So, you’re going out for a Sunday drive. You travel down the street, you make a left turn on Aragorn… what’s that you say? You don’t have streets in your neighborhood named after Tolkien characters? Well, plainly you don’t live in the town of Geldrop, in the Netherlands.
As residents of the area can tell you, every street in this neighborhood is named after a character or location from Professor Tolkien’s Middle-earth. You’ll find names from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and even The Silmarillion. Continue reading “Tolkien characters found at every turn in Dutch neighborhood”
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Kevin, who runs a music club at an elementary school in Arkansas, recently sent us this video of his 4th and 5th graders. He tells us, ‘In my recording studio, I arranged and recorded my music club singing “Misty Mountains Cold”, and then the school district videographer came down and we made a music video! The kids dressed up as dwarves, and we spent an entire afternoon shooting the video just before Christmas! I’m so proud of these kids.’
There are some adorable costumes in this video (check out Dwalin around the 50 second mark!), and the kids do a great job. You just can’t help but smile when you watch them; have a look at their performance here.
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SoundWorks Collection recently took a trip to Wellington, New Zealand to speak with the wizards at Park Road Post Studios about their work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. From these interviews comes a 10-minute video (which we’ve embedded below) detailing the tremendous process of constructing the sound design of the second film in Peter Jackson’s epic adaptation.
This profile comes on the heels of the Oscar nominations the film
received in both sound categories – Sound Editing and Sound Mixing (in addition to Visual Effects). The Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 2.
Interviews in this video include re-recording mixers Michael Hedges, Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, and Gary Summers, as well as composer Howard Shore and producer/co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens. Continue reading “SoundWorks Collection profiles ‘The Desolation of Smaug’”
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Monday afternoon New Zealand time, a severe earthquake hit the North Island of New Zealand, with its center in the Palmerston North area. The 6.3 (or 6.2, according to some reports) magnitude earthquake caused damage to roads and buildings, creating rockfalls and bringing down chimneys and power lines. The quake was felt in Wellington, where one of the giant eagles displayed at the airport, to promote The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, became detached from the ceiling. You can read a full report of the quake, and the extent of the damage which is known so far, here. Fortunately it seems that no one was seriously hurt. We are thinking of all our friends in New Zealand and hoping that all are ok! [New Zealand Herald report]
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One
of the very best aspects of the Academy Awards is the ability of the nominations and forthcoming telecast to shine a light on smaller films
that would perhaps otherwise go unnoticed by the general public. Such is the case with a film that Martin Freeman shot a couple of years ago
called The Voorman Problem. Directed by Mark Gill and also starring
Tom Hollander, Simon Griffiths and Elisabeth Gray, the film has been nominated for Best Live Action Short at the 86th Annual Academy Awards. We would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Gill and his cast and crew.
The film will be touring in cinemas with the Oscar Shorts starting January 31st, and will appear on iTunes on February 28th. Visit the official site for the film by clicking here. Continue reading “Short Film ‘The Voorman Problem’ starring Martin Freeman nominated for Academy Award”
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominations
for the 86th Annual Academy Awards this morning, and The Desolation of Smaug received 3 nods.
Best Sound Mixing
Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Best Sound Editing
Brent Burge
Best Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Congratulations to the nominees! The ceremony will be held on March 2nd. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ nominated for 3 Oscars”
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So, you’re going out for a Sunday drive. You travel down the street, you make a left turn on Aragorn… what’s that you say? You don’t have streets in your neighborhood named after Tolkien characters? Well, plainly you don’t live in the town of Geldrop, in the Netherlands.
