Some of the Middle-earth clothing from Black Milk has made a splash on our Facebook page but with fashion and popular culture taking center stage this week leading up to our own One Expected Party on Oscar night, it seemed a good time to share it here. Will we see a Doorway party dress? How about Witch King leggings? While we kind of want to chastise the company for not hyphenating and not making the e lower case in Middle-earth, its pretty cool to see a company take geek culture in mainstream directions. Its R2-D2 dress is well-known on websites like Tumblr, Twitter and Pinterest. The Australian company gets our kudos for making geek, chic. In the meantime, if you want to or plan to be in the Los Angeles area this weekend and want to join us for the party, we would love to have you, even if you aren’t wearing all the names of the dwarves on your leggings. Tickets remain and with food and entertainment like One Man LOTR and Billy Boyd’s Beekcake on the musical menu, and Hobbit Oscar nominations for visual effects, hair and makeup and production design, it will be a night of legend.
In case you haven’t already done so, here’s a quick reminder that today is the last day to enter TheOneRing.net and New Zealand Post’s “The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey” Contest.
Today in the Hall of Fire we will be devoting time to some of the Professor’s lesser-read works. Come along at 5pm EST to join in some intriguing exploration of pieces which you may, or may not, be familiar with (if not, then you’ll be able to learn a lot, and enjoy some great company!).
According to the little countdown on the left side of this page, we are only 10 days away from ‘The One Expected Party‘ and 8 days away from The Unexpected Art Show!’ (Yes, tickets are still available, but we are getting close to a sell out!) Today we’d like to focus on one of our Mithril sponsors for the event, Air New Zealand. AirNZ is not only the official airline of Middle-earth, but they are also officially supporting the fans of Middle-earth by providing both financial and airfare support for our event. In fact, we can thank them for flying in Billy Boyd and Beecake all the way from Scotland!
Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand is the official airline of Middle-earth with a global two-movie partnership with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit:There and Back Again.
As part of the two-year partnership, passengers from North America can fly on Hobbit-wrapped Boeing 777 aircraft and even enjoy a very special edition of the in-flight safety video.
Destination New Zealand is clearly established as the home of Middle-earth and Air New Zealand brings that magic to life for travelers.
Just as Sir Peter Jackson is able to transport audiences to the magical world of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand brings people to the breathtaking landscape that has been home to these epic productions.
Air New Zealand will be sending a Hobbit-themed crew to help escort our VIPs throughout ‘The One Expected Party,’ and will also be displaying a scale model of the Hobbit-wrapped 777. They are also generously contributing four unique ‘Hobbit’ packs for our giveaway – packs that are not for sale and only available through events like ‘The One Expected Party.’
We hope you can join us and our friends from Air New Zealand for a magical night in Hollywood! Purchase your tickets today!
We’re only a week away from ‘An Unexpected Art Show’, a unique celebration of artwork from over 30 artists around the world inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Our event is one night only – Friday, February 22, from 7 PM to 1 AM. ‘An Unexpected Art Show’ will be at Lot 613, a blank-canvas special events space in the Historic Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, located at 613 Imperial Street.
All ages are welcome to attend. Children 12 and under get in free. There is plenty of free street parking and an adjacent lot offers parking for $10. A limited number of tickets are available for $15 online and $20 at the door. Print and bring the above flyer for a $10 discount. There will be food and drinks for sale as well as a DJ set later in the evening.
Eric SaindonEric Saindon is a good guy to have on a movie. He is smart but also easy going and is able to manage the balance between doing serious business, like being on set every day of filming three movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” and creating a good working atmosphere and getting along. An American, he is an important part of one of the elite visual effects houses in Hollywood, New Zealand’s Weta Digital. He is nominated for an Academy Award on “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” facing competition from the same company for work on “The Avengers,” and “Prometheus.” Definitely a friend to TheOneRing.net, he did an interview with FlickeringMyth.com that you can read right here.
Its full of little gems from Saidon like this: A significant innovation was developed by the R&D team. “We came up with a new hair for example on this project,” remarks Eric Saindon. “We call it Barbershop. We always hated the way you have to move pixels around to layout a hair. Grab CDs and move them around on curves to design the way the hair is done; that’s not how you do it in a salon. You would cut the hair, brush, blow dry and gel it, however you would do it in a salon and that’s how we redesigned our hair system. We gave the artists tools such as a blow dryer, gel, comb, brush, scissors and they actually grow the hair on someone or a creature.” The interview digs deep into the world of visual effects. Saindon is one of the interview subjects TheOneRing.net spoke with on our set visit to The Hobbit. That content is expected to see publication in 2013.
