From New Zealand to Middle Earth
A StoryMap that goes over some of the major set pieces in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and where they were filmed in New Zealand.
Year
2026
Scope
StoryMaps
This was my first time using ArcGIS StoryMaps, so I created a little page that explores LoTR set pieces and their real world locations in New Zealand. I also created a small Experience Builder application that I embedded into the Story Map, which allows users to click the New Zealand locations on a map to highlight the corresponding location on a map of Middle Earth.
Components
Video from the behind-the-scenes videos showing how they found the filming location for Hobbiton
A basic production timeline of the trilogy.
Some fun infographics showing various stats from the production of the films
A guided map tour of the various scenes and filming locations.
Experience Builder application showing locations in New Zealand and where they correspond to in Middle Earth
An embedded interactive map of Middle Earth, created by Yohann Bethoule.
What I Learned
StoryMaps seems like a powerful tool to quickly create engaging ways for user to explore a geospatial story. The themes feature seems somewhat limited by the built-in tools, as Esri no longer seems to allow custom CSS, but for most users that's probably not an issue.
The experience builder app was more complicated than I had through it would be, as it turns out associating real world coordinates with coordinates on a fake map (Middle Earth) leads to some issues when trying to tie the two maps together for panning/zooming/flashing. There are some ideas for work around that I have which I can hopefully explore in the future.
