Desolation of Smaug Live Event Summary

Sunday at 3pm EST (or 8AM New Zealand) time, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug live event was held with Director Peter Jackson and Jed Brophy (Nori). It was available to those that bought the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Over all it wasn't bad. It started with the pair showing off the post-production studios and discussing a little of the film making process in general. It then went to their main editing room where Peter showed how they take multiple takes with various camera angles and put it together for a scene. After that was a Q&A that was about 95% videos from current and past Middle-Earth actors. The main bit of "new" info really is a good look at Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Luke Evans (Bard), and Laketown. Overall if a fan of the film making process it was interesting but was light on spoilers. Below are the movie specific highlights via Bleeding Cool and TORn. Peter did promise more production videos and a edited version of the live event is supposed to be posted at some point but no time frame has been specified.

Highlights
- Scene used to show off editing as Bilbo says a line about "...you never venture East" as the Bard steers the boat everyone is on. Going by the book, this scene will probably occur within the first 30 minutes of the movie.
- Jackson says he shoots wide shorts first as a "kind of like a rehearsal" but uses them to set a scene and the geography of the area and people. (A lesson many director's never learn, if audience doesn't know lay of the land, harder to grasp what is happening in a scene)
- Filming for scenes to fill out the last two movies is expected to start in June.
- Like The Two Towers, Smaug will have multiple story lines.
- A shot of Thranduil (king of the Mirkwood Elves) with his son Legolas along with Orlando Bloom filming some action scenes.
- A shot of Stephen Fry of Master of Laketown as the citizens gather around him for unknown reason.
- Fry (via a video) suggested that his character may appear in the third movie (possible depending on what point the 2nd movie ends), Jackson however did not confirm or deny this.
- A mostly green screen scene is shown with Tauriel threatening an Orc.
- Jackson's favorite Lord of the Rings weapon was the Sword of King Theoden.
- Some Mirkwood art is shown including where the Elves lives. It suggests almost an underground cavern only the environment is made of trees instead of stone and dirt.
- A clip is shown with Gandalf exploring Dol Goldur (that large creepy castle like structure from An Unexpected Journey) when Radagast surprises him.
- A trailer for Desolation of Smaug will be ready for the summer as still have lost of post-production work to do (VFX, etc.).
- A quick montage of uncompleted footage is shown with Bilbo grabbing the barrels the dwarves are in, dwarves wrapped in spider silk after being captured by the Milkwood spiders (think Shelob size from LOTR), wood being chopped (by Beorn the shapechanger), Thorin declaring his intentions to Master of Laketown, and quit shots of orcs, elves and dwarves fighting.