STYLING MIDDLEEARTH

Make-up team Jane O’Kane and Vinnie Ashton on…

Designing the Elves

O’Kane: For each of the worlds that we created, we had a theme – we wanted to create their own language, and because this is their beginnings, to show that they’re not influenced by other races. And the Elves are connected to this spiritual realm. We gave them a real ethereal quality, everything about them was shining and lustrous. The hairline was slightly higher. When we showed off their ears, we really embraced that, rather than putting hair over them. We gave their skin a real lustre. We put metallic threads into their hair, to give shine and shimmering light – the reflection of light and luminosity was big in their world. Ashton: The ears required a lot more perfection because we had Elves with short hair, Elves with their hair off their face. The ears were all treated so delicately, each one was specifically designed for that performer.

Designing Harfoots

Ashton: Because the Halfoots are pre-Hobbits, they are much more primitive. They live in the land, it’s ingrained into their bodies. O’Kane: Starting from the ground up, they’re very earthy, their feet are big and large, and they don’t wear shoes, because of their connection to the earth. That’s what’s quite endearing about them. Their styling was very much based on nature and the environment that they were around. Their hair was all matted from lying in the undergrowth, and they had bits of branches and moss and trees caught within it from months and years of not brushing their hair.

On the scale of the series…

Ashton: Pretty much everybody was wearing some form of prosthetic or wig. Every make-up was very complex and technical. We had to have a really highly skilled team of artists. O’Kane: We doubled, tripled and quadrupled everything, because a lot of the characters had a scale double, or a stunt double, and then a horse-riding double, and swimming double, and a body double. And so we were doubling, doubling, doubling doubles. It was extensive. JACK SHEPHERD