The Hobbit Production Video #14 - The Music

In time for Christmas, Peter Jackson has posted the 14th production video for The Hobbit trilogy and last for this year. The remainder will start sometime in the new year with the focus being on filming The Hobbit: There and Back Again. In the video below, it focuses entirely on creating the beautiful soundtrack for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as composed by Howard Shore.

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The Hobbit Production Video #13

The latest production video for The Hobbit Trilogy has been posted. This edition focuses mostly on post-production for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. That includes CGI, sound effects, editing, and using combining a virtual world with filming so that Jackson can "film" a scene in an empty room that mimics his camera movements for the actual home of Smaug. He then teased the next production video that looks into recording the score for the movie.
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The Visual and Sound Effects of The Hobbit: AUJ

Two new videos have popped up online that show some of how the visual effects and sound effects were done for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As always with things like this is it fascinating to see just how much is done with digital effects, often more then you would even expect. The second video on the sound effects is a lot less informative as it is more sales pitch then informative but still get to see some of the behind the scenes stuff.

The Hobbit Production Video #10 - The Premiere

Peter Jackson has the 10th and final installment (at least for An Unexpected Journey) of his production videos that track the making of The Hobbit trilogy. In this video the focus is on preparation for and the day of the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Wellington, New Zealand on November 28th.

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The Hobbit Production Video #9 - Post Production

Peter Jackson has posted the next production diary for The Hobbit. This one covers the post-production for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey with a look at some filming, creating the visual effects, sound effects, editing, color correction and recording the soundtrack. No major spoilers but get glimpses at new scenes not in the various trailers and tv spots. Like the bit about "beard capture technology".
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Running Time

In the latest issue of Empire Magazine (5 covers to left) that is now out on newstands, Peter Jackson revealed the running time of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey as about 2 hours 40 minutes. It might change by a few minutes once visual effects and credit scroll is completed.

“It’s looking like it’s going to be about ten minutes shorter than Fellowship was,” explains Jackson. “So it’s going to be officially our shortest Middle-earth yet. I mean, Fellowship was just under three hours and this is about 2 hours 40 minutes at the moment.” The “at the moment” refers to the fact that the credits hadn’t yet been added and not all effects shots finalised when we spoke to Jackson, but it’s going to be close.

The Hobbit Mixed for Dolby Atmos Sound Technology

Dolby and Peter Jackson have issued a press release (below) announcing that select theaters will have the sound of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey mixed in Dolby Atmos technology. The official list has not been released. As for why it matters, beats me as I am not an audiophile but I assume the latest in sound tech can't be a bad thing, assuming your local theater supports it (most don't yet). Press release:

The Great Goblin Revealed?

The One Ring has put together what appears to be convincing proof of the designed look (left) for the animitronic and CGI character The Great Goblin from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The info is a combined from a leak card from a French Tolkien site and an action figure leak. The Great Goblin is ruler of the Misty Mountains goblins that Bilbo and the Dwarves meet after being captured and before the fateful meeting between Bilbo and Gollum. As the image shows, the character will be quite unpleasant to look at once post-production does their magic.

The Hobbit Wraps Principle Photography

Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (out 12/14/2012) and The Hobbit: There and Back Again (out 12/13/2013) have official wrapped. After 266 shoot days, The Hobbit has ended principle photography in New Zealand and now enters the long road of post-production. Weta and their team of magicians will do their work with editing, visual effects, sound effects, and a whole lot more. The actors may be mostly done but Peter Jackson and the crew is just getting started.
From Peter Jackson's Facebook page:

We made it! Shoot day 266 and the end of principal photography on The Hobbit. Thanks to our fantastic cast and crew for getting us this far, and to all of you for your support! Next stop, the cutting room. Oh, and Comic Con!
Cheers, Peter J

Congrats to the cast and crew of The Hobbit.

Jackson Considering New Sound Format for The Hobbit

It seems being revolutionizing how films are played by going with 48 frames per second isn't enough of a challenge for Peter Jackson. He is also considering using The Hobbit films for the new Dolby Atmos Audio format. While Pixar's Brave will be the first to use it, The Hobbit will probably be the most ambitious film on the slate for new audio format. Right now only a few dozen theatres are able to play it with long term plans of making it at ubiquitous as the Dolby 5.1 format with it supported by theatres and home devices.

“Dolby are coming down to New Zealand to give us a demonstration,” Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter. “Our particular postproduction schedule is reasonably tight (but) three dimensional sound would be fantastic. If we can do it I would be pretty keen.”

The Dolby Atmos format is developed to create “lifelike” and “immersive” sound and involves the placement of speakers all around an auditorium as well as across the ceiling. The system is designed to transmit up to 128 simultaneous and lossless audio channels, and renders from 5.1 up to 64 discrete speaker feeds, according to Dolby.