The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim - Isengard

Working on this production was a real full-circle moment for me. The Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films are what inspired me to pursue this career, so contributing to that world - the world that had such a profound influence on me - meant a great deal.

This film is set 183 years before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring. One of my primary tasks was visualizing how iconic locations from those films would have looked in this earlier era.

For Isengard, I wanted to create a distinct look for this film. My concept was that, in the past, a small farming village had existed at the base of Orthanc. A devastating storm then caused the riverbanks to burst, flooding the village and transforming the area into a swampy marsh, leaving only the village’s ruins behind. An untamed look to contrast the order and then destruction that comes later in the Lord of the Rings.

Credit also needs to be given to the masters Alan Lee and John Howe who had done the original design work for Orthanc and its surrounds.