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Old 11-02-2011, 07:37 AM  
bevischief bevischief is offline
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The Hobbit

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An Unexpected Journey: Quint on the set of The Hobbit! Part 1 - Concerning Hobbiton

Published at: Oct 31, 2011 6:13:46 AM CDT

SPOILER ALERT !!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here currently writing from the overgrown wilds of New Zealand’s North Island. I’ve been rather secretive about my trip to the southern hemisphere and for that I apologize, but it had to be done.

Here’s the deal. I’m kicking off a new, temporary, regular column that I’m calling An Unexpected Journey because that’s exactly what it is. A little over a month ago an email arrived asking of my interest in embedding myself on the set of The Hobbit for the entirety of their location shoot, spending over 2 months in New Zealand rolled in with the crew and writing up their adventures, hassles, triumphs and tribulations as they traveled all over the country shooting bits and pieces from the upcoming two-parter prequel to Lord of the Rings. As Winston Zeddemore taught us all, the answer to this kind of question is always YES!

Calling The Hobbit a prequel doesn’t exactly feel right, though. This isn’t a film cooked up to cash in on an absurdly successful franchise. As most Tolkien readers and human beings over the age of 7 know, The Hobbit burst forth from the pen of JRR Tolkien first. There are many Middle Earth stories, but The Hobbit is the natural choice. It’s high adventure and lets us revisit some of our favorite locations and characters within its own, unique story.

Case in point, the very first location visited on this trip: Matamata, Waikato, New Zealand – North Island, also known as Hobbiton.









Gorgeous, isn’t it? As amazing as it looks in those pictures or in the movies there’s something incredibly surreal and humbling to stand ON TOP of Bag End and overlook The Shire. I love (good) CGI, I have a lot of respect for the digital artists that toil away for hours and days and weeks and months in a dark room so we can go to Ancient Greece or Pandora or spend some time with Jurassic Park dinosaurs or Gollum or Caesar or those fookin’ prawns, but if there was ever a shred of doubt that real wins it was obliterated as the sheep bayed, horses neighed, wind blew and smoke started pouring out of hobbit hole chimneys dotting the lush green landscape in the valley below me.





And when I say green I mean GREEN. The grass in this North Island New Zealand farmland is like Wizard of Oz Technicolor. It’s so bright it almost hurts the eyes.

But we all know New Zealand is beautiful. That’s a given at this point. By the end of December you’ll be given your fill of unbelievable scenery images as I travel from location to location (especially when I hit the South Island). Let’s get into what was actually happening in Hobbiton.

Wake up time was 5:15am, which barely gave me enough time to get showered and presentable before making the 40+ minute drive from my Hamilton hotel to the location deep in the rolling green hills of Matamata.

Once past security I found myself driving along a small dirt and gravel road following signs to crew parking. Sure enough, the countryside was beautiful and Tolkeinesque, but it wasn’t until I made a turn and saw the incredibly iconic stone bridge leading to The Green Dragon that it really struck me where I was.

That feeling intensified standing at base camp, perched on top of Bag End, looking over Hobbiton with dozens of Hobbit holes laid out over acres of green hills and the massive party tree anchored in the middle of everything.

The crew was setting up a crane out on the narrow walkway in front of Bag End for their first shot actually in Hobbiton in over 10 years. Because of the narrow and steep path down, the crew had to bring crane parts down and assemble much of it there. It took a little while, but before too long the familiar circular green front door of Bag End cracked open and out stepped an even more familiar face.

Munching on jellied toast, Frodo Baggins sauntered out and hopped down the steps leading to the mailbox, grabbed some mail and headed back inside.





What’s Frodo doing in The Hobbit? I don’t want to spoil too much, but I can say that Frodo is part of the connecting tissue between The Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring.

In fact, the next shot was an over the shoulder on Elijah Wood hammering a sign up on Bag End’s front gate: “No Admittance Except On Party Business.” You guys should have an idea where that puts this moment in the timeline.

Martin Freeman stood in for Ian Holm, who shot all of his scenes and close-ups in London. They would sometimes play footage they’ve already shot to remind themselves of what they had done previously and to help them match up shots. Peter and crew did that for these reverse shots on Elijah and I got to see Ian as Bilbo once again. It was quite extraordinary, actually. Seeing Ian in close up, wearing the wig, the vest and the pointy ears just put a smile on my face.

