SDCC 2012: More Cast, Crew Interviews

More cast and crew interviews have been posted online from the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con (1st wave here). In an interesting (but hard to hear) video interview with Richard Armitage as he discussed his role and the Tolkien novels with The One Ring. In addition the SDCC cast and crew spoke with Collider about the movie. Hit the links or watch video and read highlights below.

Highlights
- Peter Jackson: Very early in discussions with studio about shooting more material from the LOTR Appencies to either add to There and Back Again, for extended editions are break into third movie.
- Peter Jackson: Movie tone is in between the darker Lord of the Rings trilogy and the children's amusing tone of The Hobbit.
- Martin Freeman: Became aware of the Hobbit size scale once started filming at Lake Town which is populated by normal sized humans.
- Martin Freeman: "Your whole frame of reference for how you normally work on a film shifts. What, one minute, is completely unworkable and ridiculous, the next week just works. It becomes very easy, actually."
- Peter Jackson: "This time around, there are no miniatures. It’s all done with CGI. Everything that we need to build, from a miniature point of view, we build as a CG miniature. I can now swoop in, over rooftops and through doorways. I can do things that I never could have dreamt of doing with the miniatures. For me, that’s actually one of the most profound differences."
- Andy Serkis: Compared to doing Gollum on LOTR, "What is amazing now with performance-capture is that you can get the entire performance, all in one hit. We were able to shoot a scene in its entirety, on a live set, with Martin’s performance being captured on a digital camera while Gollum’s performance used a performance-capture camera, and capture them both, at exactly the same moment in time."
- Peter Jackson: "48 fps is way better for 3D. One of the things with 3D is that it does accentuate the strobing because you’re getting it in two eyes from two cameras that were filming. Once you go to 48, it’s much smoother. There’s no eye strain and no headaches."
- Ian McKellen: "We prefer Gandalf the Grey." Peter Jackson: "Gandalf the White was a bit boring."