Starting a couple of months ago, Steven Umbrello began work on an immense project. What you see before you, in the pictures on this page, is an illuminated manuscript of the first part of Professor Tolkien’s The Lay of the Children of Hurin from The Lays of Beleriand.
Having been in love with the tales of Middle-earth since he was a child, as well as being a collector of books, Steven was determined to complete this work. Over the past couple of months, he has been toiling away: writing by hand, illustrating, painting, binding – all while keeping readers of his blog The Leather Library updated on his progress.
What has resulted from his efforts is an incredible achievement. Steven is quick to point out that this is the first time he’s done something artistic of this nature, but you’d be hard pressed to believe him. Needless to say, his work here impressed us mightily – and it’s a testament to his passion and dedication. Continue reading “‘The Lay of the Children of Hurin’ Illuminated Manuscript: Q&A with artist Steven Umbrello”
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The folks of the TORn message board Reading Room, the section of our forums devoted to discussion of Tolkien’s literary works, have just put out for a call for papers for the third TORn Amateur Symposium (also known as TAS3).
The first two TORn Amateur Symposiums last year published 22 essays on topics as varied as The Physics of The Hobbit, The Corrupting Nature of The One Ring, Concepts of Healing in Middle-earth, The Matter of Glorfindel, and Music and Race in Howard Shore’s Score.
TAS is an opportunity for those who love Middle-earth to share their ideas on Tolkien-related subjects in a longer written form. Continue reading “Call for papers: the third TORn Amateur Symposium”
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That mischievous little sneaker known as Gollum (or Smeagol, depending on his mood) has another notch in his belt (er, loincloth). Even 10+ years after making a splash in Hollywood, he just can’t stop picking up awards.
Yesterday, the 41st Annual Annie Awards were held. The Annies celebrate achievement in film and television animation. The award for ‘Character Animation in a Live Action Production’ was given to Jeff Capogreco, Jedrzej Wojtowicz, Kevin Estey, Alessandro Bonora and Gino Acevedo for their work on Gollum in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Continue reading “‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ wins Annie Award”
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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.
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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Starting a couple of months ago, Steven Umbrello began work on an immense project. What you see before you, in the pictures on this page, is an illuminated manuscript of the first part of Professor Tolkien’s The Lay of the Children of Hurin from The Lays of Beleriand.