While I didn’t talk to Elijah about it, I bet it meant the world to him to have Martin there actually giving a performance for him to act off of. Freeman even adopted a little bit of Ian Holm’s speech patterns for these scenes and was so good at impersonating Ian Holm that more than once I wondered if the voice I was hearing over the coms was Ian’s on playback or Martin’s in real life. Usually in these situations they’ll have the script girl or one of the dialect coaches read the lines and while that works a charm, there’s something extra special about a performer giving a performance. Like I said, I didn’t talk to Elijah about it, but I bet he appreciated Martin doing that for him.

Their conversation is about Gandalf and if Bilbo thinks Gandalf will show up. Bilbo says “He wouldn’t miss a chance to let off his whiz-poppers. He’ll put on quite a show, you’ll see,” and Frodo grins, saying he’s going to go surprise him and bounds off down the path like a kid at Christmas. When I say he bounds down the path that’s not an exaggeration for illustrative purposes. He was damn near skipping, a glimpse of that pre-ring Frodo we meet in Fellowship.

After Frodo leaves the frame is very wide featuring The Shire in all its glory; The Green Dragon and mill smack dab in the middle.





It’s my understanding this shot will transition to “60 Years Earlier” with Young Bilbo sitting in front of Bag End contently smoking a pipe and casually blowing smoke rings as Gandalf comes along and presents him with his adventure.

At lunch I caught up with Elijah who was wide-eyed and smiling, obviously enjoying being back in Hobbiton with the furry feet on. He ran off and I said, “Where do you think you’re going?” His reply: “Back to Bag End, my friend!”

I had to run over to wardrobe to get fitted for my cameo the next day, but soon made my way back to set. We had the same scene going and this time they had the camera tight on Frodo. While it was a tighter shot than before, it still captured the landscape behind him. I mean, that’s the whole reason we were out there in the first place, so I wasn’t going to see a whole lot of close-ups and insert shots being filmed. In this case, it was a full on front shot of Frodo, the massive Party Tree behind him.

Seeing the footage of Ian as Old Bilbo was crazy, but nothing compared to seeing Elijah as Frodo in the furry-footed flesh. I’ve gotten to know Elijah pretty well over the last 13 years and it was the very definition of surreal talking to Frodo. Not Elijah. Frodo. I was literally not talking to a friend, but a fictional character, not to mention the magnifier of actually seeing him in Hobbiton.





I have to talk about the livestock. This will be the first time I’ve traveled internationally where I will have to check off the Yes box when asked if I’ve been near livestock on the arrival card. All forms of livestock were on set. There was even a runaway cow who decided she didn’t like the film business on the first take and bolted right the hell out of Hobbiton.

It was quite funny, actually. I feel bad for the production having to pause, but from my high-up point of view (remember I was standing on top of the hill overlooking Hobbiton this whole day) it was very entertaining watching this cow haul ass along the path between the hobbit holes with a poor A.D. running about 20 feet behind her, desperately trying to catch up.

There were all manner of animals on the set ranging from goats to roosters, pigs, oxen, horses and all of them had handlers there to make sure they were fed, watered and safely munching on the lush green grass of Matamata. They would quickly duck out of frame whenever shots would go up.

Shortly after getting the shot on Frodo the unmistakable sound of chopper blades hit our ears. It was circling us. Obviously someone had hired it to fly above and take photos of the set.

An hour or two later a small, single-engine prop plane did the same thing, flying low and circling. Photos hit the net shortly after, I noticed. The crew was quite annoyed, not because Hobbiton was being exposed to the world, but because the choppers and planes were constantly getting in the shot and the sound of the engines was either ruining takes or making the production halt until they got out of earshot… which could be a long while if they are circling.

So, it was an unwanted intrusion, especially frustrating when you consider they were already waiting for the light to be right, to get behind a cloud or peak out from behind a cloud depending on the previous shot.

