The Lord of the Rings: Gollum — Split Personality Trailer

The task

Gollum is one of the iconic The Lord of the Rings characters, and what really sets him apart and makes him memorable, is his extreme ambiguity. The latter reflects in the split personality of Gollum/Sméagol which is going to impact and even define the game experience. We were to communicate that to the audience; a very important requirement was showing Gollum in such a way that he wouldn’t resemble the one from the movies.

The plot

Gollum’s existence is constant and fierce struggle for survival. He’s quite good at it: despite their antagonism, his ‘halves’ can work together towards a common goal, making him a deadly adversary.

The implementation

To underline the duality of the central character, we used the interplay of light and shadow. The setting (a huge, dimly lit cave) suits it ideally. Plus, the soundscape of the cave adds to the effect: there are no environment sounds to drown out the internal monologue of Gollum/Sméagol which is in sharp contrast with his/their actions.

The trailer is a full CGI one, with lots of effort put into facial animation which allowed for multiple close-ups. Gollum’s grimaces and the glint in his eye really matter as there’s a sort of personal relation between him and those he kills—he’s not a protagonist of a slasher game who dispatches enemies in droves en passant. Gollum is sneaky, malicious, and inventive, and the action taking place in the video illustrates that. We haven’t really seen the best (the worst) of this character in the movies, and the trailer is a hint that you can expect a full disclosure in the game.