The Visual Effects industry in Hollywood is in the midst of a crisis that just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. Entertainment Weekly has been keeping on top of the issue and posted a story today that included Peter Jackson’s thought on the problem.
In this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, The Hobbit director Peter Jackson, a digital effects pioneer who co-founded the F/X company Weta Digital, says studios are taking advantage of an oversupply of F/X houses to drive down prices. “Competition between VFX houses, which the studios obviously use to their advantage, has resulted in VFX houses operating on tiny profit margins,” Jackson says. “And when we talk ‘profit,’ it’s not about the owners buying a Porsche at the end of a big movie — it’s about having a nest egg to ride out the slow periods.”
To read the full story and see links to other stories about the VFX crisis, head on over to EW.com
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Another April Fools joke – courtesy of Ringer Mike…
APRIL FOOLS
From Weta Digital, comes this exciting press release about a certain something all fans of Sir Peter Jackson have missed…
Wellington, NZ (April 1st, 2013)–
In response to the lukewarm critical reception of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, Peter Jackson has announced that he will begin wearing his eyeglasses again.
“It was a public image decision,” Jackson says. “Fran and Philippa and I sat down and brainstormed, trying to figure out why the critics had panned the first ‘Hobbit’ film, despite its commercial success. And then we suddenly realized it wasn’t the film at all! The critics weren’t saying it out loud, but subconsciously they missed the ‘old’ Peter Jackson. And that means they wanted to see the eyeglasses.”
While Jackson hasn’t worn glasses for years and no longer uses his old prescription, he has planned a workaround to the problem. “I can simply pop the lenses out of my old frames, and we’ll be good to go– that is, if I can find them!” he laughs.
But putting the glasses back on is only the first step. Plans are also underway to add glasses back on to all of the behind-the-scenes footage of Peter that has been shot for the Extended Edition DVDs.
Since Weta Digital is already too busy working on effects shots for films two and three, Richard Taylor and Weta Workshop have been placed in charge of the eyeglass project.
“We want fans to feel like they’ve returned to the film-making world they have become acquainted with,” Taylor says. “Realistically inserting eyeglasses into Peter’s interview shots and B-roll footage will add that final crucial element of familiarity that will make this a truly nostalgic behind-the-scenes experience for the extended DVDs.”
Using a recently perfected technique combining advanced facial-recognition software with a slave-motion camera rig, the glasses will be added to Peter’s face using green screens and carefully crafted models.
Taylor has already commissioned a special 18-inch wide “bigature” of Peter’s glasses to be used in the project. “The miniatures department had felt a bit neglected lately, and they were overjoyed to take this on. One has to appreciate the exquisite craftsmanship that is going into this model. Every screw and hinge, every curve of the frame is faithfully reproduced in larger-than-life detail.”
Weta Limited Edition replicas of the glasses will be available as a Comic Con Exclusive in July 2013.
Early fan reaction to the news so far has been positive, and representatives from Warner Bros. were optimistic as well, and in a statement have expressed confidence that the reintroduction of spectacles to Jackson’s image is the right way to go towards making up for the box office disappointment of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”.
Will the glasses really make a difference? What do you think? Sound off!
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We are now taking pre-orders for our latest official TheOneRing.net t-shirt – Peter’s Dragon! This black shirt, designed by Chris Lyons, features a stylized ‘Peter’s Dragon’ logo and the imposing eye of what we all hope will be the most magnificent Dragon to ever grace the screen! It is a geeky way to share your anticipation for ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.’ Shirts can be pre-ordered from now until Tuesday, April 9th 2013. For those of you not familiar with pre-order, this means the shirts will not be produced until all orders are in. We will then print and ship the shirts as soon as possible. And as a small aside, if you enjoy TheOneRing.net, purchasing shirts are a great way to support the site. The money we collect from making shirts goes directly to site expenses. Thank you for your support! [Purchase Peter’s Dragon T-Shirt]
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On today’s very exciting *live* webcast TORn TUESDAY at 5:00pm PDT — all Ringer fandom had their eyes on THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG live preview from this weekend — but if you missed it or saw only part of it, we are going to carefully review and analyze every little nook and cranny of it today! Peter Jackson and Jed Brophy have certainly given us much to talk about! What was that stuff on the walls of Thranduil’s underground kingdom while Bilbo was pushing some sort of barrel-releasing lever? What was that place Radagast and Gandalf were investigating? Why does Bard the Bowman look like a new-fangled Errol Flynn ready to swash a buckle at a moment’s notice? Join your host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and co-host Justin “I Love Jar-Jar” Sewell on the Live Event page here, which will provide the video playback of our show, broadcast from the heart of Hollywood at Meltdown Comics, and will also let you access our wonderful Barliman’s Chatroom! There you can join hundreds of fans from around the world and bring your questions and comments to the live show! It all starts in about 10 minutes! Huzzah!
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Want to relive what you saw this afternoon? Reflecting on some of the moments, and trying to remember what was what? Well, don’t forget that, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website www.thehobbit.com/sneak To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
Meanwhile, staffer Rasputin the Evil Balrog shares with us some commentary on the footage:
Continue reading “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Sneak Peek – commentary”
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The countdown, how exciting!
- Live Stream starts now… with Jed Brophy at the Post Production house
- Peter is reading the newspaper
- spoiler alert, it’s great weather on Monday
- Cricket scores shared for the English fans
- Motion capture stage visited, with Azog and another Orc, more fighting with the orcs, including orc archery
- Dam Busters, someone should remake it so Jed can be in it.
- James Bond walk of fame is rather cool
- Pre-vis department, Pre-visualisation (animated sequences)
- I see Smaug poster
- Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)
- the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon
- Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used
- Jed loves Goldfinger
- And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen
- One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid
- Now to see editing happening
- Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.
- Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.
- He seems rather miserable
- “I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”
- Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)
- Jed looks very waterlogged
- We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”
- Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!
- Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film
- Here come the video questions.
- Chris asks about problems with a middle film?
- PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.
- Thranduil on his throne, awesome.
- elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs
- Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.
- Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films
- Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket
- Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf
- Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.
- PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.
- Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film
- Marina in Canada – asks about new characters
- PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.
- Tauriel wears a leather
- Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word
- The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.
- PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.
- And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉
- PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team
- Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule
- They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting
- Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves
- So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality
- Twitter question – does he edit barefoot? Yes, he can be barefoot.
- Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.
- Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?
- Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.
- Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing
- Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.
- PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.
- Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?
- PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.
- Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.
- What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?
- What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?
- PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.
- Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.
- Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.
- PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king
- Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.
- The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.
- Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’
- Ran for about 55 minutes
Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.
Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!
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