It got to the point that producer Zane Weiner asked me to take a photo of the plane so we can try to get its tail number. I had the 18mm-55mm lens on my camera (which means it’s a shorter lens and doesn’t zoom in too far), so I ran back to my bag, grabbed my 200mm lens and popped it on, but I was too late. The plane had already gone. Zane wanted me to let you guys know I failed at that particular task. And on my first day of location reporting, too.

That was one day of location shooting on The Hobbit. One day down, two months to go! Before I conclude this article, I’d like to set up a little space where I’ll be featuring a member of the crew. God willing I’ll be able to do this with each of my pieces, introducing you to the fine folks who I spend my days with. These guys are the unsung heroes of filmmaking, so I feel they should be represented.

Kicking things off will be Kiran Shah.





If you’ve watched the appendices on the Extended Editions of the Lord of the Rings films you should recognize Kiran’s name. He’s a much loved character around the set. He’s an actor, stunt man and scale double. On Rings he doubled Elijah Wood, but before Lord of the Rings he had a massive career.

For instance, he’s in Raiders of the Lost Ark… he’s the guy who brings the poisoned dates into Indy and Sallah. He doubled Short Round in Temple of Doom, he was a character in Ridley Scott’s Legend (Blunder) and even knew Stanley Kubrick.

The story he told me was that he got to know Kubrick a little bit, but even being on friendly terms with the maestro didn’t save him when he popped in for a visit on the set of Eyes Wide Shut. Stanley spotted him and said, “Kiran, out!” We all know the stories about how Kubrick didn’t like a lot of crew around and that was Kiran’s little tale about it.

He also mentioned that LOTR and Hobbit illustrator/designer Alan Lee did the character designs for Legend and even drew the character that Shah ended up playing to look just like him. Shah attributes getting the role to Lee because he remembered auditioning for it and seeing Ridley Scott do a double take when Shah entered the room, looking back at the character design and up at him again.

In The Hobbit, Shah is up to his usual shenanigans, making the crew (and visiting movie geek reporters) crack up in-between takes and doubling hobbits. In the above picture he’s waiting to double Martin Freeman’s Bilbo, which is why his eyes are reverse raccooned in his picture. There’s an eerie silicone mask of Bilbo’s face that he’ll put on when Bilbo is needed to be seen in a close to correct proportion.

Shah will also be a Goblin in the film and is just an overall joy to be around and as such he is this column’s inaugural featured crew member.

The next report will cover my cameo appearance during a Hobbit market in front of The Green Dragon. There is a particular actor in this scene named Leroy that I’m especially excited to tell you about. He has huge talents and that’s even an understatement. I expect that report to land in a few days, but taking my own pictures means a bit of a clearance process.

I know the watermarks are annoying. I hate them, you hate them, so I made them as unintrusive as possible. If I see a bunch of sites take these images without credit and a linkback future pictures will have bigger watermarks. So, don’t be a dick. I don’t care if you use the image, just give a link back here, will ya’? Don’t ruin it for everybody.





More soon! This is going to be a crazy couple of months! Oh, and Happy Birthday to Peter Jackson! Thanks for letting me join the circus for a spell, sir!

-Eric Vespe
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Old 03-26-2013, 08:51 AM   #406
Deberg_1990 Deberg_1990 is offline
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Was the white Orc thing chasing them around even in the book?
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Old 03-26-2013, 08:52 AM   #407
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Was the white Orc thing chasing them around even in the book?
No.
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Old 03-26-2013, 09:30 AM   #408
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Originally Posted by Deberg_1990 View Post
Was the white Orc thing chasing them around even in the book?

There is a passing reference to the orc, Azog, in the book The Hobbit. He is discussed far more extensively in the appendices to the Lord of the Rings, but canon would be that Azog was dead by the time the events of the Lord of hte Rings took place. He died in the battle of Azanulbizar (the battle in the movie where Thorin picks up the oak branch and therefore gets his nickname. Azog's son rules the goblins until the Battle of Five Armies, which will appear later in the current set of movies Jackson is doing.

But really all he did was keep an existing orc alive and turn him into an identifiable bad guy, which isn't too bad since otherwise the orcs are not too different from a plague of locusts -- nameless, faceless, numerous and bad news.
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:54 AM   #409
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errr...wait -- when does he blast hundreds of bad guys away in one shot of light?

