THE HOBBIT, Production Diary 1

Hello, welcome to the first of our blogs about the making of The Hobbit. It's amazing to be back here again. This is Bag End exactly as it was in The Lord of the Rings and it's actually built on our B stage here in Wellington and that's exactly the same set that was built 12 years ago, we've been filming for a few days and I just wanted to take advantage This opportunity to give you a little glimpse into the filming preparations and some of the pre-

production

that led up to the first day of our shoe and I hope to keep you updated as we move forward over the next 2 or 3 years, see you soon oh you're in 3D looking good so yeah and this pulls beautifully it looks great when drawn oh So it really works he can also fight with the remains hanging from his body and impale people.

We wanted to create a very non-human form. We need to make a little Vlog. Maybe you want to say hello to the fans. from The Hobbit fans and shy artists, dear, dear, so let's go up to the dressing room and take a look at a couple of dwarf costume and makeup tests, which is always exciting, although we won't show you much in this one blog in particular because we will save it for the future, but at least you will be able to see a little of our costume department, a lot of very busy people working on a lot of costumes, a lot of interesting textures and details, leather and embossing and everything is very good here, it's like kind of a big magician's workshop, hello, my goodness, hello, very good, you can use them like a mace, you can just swing them, hit them and then cut their throats and hit, hit, it's a good move. and it takes out about 10 ORS yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, now, this is a family set, it's the Chambers of Elon and it's an exact copy of the one we had in The Fellowship of the Ring, in fact, right here in the Balcony is where the Council is located. of Elrond took place where the fellowship was formed and Frodo volunteered to take the ring to Mordor, but also in The Hobbit there will be a lot of new bits of Rivendell that we haven't seen before, some really interesting bits of Rivendell, in fact.

We'll keep it as a little surprise for now. Now there's an old friend upstairs. Let's take a quick look. Here we are. I'm sure you'll recognize the statue where the Broken Sword is located and of course in time. from The Hobbit, the sword will be here and it's weird walking around here because it was 10 or 11 years ago and I'm used to looking at a set like this in the movie, you know? Walking back in is almost like you've walked into a movie. It is a very strange experience when we have a dwarf locked up. This is where we are going to film at the beginning of our shoot.

They are the tunnels of the goblins. Beneath the Misty Mountains there is a very iconic scene in The Hobbit where Bilbo has an encounter with, well, you know who he is, right? If you read The Hobbit, there's no need to spoil it for anyone who hasn't, but this is like a little network of caves. Look, there's another little set of passages down here. It's very claustrophobic, but one of the things we've done to be able to get the shots done is make sure that all the different walls in the cave can be removed so that our big, bulky cameras can capture the angles we need, oh my gosh, look , look at this thing here that looks like a foot or an arm, oh, I don't know, that looks pretty creepy, doesn't it? oo well, is this it?

So how many chairs do we need, for example, should we? I think the bomber sits at the end and then there's a slight grip and then when you come down it's like and then okay, now I know what it is. It's a sure thing, this is blocking, it's not really a rehearsal, but we see that the actors are walking and we're talking about what to do with the scene and it's actually fun because it means that when we get to shoot this, we have a plan, be good , it will be nice if you get closer and then you realize that there is something on your foot and you, and maybe you, try to get rid of it first, you know it and you are nice.

This will be fun, this will be funnier when everyone is in makeup and costumes and dying of heat in the corner of the table with Killy amazing next to Killy Philly and then, uh, Dory, Dory and then Nori, oh my God, Dory Nori . b b Lor Dory Nori, this is a nightmare, we will have Gandal here in Star, so I thought it would be nice to give you this whole door to play with and some kind of fire will burn too, oh, okay? My prediction is that it's over. He's going to go incredibly well that day, don't you agree?

The complicated thing is that there are 13 dwarves in this set. The good news is that you're not wearing a fat suit. No, no, I'm on a nose and. wig fake eyebrows, mustache and beard, but you're right, there's no fat suit in your way, yeah, you are, you're a winner, you're a winner every step of the way and we can put a fan on your Rob just to give you a little of promises about air conditioning, probably well, that will work with a little finesse, that will work tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, how are you? So I'm officially the first person in the makeup chair. about the hobby officially that's amazing that's amazing H H my name is Richard I'm from London England I would like to say thank you on behalf of everyone here as visitors for this ceremony for this celebration for the blessing of the Sound Stage and for the welcome you offer us, We are deeply honored to be here and to everyone who has waited so long for this day to begin this extraordinary journey filming the hobit.

I would like to wish you good luck, good health and good harmony and Martin would like that. To say something, thank you, my name is Martin Freeman, I'm also in the cast. He stole everything he was about to say in m and said this has been a long time coming today, it's been even longer than we thought. be um so I hope that at the end of this journey we will all be as close to each other as we right now have the potential to be so thank you very much uh hello everyone I'm Andy Circus I'm standing there just to say in name of the returning crew and cast who have gathered here to embark on the journey and we are very, very grateful for your incredible hospitality and for having the opportunity to share the passion for telling something so incredible. story in such an incredible country with such beautiful people thank you, you know, for a long time I thought that going back to the incredible experience of The Lord of the Rings would not be a good idea, but really you know, now I have fully adapted because the movies are stressful and hard to do, but ultimately what makes them fun is the people you work with and the fact that you know we're going to be working with a lot of the old gang with a lot of making friends and obviously making new friends.

It's really the goal of being here, so I'd be very excited if someone came to me today and said we can continue pre-

production

for another 6 weeks. I would say no, no, hell. No, let's just start shooting and rolling sound and action. In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit.