HOBBIT: Last Day of Shooting PJ Blogging All Day!

Tim here, and it looks like today is the last day of shooting on The Hobbit films. This information comes from Peter Jackson's Facebook Page, and as a surprise treat Peter Jackson has promised to blog from the set all day! He started off with a picture (left) from his iPad and a note. Below is his first blog note:

Our last day of shooting.

Ever since starting these blogs, there's been something I thought I'd like to try one day (as well as answering the other 19 questions I owe you!) - blogging throughout a shoot day in real time. Try to give you all a feeling for what we deal with on an average day.

Today is not exactly "average", given it's our last day of shooting, but if I don't do it today, I never will!

So here goes ... I'll try to update as much as I can during the day. At least with a quick photo. Text will depend a little on how busy it gets.

Right now, it's just gone 6.30am here in Wellington. I'm in bed, about to get up! I didn't get much sleep - too stressed about how we're going to get through everything we need to shoot. I kept running it over in my mind.

We're shooting scenes for Film 3 today. Stuff you will see in Dec 2014, so I'm going to try and make this honest, but spoiler free.

I've been lying here in pitch darkness, watching fight rehearsals over and over again. Our stunt co-ordinatior, Glen Boswell, worked with the actors last weekend, designing some climatic battle moments. He filmed them, and I have them on my iPad, in an application we wrote called "WingNut TV". It's a program that allows a huge amount of material to be catalog used and updated each day over the Internet. It contains all our dailies, edited films, previs, music, and much more. I'm looking at the fights, figuring out the angles I'll need to film them today. A huge amount to do, and it needs to get done.

Our shoot day starts at 8.30am, and is supposed to finish at 7.30pm. I suspect we'll be working late. Whenever we work a long day, I joke with the crew that I'm just softening them up for when Jim Cameron shows up in Wellington to shoot Avatar 2 and 3. Well ... It's not really a joke.

I'll try and update often today.

Make sure to check in regularly to see what more he posts! We'll post a recap when he finishes all his posts. Also, don't forget to scroll down to see the pic he posted yesterday of him with the early release model of the next generation RED camera... "The Dragon"

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits IMAX 3D and RealD 3D theaters December 13^th, 2013, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again hits IMAX 3D and RealD 3D theaters December 17^th, 2014.

MUST MUST WATCH: Wellington NZ Gets WELLYWOOD Sign!!

Hey guys watch this! Amazing story out of Wellington, New Zealand...

A good friend of mine, Kevin who lives on the island nation and is a visual effects artist in the industry (yes 3D movies!) sent me this rather cool story about their major new development, the Wellywood sign.

Made to pay homage to the Hollywood sign obviously, the project has had quite a bit of controversy in Kiwi and this special report covers all of that AND MORE...

Check it out!

First Casting Call For THE HOBBIT This Weekend!!!

YES - we are finally here! The first official casting call for THE HOBBIT happens this weekend in Wellington, New Zealand. Yet still no "official" green light...

From stuff.co.nz: The Hobbit casting department advertised in The Dominion Post yesterday for "short and tall" people for a preliminary casting call to take place at the Te Whaea National Dance and Drama Centre in Newtown on Sunday.

They are on the lookout for men aged 16 and over who are 1.23 metres (4ft) to 1.58m (5ft 2in) tall or over 2.03m (6ft 8in). Women, aged 16 or over, must be between 1.2m and 1.53m.

The casting call is not for the many extras that are likely to be needed for the two-part film, but for people to play "scale doubles" for the speaking cast.

A Jackson spokesman said actors playing hobbits and dwarves would be normal adult size. "Scale doubles appear in some wide shots in place of our actors and with other adult actors when we need people to look smaller or taller."

The casting call was for people who fitted those heights. Those that did not would be turned away. There would be other casting calls at a later date for different roles.

More than 4000 extras were cast for The Lord of the Rings.

Despite the casting call, The Hobbit had yet to get the official green light to begin full pre-production and shooting.

"But we do need to be prepared in the event that we get one. That means having a little look around Wellington for scale doubles," the spokesman said.

Baby steps people. Or better said, Hobbit steps. We are getting there! More info when I get it...

Exclusive: Photo Of New Weta Sound Stages Nearing Completion AND THE HOBBIT Coverage Kicks Off!!

Jim here. I am officially starting MarketSaw coverage on THE HOBBIT as of right NOW. :-)

There seems to be enough activity to warrant scaling up spy activities for our readers and may I say the wait has been arduous! WAIT NO MORE. lol.

I heard back from one of my better sources connected with THE HOBBIT and it seems that because the movie is not going to be 2D (which would have had a July'ish start), it will be ramping up in the November time frame as more prep is needed for S3D. This is not just from my source either - this is the word from the film community, set people and vfx folks. Another reason for the delay is the obvious financial issues with MGM (TORn has a good recent article on this).

The project itself is EXTREMELY quiet right now - to get this information out was very difficult. The cone of silence has definitely been lowered over this project and justifiably so; the world is holding its breath for more Middle-earth news.

That said, we can start talking about a couple of things: Sound stages AND Hobbiton - their construction is well underway. Amazing that there is no official green light as of yet on this thing because there is definitely money being spent!

The new sound stages on the film lot are almost finished and it looks like two large rooms under one roof with the potential of connecting the two.

One of our intrepid spies managed a shot of the exterior of the buildings.

Are we sure they are part of the lot? Yes! Walls are being torn down and ramps built to the central parking lot / production buildings on the opposite side.

One can almost imagine the giant green screens eventually being positioned within the new buildings to help create the dragon Smaug interacting with our adventuresome hobbits.

