A Newsletter two months in a row! Not bad.

So what’s new?

Well the title logo for one thing :)

Production

New diary updates are now online

We are scheduled to shoot again in about five weeks time and I have therefore entered the panic zone. You might think that because we started production in July we’d have everything ready and there wouldn’t be much to do to prepare for the October shoot but that is unfortunately not the case. We still have a load of orc costumes to make plus we need to add some more detail to the current ranger costumes like arm guards, bows, more bags and pouches, hunting knives and more weathering etc. The Elves need wigs made too, which brings us onto…

Casting News!

We have finally cast Elladan and Elrohir, the sons of Elrond.

Matt and Sam Kennard are UK based actors who will be transformed into the warrior sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, who fight along side Arathorn near the end of our film. I am so pleased to have these guys join the project and I know that a lot of you are keen, like me, to finally see the twins on screen.

Sam Kennard	Twins concept art	Matt Kennard

The Ring Lord in Canada may be creating some scale armour shirts for the Twins which would be fantastic.

Swords

We have the first of our custom made swords and they are beautiful! The talented guys at Raven Armouries have managed to create Arador’s sword and Dorlad’s sword from designs by Edward M Eglinton in Canada. You don’t know how excited I was when I got the photos through on email! Here is a sneak peak.

Raven Armouries came onboard as an extra sword maker for the project and as well as the two above they are also currently making swords for the sons of Elrond and Elgarain. We have a couple of other swordsmiths working on the project and should be getting another three hero swords as well as about 6 metal orc blades. We are currently seeking leatherworkers to make some scabbards.

The Wonderful World of Weta

Speaking of swords I visited the Royal Armouries in Leeds this month to see the Weta exhibition and attended the talk by Peter Lyons the swordsmith from Weta who made most of the swords from LOTRs and Narnia to name a few. I had never been to the Armoury before and it’s amazing. I think I must have spent about 6 hours there and I still only feel like I brushed the surface. Peter Lyons’ talk was very interesting and I learnt a few new things like the fact that all of the scabbards in LOTRs were made of polyurethane to prevent breakages and people hurting themselves. Wooden scabbards break easily if you fall on them or hit them on something, the Hunt for Gollum guys learnt this first hand. They also made all the bows with sprung steal and polyurethane too. I wish we were able to do polyurethane bows, swords and scabbards and aluminium stunt swords as well as hero swords but we just don’t have the budget. We are having some swords made for the film but can only do one of each which need to be both Hero swords and practical as well.

At the end of the talk we had a special treat. Exhibition curator Bob Woosnam-Savage had picked out six pieces from the Weta exhibition for us to not just see close up but to actually pick up and hold including the 'hero' sting, a Gondor sword and a Moria blade and shield. I managed to speak with Peter and Bob after the talk and Bob said he’d actually heard about Born of Hope which was exciting to learn. They were both very impressed and interested in the project which is great.

Website

The website seems to need updating almost daily at the moment. The recruitment page is now live and lists jobs we are currently looking to fill.

New Sponsor

Ambient Graphics have joined the project as a sponsor and are very generously donating us a title banner and two upright stretch banners for our Ring*Con display and future events. We are currently sorting out the designs and hope to have them finalized by the end of this week so that they have time to print them before I head out to Germany.

Ring*Con 2008

Speaking of Ring*Con, Christopher Dane, Beth Aynsley, Danny George and myself Kate Madison have all bought our flights to Germany. I am now trying to get everything ready for the trip including new posters and publicity, merchandise and video clips. As well as the Panel at 3pm on Friday 3rd we have also been invited to the press conference on Friday morning and will have a stand in the dealers’ room. Please come and visit us and support us to continue this fantastic project by sponsoring us with even a small donation.

Ring*Con prize draw

The winner of our Ring*Con prize draw was Elessar Tetramariner. Unfortunately, as Elessar is unable to attend Ring*Con this year another draw was held. Rosemarie Rigby-Jones and her friend Lisa Cox will now be joining us at Ring*Con 2008. Congratulations!

Our Ring*Con prize draw ended on the 10th September and we raised £230 in donations so thank you!

New Art

Carlos Avina, one of our talented graphic artists based in San Diego California, has created new character cards from our photos from the July shoot. The whole collection can now be seen on the Cast page and can also be downloaded from the Art Downloads page.

That’s it for now, there may be a few more things on the Diary page so don’t forget to check that too.

Best wishes everyone.

Kate Madison

Actor/Director/Producer