Jared Connon is the supervising location manager for The Hobbit, and worked on The Lord Of The Rings.
The eagle-eyed film locations expert has worked in the film industry since he was 19, knows New Zealand like the back of his hand and is considered one of the best in the business. Connon has seen more remote parts of New Zealand than most fellow kiwis. He’s also very dedicated to the Māori ethos of kaitiakitanga — treading lightly on the land, treating it with respect and leaving it unspoiled for future generations.
In this feature, Connon speaks about location scouting, the logistical challenge of organising filming permissions and what makes a good location scout.
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If you’ve not heard of Nimpentoad, it’s a wonderful children’s fantasy story by Henry Herz and his young sons Josh and Harrison. It introduces young readers to stories that feed the imagination, taking them to a world fraught with adventure and incredible creatures. At the same time, it conveys important lessons about real-life issues such as bullying and teamwork, as well as the importance of leadership, selfless care for others, resourcefulness, and bravery.
The authors were at Comic-Con 2012 where TORn gave away a few copies of the book to con attendees. Here are a few photos of the young Josh and Harrison having fun on the Comic-Con floor — the shot with Richard Taylor is priceless!
[Photo gallery] | [Our review]
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Those who watched TORn’s live Comic Con HobbitCon feed might have Weta Workshop’s Greg Broadmore busy signing copies of his a graphic novel at the Weta Booth.
As a fan of Greg Broadmore’s Dr. Grordbort I thought I wouldn’t mind finding more about it. It turns out that he was signing his new goofy Dr. Grordbort graphic novel called “TRIUMPH: Unnecessarily Violent Tales of Science Adventure for the Simple and Unfortunate” (quite a mouthful). Published in hard-cover, it contains two gloriously illustrated stories following the misadventures of the brutish (British) space hero Lord Cockswain.
More tongue-in-cheek (and, warning, a trifle crude) retro/steampunk space action after the break:
Continue reading “Dr Grordbort: the misadventures of Lord Cockswain”
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Given the awe-inspiring miniatures and “bigatures” used for The Lord of the Rings, many of TORn’s members have been questioning (some with a pang of longing!) the decision to do away with miniature photography for The Hobbit, speculating the use of 3D may have had something to do with it.
Whilst poring over the numerous press interviews and Q&As conducted with Peter Jackson over the course of this weekend, we found the answer via Collider.com in PJ’s response to the question of what the biggest advances in technology have been since The Lord of the Rings. He says:
The technology that advanced the most, in the last 10 or 12 years, is really the fact that we did a lot of miniature shooting on The Lord of the Rings. All the big architectural structures of Middle Earth were really miniatures, some of them quite large. But, you’re limited to what you can do with a miniature because you literally have to have a big camera that has to sweep past it, so you can’t get too close to it and the detail doesn’t hold up too well, if you do.
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.
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Our own Cliff “Quickbeam” Broadway got the chance to have a few words with Richard Armitage in the Hall H press session. Armitage read The Hobbit as a young child of seven, and (among other things) spoke about the responsibility that comes with taking on a role in a universe with such depth that it feels like it could have existed.
Choice quote: “…and then actually putting the costume on and trying to make that character live and breath and walk and talk. It’s like you’re given this responsibility to every other person who’s read them, who’s reading the books for the first time or who has read them when they were seven. That’s the responsibility — and you have to own that for everyone.”
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Mike Fleming over at Deadline.com has a great Q&A with Peter Jackson post the 12.5 minute showing of the Hobbit Reel at Comic Con.
Read about PJ’s thoughts on how fate may have played a part in GDT’s having to step away from directing The Hobbit and PJ finally realizing that he himself may actually have been meant to direct these films (a belief held by GDT as well, as can be seen in his Q&A with Deadline.com about directing Pacific Rim), a little bit on how The Hobbit tonally compares to The Lord of the Rings, and finally, some more reinforcement that 48 fps might just be the future of cinema.
Personal favourite PJ quote from the Q&A:
I have a certain belief in fate. Not in a religious way but over my life I find that if you try to assert yourself and influence things too much, it’s not necessarily the best idea. You kind of take your foot off the clutch at some stage and freewheel and let things happen…
The reason I never really went there [directing The Hobbit] at the beginning was, I was thinking about that superstition of lightning never striking twice, and I thought I’d always be competing against myself…
Sometimes you’ve just got to let go of the steering wheel and let fate take you where it’s going to take you.
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