And what about Hobbiton? TORn has some great shots of how Hobbiton is being groomed for action! Check out one of the shots here and click on over to TORn for the rest.

Apparently a team of 60 has started work breaking new ground on Hobbit holes. Seems we may be able to actually enter these ones as they are significantly larger that the originals.

Keep it right here on MarketSaw as we activate our embedded assets in Wellywood :-) It is time to cover THE HOBBIT!!

Wellywood First To See AVATAR In 3D

Jim here. We now know who will be first to see AVATAR on AVATAR Day and it is justifiably Wellington, New Zealand. There will be three screenings of the 15 minutes of AVATAR at the Readings Courtenay Central Cinema on Friday, August 21 @ 11:45am, 12:30pm and 1:15pm.

From the press release:

Twentieth Century Fox New Zealand general manager Mark Croft says Wellington will see the scenes ahead of the rest of New Zealand in recognition of the fact that the film was largely made in Wellington. Live-action filming by US production company Lightstorm took place in Peter Jackson’s Stone Street Studios and the large amount of computer-generated work was done by world-leading visual effects facility Weta Digital. Both companies are based in Miramar.

Croft says, “We like the idea of bringing the film back to where it came from and want to pay tribute to all of the highly skilled creative people involved in this extraordinary film.”

The free tickets will be available at the cinema 45 minutes before each screening (see below for screening times) and Croft advises people to secure their tickets early as demand is likely to be strong.

The trailer for the film will begin playing in cinemas around New Zealand on the same day, in line with the worldwide reveal of AVATAR, during which selected countries will see the scenes and the trailer for the first time. The film opens in New Zealand cinemas on December 17, when we will again be the first country in the world due to our time zone.

Each country seems to be doing their own thing, so it is hard to anticipate what will be happening where you live. I agree completely with Wellington getting the first light with all the work the creative talent has put into it. Stay tuned for more updates!

Quick Post: "Avatar" Shooting To Wrap By February 22nd

Just a fast post for you 3D Avatar fans out there: Principle shooting in Wellington, New Zealand will wrap by February 22nd, 2008. With the release date in December, 2009 - James Cameron is giving Weta is getting loads of time to deliver a top notch, effects laden sci-fi spectacle. Barring call backs, Sam Worthington will be free to jump ship to Terminator 4 with Christian Bale. Jeez I wish McG would make Terminator in 3D - that would seriously rock.

Updated Set Photo From James Cameron's 3D "Avatar" Set!

Here is a rather interesting "Avatar" set photo taken by "Cupid Stunt" over on his blog. Apparently he lives quite close to the set in Wellington, New Zealand and took this photo from his home! Awesome. He says that he was closer without his camera earlier, but will try to again get some closer shots when possible. Here's hoping!

Click for a larger image!

Looks like some sort of HUGE lighting device is being hung over the whole outdoor green screen set (remember, they are 4 stories high and built with shipping containers! View earlier shots here and here) No problem if they need to simulate daylight... or perhaps the light of an alien world?

Updated Avatar Exterior Photo & More...

Some very cool images coming from a blogger from a recent trip to Jacksonville, err... Wellington, New Zealand.

He did some tours of the area including some great photos of him in the same locales as scenes from Lord of the Rings. Apparently the tours bring along a laptop computer with the LOTR trilogy on DVD and they play the scene where the sets used to be; tourists can stand where the characters did and pose for photos. Here are some photos from him showing us more update to date Avatar set exteriors (looks much more busier there now than earlier shots!), the Park Road Building, and the Weta studio exterior. Take a closer look at the bottom image - The Weta sign is kinda dark and in behind some sort of creature's head (maybe it's just a dog?). Check 'em out...

Avatar: Is The Schedule Really Slipping? No Sign Of Weekend Shooting...

Exclusive: Parts of the James Cameron 3D epic Avatar may be lagging behind, some more than others. As confirmed in this previous MarketSaw exclusive post, Michelle Rodriguez's segments are only one day behind thus far and that my insider's segments are delayed until mid-November.

Now comes a report from my Avatar production insider that there was no activity this past Saturday at all on the set in Wellington, New Zealand. Weekend production is just not happening. "Looks like they are taking the weekends off, no obvious signs of filming last Saturday".

This seems strange to me. If you have that kind of investment ($200 million) tied up in production and labor, real deadlines to meet (Rodriguez has a very hard stop on Christmas Eve for instance) and looming strikes (writers just walked), I would kinda want to get going and kick it up to 16 hours x 7 days a week. Why are we seeing a slowdown? Doesn't make sense to me at all really.

What's missing here? Something. Keep an eye here on MarketSaw and I will update you the second I know.

SAME DAY UPDATE: Michelle Rodriguez has been spotted at the Wellington airport on Nov. 4th by Flickr' Elaine. Rodriguez has also been at the Pukekohe races (V8race) which is up near Auckland. So that's a fair amount of away time from the set if you ask me. You just don't have time to sightsee and travel if you are knee-deep in production. I understand that the official word from Michelle's camp is that she is working on Avatar - I'm am just trying to get to the bottom of whether or not they are on schedule or not. Again, my guess is NOT.

More when I get it!

Breaking: New Photos of Avatar Set in New Zealand

Folks - there is a massive green screen erected in Wellington for James Cameron's Avatar epic as well as production signs up - though not much hint of the "font" being used for titling! They are using containers from the nearby port to support the massive 180 degree outdoor set. The screens appear to be about 30' to 40' high.

Check out the images on this Flickr account.

Will update with more as they appear!