The short of the short of the answer is that Gandalf is a Maia, basically a demi-god, similar in KIND (but not necessarily power) to Sauron, the Balrogs and the other wizards. His "power" is much more in the nature of being very wise and being able to lift the spirits of those who have little/no hope. This isn't Harry Potter or D&D, where wizards can blow stuff up. Gandalf does have a powerful magic ring which was given to him which is attuned to fire, which gives him much more control/ability in that area than might otherwise be the case.



Yes, well, you're not the first to think of that...


Well, he didn't blast hundreds away (maybe it was a dozen or so)?, I was exaturating. Nonetheless, the movies don't do a good job at explaining Gandalfs power, (Unless I missed something). I admit, I haven't watched the LOTR trilogy in years.

I suppose the books fill some of the voids I've had in understanding some movie parts.

That little video was pretty cool too.
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Old 03-26-2013, 11:56 AM   #410
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Originally Posted by Molitoth View Post
Well, he didn't blast hundreds away (maybe it was a dozen or so)?, I was exaturating. Nonetheless, the movies don't do a good job at explaining Gandalfs power, (Unless I missed something). I admit, I haven't watched the LOTR trilogy in years.

I suppose the books fill some of the voids I've had in understanding some movie parts.

That little video was pretty cool too.

yea, i havent watched them in awhile either, but it seems like Gandalf the white was more powerful than the grey?
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:04 PM   #411
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Well, he didn't blast hundreds away (maybe it was a dozen or so)?, I was exaturating. Nonetheless, the movies don't do a good job at explaining Gandalfs power, (Unless I missed something). I admit, I haven't watched the LOTR trilogy in years.

I suppose the books fill some of the voids I've had in understanding some movie parts.

That little video was pretty cool too.

Actually, the books are very vague about the "magical" powers of both elves and wizards. Some are easy and obvious -- talking to animals, an ability to persuade others (especially Saruman, but also Gandalf, in terms of lifting their spirits), and deep knowledge/understanding/wisdom (not really a power).

But Melian the maia (a demi-god similar to Gandalf/Sauron) literally "hid" an entire kingdom from the bad guys. They would try to enter, get really confused, basically, and wander out again, without penetrating the borders. Much of the elves' "power" is in growing things and nature -- nothing to do with war or fighting at all.

What isn't covered in the movies at all is that Elves and wizards would exert their power through singing. Luthien, the beautiful elf, sang and danced in such a way that it made Morgoth, a full blown God (the master of Sauron and the Balrogs and creator of Orcs and Dragons) and all his followers fall asleep, so that she and Beren could steal a Silmaril and escape.

But yes, very, very little "flash-bang" kind of magic. VERY little.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:12 PM   #412
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yea, i havent watched them in awhile either, but it seems like Gandalf the white was more powerful than the grey?

Yes, without question. The real question is how?

What happened in the immediate aftermath of Gandalf battling the Balrog is hard to understand/explain, and open to interpretation. The way I usually explain it is that Gandalf also died (at least his body did -- he's a demi-God -- he's older than the planet he's walking on) -- and when his spirit returned to the West, the Gods pretty much picked him up, brushed him off, made him a bit more powerful (dont' ask how, other than making him the head of the Order of Wizards) and sent him back. Like Tom Bombadil (who is in the books, but not the movies), there's really no good explanation, but that's how I think of it.

The idea of the body of a god/demigod (Valar/Maiar is the formal name) beign lost but the spirit continuing appears repeatedly in the books. Sauron loses his body (which was attractive and used to fool men/elves) in the drowning of Numenor. He then takes shape again during the Second Age, before he is overthrown by Men and Elves (the opening scene of the Lord of the Rings movies, when you see his ring cut from his hand. Likewise, Morgoth himself was previously able to take whatever physical form he wished, but ultimately lost that power and became trapped, if you will, in the body that he had.

