Digital matte artist creates backdrops for ‘The Lord of the Rings’

Katherine Tolford, People

GLENDALE -- Former Glendale resident Roger Kupelian moved Earth and

sky to create a fictional middle-Earth world of 7,000 years ago.

Kupelian is a digital matte artist who worked on “The Lord of the

Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” the film adaptation based on the

first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

He contributed more than a dozen of the 100 matte paintings the WETA

Digital matte department created and animated for the film.

Kupelian and nine other artists, along with a production team of 240,

brought to life elements of the fictional film’s environment that hobbit

Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and the Fellowship of the Ring (hobbits,

humans, an elf and a dwarf) encounter as they journey to Cracks of Doom

to destroy the One Ring created by the evil Sauron.

Matte paintings have served as a believable and viable alternative to

realistic backgrounds since the inception of films, Kupelian said.

They’re created in place of the real thing when it’s determined too

expensive or impossible to build the set or shoot on location.

The first matte paintings were done on large pieces of glass. They are

called that because black matte board was placed directly in front of the

camera to block out where the painting would be added.

“The artist would then paint the rest and it would be optically

printed onto the live action,” the 33-year-old Kupelian said.

His art for the film was inspired by the natural resources and

lighting of New Zealand, where the movie was filmed and where he now

lives.

“You can walk out on some evenings and see this incredible sunset or

cloud formation that looks like it came out of some painter’s

imagination,” he said.

“Put that in a matte painting and no one will believe you,” he said.

In spite of his unusual scenic surroundings, Kupelian said he found

himself referencing material he produced while working as an independent

filmmaker and digital artist from his Glendale office.

“A lot of the skies you see in those paintings, especially when the

heroes are rowing down the river toward the Arganaths, are made from

Glendale skies,” said Kupelian, who left Glendale a year ago.

It’s this same quality Tolkien exhibited, to draw from the past, that

also inspired Kupelian’s work on the film.

“I was not a tremendous fan of Tolkien even though I loved ‘The

Hobbit.’ I have grown to appreciate his work. I enjoy how he has borrowed

from the past to add richness and depth to his stories,” said Kupelian,

who was recruited to work on the film while in Hawaii working on “Final

Fantasy: The Spirits Within.”

“Tolkien borrowed from all kinds of ancient history and myth, as well

as incorporating subtle religious themes, so the scope is enormous,” he

said.

THE KUPELIAN FILE

NAME: Roger Kupelian.

AGE: 34.

OCCUPATION: Digital matte artist for WETA Digital and recently worked

on the film “The Lord of the Rings.”

HOME: Wellington, New Zealand. He is a former Glendale resident who

attended Wilson Junior High and Glendale High School. He also taught

briefly at Glendale High School.

OTHER PROJECTS: “Space Jam,” “Air Force One,” “The Truman Show,”

“Mission to Mars,” “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.”

ON WHAT FICTIONAL HERO HE’D LIKE TO PORTRAY: “I always wanted to be

Darth Vader -- and actually got my chance when I taught high school for a

couple of years.”

ON WHAT MAKES A HERO: “Doing what you have to do, even though it might

cost you. What was that saying... ‘the difference between a hero and a

coward is they run in opposite directions’? I think the firemen of Sept.

11 deserve to be remembered for generations.”