T w e n t y S i d e d

I started out answering this question in the comments here, but the response got too long.

The big challenge of getting proper screenshots is that often the shots I need just aren’t available. Keep in mind that John Rhys-Davies, Viggo Mortensen, and Ian McKellen are all more or less normal height. That means any time we see Gimli or Gandalf standing together in the same shot, we are looking at some sort of special effects. These shots are actually pretty rare.

So, I have some directories dedicated to as many combinations as I can find: Gimli + Legolas, mountain background. Gimli + Legolas, forest background. Gimli + Legolas, indoors. Etc. Etc. This way, when I need those two talking in the same panel, I look in my collection of pairings and see what I have available.

The rest of the directories are just sorted by setting. Rivendell, Cahadras, Moria, Woods of Lothlorien, the Elven City, River, Amon Hen, plains, Fangorn, Rohan, exodus, Helm’s Deep, etc.

That’s it. Not much of a system. I’d get more detailed, but it’s actually hard to re-use shots. The movie does a great job of keeping the scenery varied, but this works against me when I want to use a shot from the woods of Lorien as part of Fangorn, for example. The two places have different lighting, different contrast, different color balance, and the woods themselves don’t look very similar. So, even if I find a Lorien shot that doesn’t have any now-departed characters in it, I probably still can’t use it because it won’t match visually.

Although, I think I need to create a “Stareagorn” directory. I’m sure I could come up with a couple of gigs of Viggo zoning out, falling asleep, or stoned out of his mind.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.