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 Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Sneak Peek, Fan Event Video and New Poster

Today was a good day for The Hobbit fans. Warner Bros held a "fan event" (1st video below) for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug that let people at four theaters ask questions to the cast and crew. Those that participated included Evangeline Lilly, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis, Peter Jackson, Luke Evans, and others. During the event a sneak peak was shown (2nd video) as was production video #12 (3rd video below). Last but not least a new poster is out that shows off all the new cast members.

Highlights from the fan event:
- The 10 weeks of pickups over the summer included filming the Battle of Five Armies and footage for Desolation of Smaug.
- Evangeline Lilly said Tinkerbell influences how she played Tauriel as "she's tiny and she's cute but she is fierce. You do not wanna get on the wrong side of Tink." She figured since her character is young by elf standards, she tried to avoid copying Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett.
- Even though Legolas is 60 years younger than age in Lord of the Rings, for an elf those 60 years are a "blink of an eye" so had no influence on how played character.
- Luke Evans explained that while it appears he is holding his bow incorrectly, it is actually correct for that type of bow due to the longer arrows.
- Said the last day of the shoot was emotional due to goodbyes to cast and crew and more but "underneath it all is a sense of relief" as moves on to post production on "putting the second movie together" which he was looking forward too.
- Never released a blooper reel for Lord of the Rings but open to the idea. Main problem is a bunch of 35mm film to go through to find them and the quality of the images will likely be similar to VHS

The Hobbit Production Video #11

Peter Jackson has posted his next production diary from the set of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. To start Jackson reveals that he will not be doing anything for San Diego Comic-Con, something he traditionally does try to participate in to promote his movies. From there its welcome to the world of green screen with quick cuts of scenes being filmed, sets and the like being rebuilt with most of it coming from storage when the the films wrapped the first time. The Hobbit actors begin their training for new fight scenes including The Battle of Five Armies (but no scenes) as that will be the finale of trilogy. He also shows an interesting example of a pick-up where a riverside scene was filmed for real the first time and later "picked-up" on a lot set that re-creates that river side rock structures. There is also a look at "new" cast members Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), and Luke Evans (Bard)
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The Hobbit Production Video Coming Soon

Peter Jackson has taken to his Facebook page to update the status on the production videos (coming soon). He also posted the image of Jimmy Nesbitt (Bofur) wearing webs as the Dwarfs prep to film whatever is next. My guess is the scene is involves the Mirkwood Forest and its giant spiders that we will see in Desolation of Smaug this December.

Any day you can cover the wonderful Jimmy Nesbitt and his fellow dwarves in cobwebs is a good day! Work continues on pick ups here in Wellington, with a new video blog in the final stages of post and out very soon!

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 Production Video #8 - Final Days of Filming

As Peter Jackson promised during the 2012 San Diego Comic Con, the production video #8 has been released. The video provides a behind the scenes look at The Hobbit panel held that Saturday. The video teases some of the bits shown during the con (mostly the cast/crew greetings) while the rest focuses on the final days of production with look at the sets, Andy Serkis last day directing 2nd unit, final day of principle photography and a whole lot more. If interested, I have compiled video links to more then 100 panels that were held during the con here.

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The Hobbit Production Video #7

After a three month drought, Peter Jackson has posted to Facebook a new production video. This video is a tour of the Stone Street Studio in Maramar, New Zealand. It is a tour of departments and crew that supports the filming of The Hobbit. Various actors and crewman showed off the many departments including stunts, hair & makeup, costumes, various stages, art department, and the list keeps going. It was a great snippet of behind the scenes footage that just some of the filming without the usual sales pitches that 99.9% of behind the scenes stuff inflict on us. These diaries just let the work speak for themselves. Something other film productions (and DVD/Blu-ray extra creators) could learn from. Pictures have been posted here.
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The Hobbit Production Video #6

Peter Jackson has posted the first The Hobbit Production Video for 2012 (but sixth total). The video is part 2 of the on location shooting around New Zealand as production moved on from Hobbiton. It gives you a good look at all the characters in their character makeup including the Dwarves and Bilbo. Also amazing to see the wide variety of locations that can be repurposed for the two Hobbit movies over the next two years. In addition Andy Serkis (Gollum) is back, but now in the role of 2nd unit director. Amazingly, despite showing off these beautiful locations, it reveals essentially nothing about the movies story details.
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The Hobbit Production Video #5

As promised by Peter Jackson, here is a Christmas gift for fans with The Hobbit Production Video #5 posted on his Facebook page. This edition explores the logistics of on location shooting as production moves all over New Zealand to film scenes. The is no minor task as for all intents this become a moving town as need to move all the cast and crew, make sure food and lodging is available, everything that is needed as far as props, costume, and makeup, and so much more. It is an immense undertaking but as the video shows as they arrive at Hobbiton, it is worth it.
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The Hobbit Production Video #4

It took over three months but the fourth production video (or diary take your pick) has been posted on Director Peter Jackson's Facebook page. The wait is worth it as this video focuses on using 3D for filming with lots of looks at the sets and the many actors in full character makeup so a nice look at the new Bilbo, the Dwarves, Gandalf (with sword) and more. It’s also cool to see the highly detailed sets, costumes and makeup. The attention to detail is extraordinary. One part of the video focused on the creation of the film's concept art (while blurring out the dozens of images on the walls). Also showed how the artists created 3D art, literally drawing images twice but one colored red, the other blue so can combine to create a 3D image for the classic 3D glasses of old.

The Hobbit Production Video #3

Peter Jackson has posted Production Diary #3 to Facebook and official The Hobbit blog. The behind the scenes look shows that the second block of filming has begun with Peter Jackson at Pinewood Studios in the Great Britain as he works with the legendary Christopher Lee. Meanwhile in New Zealand we get a look at the cast and crew prepping and getting together in full costume and makeup. Previous videos - #1 | #2

The Hobbit Production Video #2 (Updated)

Peter Jackson's Facebook page has posted Production Video #2 for The Hobbit. The first one was posted back in April when principle photography began on the two movies. This one covers the end of the first block of filming with the cast and crew talking about how they are going to spend their time off along with Jackson and others prepping for the second block with location scouting. Below is standard def video, the HD version can be found here.

Update:: The One Ring has a frame by frame analysis of the video that highlights a few visual goodies that were on display in the background during many of the interviews. That can be found here.

The Hobbit Production Video #1

As promised, Sir Peter Jackson has posted the first video blog from The Hobbit production on his Facebook page. The behind the scenes video is introduced by Peter Jackson on the Bag End set. From there the 10 minute video shows snippets of lot of events having around the production with weapons, costumes, stunt prep, Elrond's chamber and a whole lot more. Best part is seeing the entire core cast (not in makeup), including Sir Ian McKellen around Bilbo's table as they block a scene. The end is especially a moment for The Lord of the Rings fans to geek out on.