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It’s official: war has come to Eregion in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. After weeks of trying to reach the city before Sauron (Charlie Vickers) can enact his plans, Season 2 Episode 7, “Doomed to Die” saw the Elven city severely under siege, and the episode largely stays away from the season’s other plot lines, remaining in and around Eregion to perhaps better drive home just how pivotal a moment this is in the story. Though the episode is full of stunning action sequences and set pieces, one moment in particular can be described as nothing short of a nightmare for the entire production crew.
In an interview with Collider’s Carly Lane, director Charlotte Brandstrom and cinematographer Alex Disenhof break down the sequence in question, the moment where Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and his Orcs manage to get the river surrounding Eregion to recede, allowing them to attack the city on foot. The muddy battlefield was, in Brandstrom’s words, a “nightmare,” and Disenhof agrees with that assessment, though adds that it was, at least, “visually, a godsend.” A small mercy, though Disenhof said the challenges presented by the terrain were something the team expected going in:
“You know going into it, it is going to pose its own challenges, but then actually doing it’s a reality check and everything goes a little bit slower. But we had an incredible crew and everyone got through it with smiles on their faces.”
Brandstrom described a particular challenge she faced — actually getting stuck in the muddy terrain — saying “I couldn’t get out of there. So they had to come and carry me out.” There was a level of realism to it though, as she said:
“But it really made it real because that’s probably what it would’ve been, for real.
It was very hard, not only for the actors to move around, but for the crew, for everybody
. Because when you work, the mud was going above my knees, up to the thighs. So when you walk in that and you sink into it, at first, if you stay too long, you get stuck if you don’t move.”
How Did ‘Rings of Power’ Season 2, Episode 7 Film in That Much Mud?
Having a long lead time on filming, however, worked beautifully to Brandstrom and Disenhof’s advantage, as he explained how they worked to stabilize the terrain enough to film on:
“Yeah, so it started, again, months in advance. We had to figure out where we wanted to put our heaviest equipment, so that way, before they built the set,
the construction department actually buried steel deck and other deck under the ground to keep it stable enough for heavy equipment
. And then they would layer the mud on top of that. So it was careful planning in that regard and once we chose those zones, we had to stick to them because if you went off the path, you’d end up like Charlotte and be waist deep in mud.”
Disenhof added that pulling off such a stunning, complicated sequence also required getting creative with their equipment and cameras, saying:
“But we actually had grips carrying… we had a stabilized gimbal head on a bar, of a steel bar, the grips could carry. So you’d have two grips with big boots on, and everything, and they’d be running around with that thing. And a camera operator remotely operating it from a dry and, hopefully, warm space. And then we also used TechnoCranes, geo-telescoping cranes to poke the camera out.
We did handheld work, as well. Again, it was hard because of the mobility. It was very, very difficult, mobility-wise
. So a lot of different tools. But ultimately, it just was, it’s a real logistical challenge.”
The first seven episodes of The Rings of Power Season 2 are streaming now on Prime Video.
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