Note also that Sauron never had ANY actual physical manifestation in the Lord of the Rings books. In the movie he is this big, physical glowing Eye. In the books, the Eye is his SYMBOL only, and he has no physical shape at all. Presumably, if he had been able to recover the One Ring, which held much of his power, he could perhaps have physically manifested again. Until then, in the books at least, it is his SPIRIT that is active in the world, controlling his minions, etc.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:19 PM   #413
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Still haven't seen this. I assume that if they hold to form, in about five or six months they'll come out with an expanded, extra footage blu-ray, so I guess I'll hold out for that.

Or maybe not. Having a hard time convincing myself this is anything more than a ginormous cash grab.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:29 PM   #414
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I don't know about the earlier part but the Eagles wouldn't go closer because they are afraid of the dragon.
And I believe in the book he has to be close to the Misty Mountains to call them and there is a delay while the moth or whatever creature he picks flies to the eagles and they come for pick up.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:30 PM   #415
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Still haven't seen this. I assume that if they hold to form, in about five or six months they'll come out with an expanded, extra footage blu-ray, so I guess I'll hold out for that.

Or maybe not. Having a hard time convincing myself this is anything more than a ginormous cash grab.
I read recently they're planning to release an extended cut late this year to ramp up excitement for Part 2.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:32 PM   #416
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First off, let me state I've never read the books.
Second, I know this is fantasy world.


But I just don't understand the powers of Gandolf.

One minute he can hold up his staff and blast hundreds of bad guys away in one shot of light, and the next minute he is running like a pussy from some goblins. Did his mana pool need to regenerate? Is there downtime on certain spells?

In the hobbit, he calls in a bunch of birds to come lift them off away from danger....

Why didn't Gandalf call the birds from get go, so they could've made their way to the dwarf mountain a shit load faster while avoiding all of that danger?
Why did the birds drop them off on a cliff that was still miles away from their destination instead of taking them closer?

I suppose with my logic, there wouldn't be a gazillion books.... but that kind of stuff bothers me.
You don't make millions of dollars off of a 20 page book.
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Old 03-26-2013, 12:33 PM   #417
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Still haven't seen this. I assume that if they hold to form, in about five or six months they'll come out with an expanded, extra footage blu-ray, so I guess I'll hold out for that.

Or maybe not. Having a hard time convincing myself this is anything more than a ginormous cash grab.

Isn't nearly every movie made a ginormous cash grab? The only question is will I get entertainment value sufficient for the time and $$ I spend. Peter Jackson has always managed to answer that question with a YES! so grab away.
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Old 03-26-2013, 01:13 PM   #418
Frazod Frazod is offline
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Originally Posted by Amnorix View Post
Isn't nearly every movie made a ginormous cash grab? The only question is will I get entertainment value sufficient for the time and $$ I spend. Peter Jackson has always managed to answer that question with a YES! so grab away.
I understand that. But he's basically taking a single, short book and overloading it with enough extraneous crap to spread it into three long movies, and double-releasing the DVDs/blu-rays on top of it. That's greedy George Lucas bullshit. Had he made one movie, I'd have no problem with it.

How much of my money does this ****ing guy need?

And yes, I know the answer is AS MUCH AS I'LL GIVE HIM, SO START HANDING IT OVER.
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Old 03-26-2013, 01:20 PM   #419
keg in kc keg in kc is offline
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It's not the guy, it's the studio. He wanted to do two pics. They asked him to do three.
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Old 03-26-2013, 01:25 PM   #420
Deberg_1990 Deberg_1990 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frazod View Post
I understand that. But he's basically taking a single, short book and overloading it with enough extraneous crap to spread it into three long movies, and double-releasing the DVDs/blu-rays on top of it. That's greedy George Lucas bullshit. Had he made one movie, I'd have no problem with it.

How much of my money does this ****ing guy need?

And yes, I know the answer is AS MUCH AS I'LL GIVE HIM, SO START HANDING IT OVER.
Yea, it is what it is...a cash grab.


There is really nothing we as fans can do about it other than not pay. ( like thats gonna happen)


The people that make these "spectacle" movies put a ton of $$$ into them obviously. I cant really blame them for trying to maximize their investment.

The one thing i tell hollywood FU to is 3D. I refuse to pay for it now. IMO its not neccessary for enjoyment and in some cases intrusive. I like IMAX, but unfortunately most of the releases now are IMAX 3D.
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