Billy has taken time out to answer some of your questions. If you have a burning question that you'd like to put to Billy drop us a line and we'll see what we can do.

Billy,
I love the films that you've been in esp. the scenes that Viggo is in. What I'd like to know is what your favourite films are.
Shazia, Italy

No way can you answer this question. It changes daily depending on mood, time and in some cases weather! But here is a list of a few.


And many more to come.
Billy

 

Billy,
I love food and I'd love to know what is your favourite food?
I'm such a great fan, thanks for your time and watch out for the lightening!!!.
Gail, Edinburgh

Now a good question! I would have to say if I had to choose ethnically.Thai and if that had to be narrowed down then Tom Yum Gai!

 

Billy,
What's happening with this film that you and Dom are trying to make? I've heard lots of rumours, what's the real deal?

Yours,
756 Billy Fans....

Quite a few people have been asking what is happening with the script Dom and I are working on? Well here is the story so far…….from the beginning!

We came up with the idea of doing a film together while sitting up a mechanical tree, for anyone who has not seen LOTR and the Two Towers in particular this may seem a bit strange, but stick with me. Dom and I were already very close by this time but the friendship was escalated by the trauma of the 15-hour days sitting on bicycle saddle at 18 feet.

So a lot of ideas came together in this time and slowly became the outline for a script which was polished somewhat by improvising scenes onto a Dictaphone while driving to LA from Mexico while I was making Master and Commander.

Now because we had been working on different projects in different countries since LOTR finished we were finding more and more difficult to get together to work on the script, but with the draft we had, and outlines of some other ideas we did get a producer involved at this point and all agreed it could be a good time to get a writer on board.

Now I was working on a play called San Diego by David Greig and suggested David, so Dom came to Edinburgh, along with assorted other Lord of the Ringers, stretching from the King of Gondor to Stunt men and the odd Hobbit or two, watched the play then we all got together to discuss the film.

Dom got on very well with David and could see his ideas were very similar to ours. I think this was a great time to get David involved as Dom and I because of other commitments had started to slow down with the script and this new input of ideas from David was just what we needed, and anyone who knows David’s work will know how exciting and interesting it is.

So the story took some new directions, which got us all fired up and excited again on the project.

So as it stands at the moment….

David has just come back from LA where he was working with Dom and we have just had a meeting together and it looks like a first draft of the new script is imminent. It does seem like it is taking a long time, I know, but we are all adamant that we want it to be as good as possible and we are not willing to do something second rate.

This philosophy seems to be working out as some of the directions and ideas the story has taken lately are the most interesting we have all come up with.

So sorry if there is anyone out there who wants to see this film, but hopefully when we actually get round to doing it the wait will be worthwhile.

Billy X

 

Dear Billy,

I know almost nothing about movie making but I do think that songs (in movies) are recorded in a studio separately from the filming.

Do you record in a studio after filming while looking at yourself acting? Did you have to record the song more than once - like for the movie itself and then the soundtrack?

I'd enjoy hearing from you about what you liked/didn't like about the process.

Sincerely,
Sassenach

You are completely right that the song from the film had to be re-recorded, but as well as the song a lot of the dialogue has to be re-recorded.

There are a few reasons for this, the main one being the use of wind machines, smoke machines etc which all add a background sound to a scene which has to go. This is done by watching the scene on a screen with your original dialogue then trying to match it. This process is called ADR (additional dialogue recording) and is widely used to get a clean voice track.

The song in Return of the King had to be done in this way but to be able to meet up with Howard Shore to make sure the key was right for his soundtrack led to one of the best days of my career. Howard was recording in Abbey Road studios in London , which is where the Beatles recorded all their albums, and I was asked to record the song there! In the same studio The Beatles played "All You Need Is Love" for the first worldwide satellite broadcast. A real treat for me and another unforgettable day in the making of Lord Of The rings. This was all recorded by one of the documentary crews so hopefully it will appear on a DVD sometime.

Hey, Billy!

I just have a quick question about SNIPER470.
Okay, I know that you weren't actually floating in the film, but what type of camera tricks are used to manipulate the way you appear? In some pictures you appear to be floating in zero gravity, but aren't. How did you pull that off?

Thanks a Bunch,
Lil Miss

Hello Lil Miss. A few techniques were used to get the feeling that the sniper is in Zero gravity but as the money is very tight when making these short films a lot of the techniques are very low tech.

For a lot of the shots the camera would be held upside down or on it's side so that there was a feeling that there was no real up or down, then I watched a lot of footage of astronauts and tried to copy their movements. This turned out more difficult than you would think…if you ask most people to act like a spaceman they will normally move in slow motion which is what you think you are seeing but if you look closer it's just that limbs and everything in space is just not being acted on by gravity so when something starts moving it just keeps going till something (like a wall_ stops it. Sorry getting a bit technical (and probably a bit boring!) but I find all this stuff very interesting! Can you believe we have just landed on Mars!?!!

Anyway.

We also used some blue screen techniques, where I would sit on a blue box, which would be taken away in the computer later, or food water bottles could be moved by blue sticks, which could again be removed in postproduction.

It was great fun though as we invented new ways to give the idea of weightlessness to the movie. We even used a skateboard at one point. Any idea what scene?

 

Who inspires YOU, Mr. Boyd?
Hugs,
LadyHobbit "Rosie"

Who inspires me? That is a really difficult question. For one thing there are new people every day. You read a story of someone using their life to help others whether in charities or in great disasters like the earthquake in Iran where people put their lives on hold to go and help. That is incredibly inspiring.

I think we all know how much helping someone else makes us feel good and yet we all don't do it enough. I suppose it's everyone's journey in life to try and become better people and by trying to learn from these experiences and feelings.

I just sometimes wish I could learn more quickly.

There are many well-known “celebrities” who inspire me as well. John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Ben Harper, Spike Milligan, Bill Forsyth, Shakespeare, Groucho Marx, Stanley Kubrick, Tom Yorke the list could go on and on but looking back at it I suppose the common denominator is people who live lives their way and don't feel too much pressure to conform to a norm.

Bily Boyd home Home bio q & a interviews images update mailing list
Billy Boyd