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Today I want to highlight an interesting observation/admission that surprisingly (to me) crept into one of the last making-of specials on the last DVD for the ROTK. The special itself was detailing the post-production work done prior to release of the third film. The amount of work required of Weta (the digital FX workshop), the music and audio departments and the editing team to satisfy Peter Jackson was astonishing and it's truly a credit to them all that everything was completed just three days before the world premiere in Wellington.

However, what became abundantly clear to me was that the ROTK post-production phase was a fairly classic "death march", as detailed in the text by Ed Yourdon. Way too much work was required by way too few people in way too little time. People lived at their desks, slept in the office, and generally worked outrageous hours for prolonged periods. The key statistic that sticks in my mind is that Weta produced the same number of shots in the 5 weeks prior to release as they had in the entire first film.

Eventually, everything did get done and the film itself was IMHO a staggering success. So, again in my opinion, ROTK delivered on the requirements of the customer. Additionally, it was delivered on schedule, although only by the hair of it's chinny, chin, orc-y chin. I have no idea on whether it exceeded it's original production budget, but I'm fairly certain that it's earnings to-date have exceeded whatever it cost to make the film. In summary, the project ROTK is a success on pretty much every axis such things are judged in the IT world.

But amongst all the self indulgent back patting that consumed this special was a short comment from one of the main people in the post-production team mentioning the human cost of the post-production effort. Although there were no numbers at hand, this person made a statement about the "poor record" the film had in terms of the number of divorces and broken relationships resulting from the efforts required across the entire series. At last, some indication of the inevitable downside of putting your life on hold to follow the vision of an inspirational and charismatic leader!

Like many developers, I've been involved on a DM or two. The most extreme of these is something I look back on fondly now, mainly because of the enormous feeling of camaraderie within the team and the thought that what we were doing would really be a revolutionary step forward (it wasn't). At that time of my life, I wasn't harming anyone apart from myself with the amount of work I did. These days, a little older, a little wiser and with a lot more personal commitments, I wouldn't go near one of those things with a bargepole. It would be fascinating viewing to see whether any of those who suffered the consequences of such enormous personal sacrifices still spoke so glowingly of the process in light of everything.

Kudos to the LOTR DVD editors for including this little gem of harsh reality.