop at the moment? We know you're designing for 'The Hobbit' . Anything else you can share?

Thanks!

[Calle_Sandell]

Umm..

Originally Posted by Weta

Please understand Daniel is not allowed to answer any questions on The Hobbit or any other movies which are yet to be released. Please make it easier for him by not asking questions about these future projects.

[cozart]

Daniel,

what does a typical day (if such exists ) at the workshop look like for you?

[Melkor]

I noticed you and Wuest worked on the Treebeard bust? That was my favorite LOTR Bust...still is. I would love a Fellbeast bust in that size

[Daniel_Falconer]

Originally Posted by Dave Mac

Hi Daniel and welcome

Is there anything you have a passion for as far as collecting ?

Hi Dave, thanks for the welcome.

Around here it's no secret that I'm a collector too. I have a particular fondness for mini helmets. I have a full set of the SSW LOTR range that I dearly cherish and a handful of other pieces that Weta produced over the years.

I fell in love with the two dinosaur wall-mounted busts we did for Kong and bought those for my home office (not that I have one at present but I'm thinking ahead). Similarly, I am lusting after the Grordborts bugs in boxes that we showed at Comic Con this year. I plan on buying a set of those when the pricing is sorted out and they go up for preorder.

No one was more gutted than I was when we had to can the Prince Caspian mini helmets. I was their strongest advocate and was dying to own a set, with aspirations for many more to be made too, if they'd be successful. Unfortunately that property never attracted the high end market sufficiently to ensure a long lived line, but I am on the Reepicheep wait list at least.

Poor Tim has me chewing his ear at any opportunity about mini helmets. The magnificent Halo and Doctor Who ones are on my wishlist. I sure hope we'll be doing more of them. I have a fever to feed.

However, my biggest collection is my Star Wars action figure collection. I know, I know, it's not high end polystone or anything (don't stone me!), but I love all the obscure aliens and droids of that galaxy far, far away and have dreams of epic dioramas in illuminated display cases. Hasbro has really done an incredible job with that line and they seem willing to plumb the depths of obscurity to find cool backgrounders from Jabba's palace and the Mos Eisley cantina to keep fans like me happy. As long as they keep making them and making them so well, I'll keep buying.

I have a couple of high end Star Wars items in my collection, namely the SS Jabba on his dais and their life size Salacious B. Crumb (I celebrated the first anniversary of his arrival on my doorstep the day before yesterday in fact - brough a tear to my eye), but my main focus as far as Star Wars is and will always be my Hasbro figures. I think at last count I had around 700. I'm no cpmpletist, but I am a sub-completist, collecting religiously along certain themes or for certain scenes. In that respect, I think I probably share the collecting geek gene with many of the folks here.

Gotta dash now, but I'll be back soon to answer more of your excellent questions.

[CharlesSong]

Originally Posted by Daniel_Falconer

but my main focus as far as Star Wars is and will always be my Hasbro figures. I think at last count I had around 700. I'm no cpmpletist, but I am a sub-completist,

Holy smokes, knew you were a collector but nothing that hardcore

[bullhorsetook]

Originally Posted by Daniel_Falconer

It wouldn't be honest of me to do so, but I am certainly happy to say I had a big part in the designs of many items including the following...

Sting, Galadhrim Armour, Easterling Armour, the Watcher in the Water, some of the other Ents, Theoden's Armour, Eowyn's Armour, Eomer's Armour, the Mumakil, some Haradrim Armour, Gimli's Armour, Legolas' Lorien Quiver, Legolas' White Knives, Gondor Infantry Armour, Denethor's costume, etc...

Armour For me the armour designs in LOTR were the signature pieces for Middle Earth cultures. Thanks for helping to bring that to life.