Ringer Kellyduck sends us this link to what appears to be a substantial partial transcript of the press conference the Hobbit crew gave at Comic-Con last weekend.
I don’t think this is the entire press conference, but it is certainly a substantial part. We also now have some partial video too. (Sorry folks, I know you all want it to see it, but there’s still no showreel footage.)
At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Peter Jackson — joined by The Hobbit cast members Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, and Richard Armitage — said there are other parts of Tolkien’s stories he’d like to be able to tell. Sitting down for a small press conference after the Hall H presentation, Jackson talked about his hopes for shooting more footage. Along with his cast, Jackson discussed revisiting the world he brought to the screen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, technological advances, and the 48 frames per second debate.
Choice quote from Martin Freeman: I was struck by just how emotional people were talking about the film, talking about anticipating the film. With each question came a preamble about what the previous films have meant in people’s lives. So all cliches aside, it’s a really nice thing to be part of something that actually touches people, genuinely touches people. It’s quite a lovely thing.
MrCere breaking in here. I was planning to report this whole press conference but real life, travel and DragonCon have prevented it and now this transcript is here, so anything I write seems less useful to readers now. The transcript isn’t word-for-word, it has removed the “uhms” and a similar words so the quotes are cleaned up, but it is accurate and easier to read this way. The questions are much more cleaned up. For example: The first one was mine and I said I would love to hear the response from the panel about Hall H, especially from those who were there for the first time. Martin Freeman spoke up, answered then the moderator moved on. (I especially wanted to also hear from Richard Armitage since we talked about things like Comic-Con while in New Zealand but sadly the moment was lost.) Anyway, I didn’t listen to the whole recording but it seems complete to me. Oh, but I do have some photos after the break.
[Partial transcript | [Partial video] | [TORn’s Ultimate Round-up] Continue reading “Comic-Con ‘Hobbit’ press conference transcript”
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So over the last 24 to 48 hours, there’s only been about half a billion articles posted across the interwebs about the Hall H presentation. Then add an equal number of video interviews that Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage have been doing about The Hobbit.
Talk about feast or famine!
So without further ado, here’s a round-up of the latest ones, and a bit of a summary for many of the articles to help you decide what to read or watch.
Bootnote: big props to everyone who has been sending in links to spymaster at theonering dot net — you’re all ace! And be sure to drop us a line if you think you have a scoop about the production — we’d love to hear from you!
Now updated! with press conference video footage!
SPOILER WARNING!
Continue reading “TORn’s ultimate Comic-Con 2012 round-up!”
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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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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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In case you don’t have much bandwidth, or can’t get to Youtube for whatever reason, here’s a complete transcript of the Hobbitcon Q&A from Hall H. Quick warning: it does have some swearing at the end when Andy Serkis shows off his Gollum voice for the audience. And it does contain some spoilers. Some great answers from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage to questions about the prosthetic gear, from Peter Jackson about how the Extended Edition process works, and some interesting stuff from Philippa Boyens about Galadriel.
Thanks to the swift typing skills of Barliman’s chat regular Jenniearcheo in putting this together! Also, if you want to view another version of the panel in higher quality, head here. The video quality is better and it has the last three minutes of the panel that was not in the previous version we saw. However, it’s from further back in the hall so the sound suffers a touch. Thanks to Elpidha for the find! Continue reading “Full transcript of Comic-Con Hobbit Panel Q&A!”
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Here’s a recording of the Q&A panel from Hall H. Please note that it does not include the showreel footage — it is only the question and answer session.
Still we very strongly suggest you go watch the thing right away. Because if you wait, it might well go the way of the very cool Andy Serkis video snippet that we posted earlier!
Warning: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
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