Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1489831
14 cgw o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 2 work. "A lot of the crew from Weta and other vendors got their start on The Fellowship of the Ring, so this was their return to Middle-earth. It wasn't their first time, so it was fun hearing a lot of the stories from people about working on the original Balrog." And Cantina Creative immediately came to mind when Smith says they were considering vendors for the map sequences, which serve as transitions, taking viewers across the fictional world. The studio has expertise in creating heads-up displays, having worked on Free Guy, The Avengers: Endgame, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Loki, and WandaVision. "We had areas where we would start in one geographic location, the camera flies up and we see that we're traveling across the land- scape," says Smith of the map sequences. "We tell the audience, we're going over this point…We immediately thought of Cantina Cre- ative. It's a visual storytelling. It's kind of a symbolic storytelling and a little bit like a heads-up display. It's telling the audience, we're going from here to here. It needs to look realistic, but not in-story." The different kingdoms also presented their own unique challeng- es. The dwarves live in an underground mountain kingdom of Khaz- ad-dûm, while the elves reside in the kingdom of Valinor. Númenor is an island kingdom of men, with stunning stone architecture and waterfalls. "It's a whole civilization that we haven't seen yet on the screen," says Smith of Númenor. "And it's got a rich history…with a whole new culture, art, and architecture. And we had to build it in a way that it really felt like a real place. That was maybe the one that really be- came a challenge to me." Smith says it was hard to wrap his head around the scale of the island, likening it to New York City — a massive metropolis, but in a medieval time period. The massive island kingdom of Númenor was a challenging environment to create. Cantina Creative delivered map sequences for transitions.