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It was a helluva
party thrown by Peter Jackson in Wellington on Friday December
22, to celebrate the end of 15 months filming for the $NZ650million
Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
You had to have
a ticket to get in. One per person, no exceptions. And I was
there, one face among a cast of thousands! It was the most unexpected
thing. My old mate and future Ringstyle business partner Jim
McIntosh, was sent a ticket. "Trouble is, I can't use it," he
groaned. "Kay and I are off to England and Turkey for our Christmas
hols that day. If you want it, you can have it."
I was very tempted
to flog it off because the newspapers reckoned people were paying
up to $NZ1500 for a ticket. Then I thought no, this is an historic
party and the word around was that it was costing New Line Cinema
$100,000. I decided I'd get my photo taken with Peter Jackson
and put it on the Ringstyle website. Hah!
The doors opened
at Shed 21 on the Wellington waterfront at 9 pm. I couldn't
get there until 12 (I had a Friday night Landmark class, believe
it or not) so I missed most of the on-stage ceremonials, valedictories,
foolery and antics. No worries, there was plenty more and plenty
of action. And it was all totally free!
Noting people
wearing feathered head-dresses, silver and gold lame clothing,
fashionable leather gear etc, I first had to come to terms with
the realisation that I was probably the only male suit-and-tie-wearer
present (I did have a Santa Claus decorated pen sticking out
of my pocket as a concession to informality).
I checked out
the food marquee. Ruth Pretty, NZ's most famous cooking personality,
seemed to be in charge here. And there she was herself, with
a new hair colour, cooking fish (terakihi actually) Pacific-style.
There were other setups doing kebabs, fritters, pies. Things
were being cooked and put straight onto your plate. The smells
were incredible. I wandered about, sampling this and that, and
meeting up with a few cronies, like Alan Head who machine-embroidered
symbols and designs on LOTR clothing, 500 hours work he estimated.
"The world doesn't know, Wellington doesn't know, how much is
going into this film. It's a monster. I met the people who were
doing the leather armour and they had 150 bods working on that
project."
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I realised I was
very thirsty. I headed into Shed 21 itself, a gutted three-storey
old concrete warehouse. It was like being on a movie set. It
was thu-robbing. In the roof coloured multi-coloured spotlights
swept across the throng below, most of whom were clustered around
a central servery about the size and shape of a boxing ring.
The beer was Monteiths and the wine was all Kiwi. You could
have any spirits you liked. Around the hall were blow-up paddling
pools filled with ice supporting bottles of Monteiths. If you
wanted coffee you got L'Affaire from their mobile rig. Only
the best was available tonight.
The stage was distant,
but people were watching the action on giant screens
hung all about. I caught the tail-end of the programme, a blonde
actress-looking type being given a return ticket to New York.
I got my sole glimpse of PJ on the stage, in customary t-shirt
and shorts. The big name actors (McKellen, Bean, Tyler) had
left the country but stayers included Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins),
Dominic Monaghan (Meriadoc Brandybuck), Orlando Bloom (Legolas),
John Noble (Denethor) and Sean Astin (declared himself "totally
and emotionally fried, man"). Scattered through the crowd were
local celebs like Wellington's Mayor Mark Blumsky, US envoy
Carol Moseley-Braun and Kiwi comedian Raybon Kan. And Harry
Knowles was there, apparently.
Then the main event
came onto the screens: Lord of the Rings bloopers, linked together
with good footage, a lot of it fast-forwarded. It was a half-hour
I'll not forget. The 2000-strong cast and crew, watching the
screens, roaring tributes, waving salutes as they recognised
certain bits. They were watching stuff that will never make
the big screen, that will only be available on bootlegged videotape.
These were real bloopers, with real f-word swearing and child-like
ad libbing by some of the world's biggest movie stars. It was
a treat. It ended to the music of Clarence Frogman Henry's "I
Don't Know Why I Love You But I Do," a tribute from the producers
to the multitude.
Then the live entertainment
started, with a powerful, machete-wielding Samoan dance troupe
called Savaii Five-Oh. And then the band started up, with none
other than NZ's number one rocker, Dave Dobbyn in the driving
seat.
The food kept coming,
the liquor kept flowing, the band kept playing. What a night!
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