{"id":55378,"date":"2012-04-27T00:36:25","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T05:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=55378"},"modified":"2012-04-30T17:53:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T22:53:06","slug":"hobbit-footage-review-massive-spoilers-full-coverage-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2012\/04\/27\/55378-hobbit-footage-review-massive-spoilers-full-coverage-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobbit Footage Review & MASSIVE SPOILERS: Full Coverage & Analysis!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>DID WE SAY MASSIVE SPOILERS?!<\/strong> Yes, we did, so before reading further know that everything revealed to me will be revealed to you! Tuesday’s unspooling of 10 minutes of THE HOBBIT at CinemaCon took the place quite by surprise and should be considered a special moment in the history of cinema — where the first public audience witnessed a new future for movies, so brace yourself.\u00a0 I will interpret everything I saw and how it matches up with Tolkien’s universe … there are SO MANY cool and revealing things we can now expect in the first film alone! Let’s explore the veracity of Peter Jackson’s adaptation with hasty vigor. There is also the matter of the 48 frames-per-second format and the blogosphere’s mixed reaction to the look of the new technology, so read on …<\/p>\n

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DRIVING THROUGH THE DESERT AT NIGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Calisuri chased me down on Monday, April 23rd, after a flurry of desperate phone calls, tweets, and texting, he said “Dude, how fast can you get to Vegas?”\u00a0 My heart leapt in my chest: I felt the CinemaCon buzz afresh and knew the highly-anticipated 10 minutes of HOBBIT footage was suddenly accessible!\u00a0 We thank Warner Bros. for kindly granting TheOneRing.net an opportunity to be in the room with other journalists and the nation’s movie theater exhibitors to see the studio’s 2012 preview.<\/p>\n

I left my Dragon Dice game night in a hustle, grabbed a rental car and was on the highway towards Las Vegas quick as a bunny.\u00a0 I’ll get to the bunny-sled later, but yes… it’s all true.\u00a0 I would only crash in town one night, enter CinemaCon and see the presentation at 10:30 Tu\"\"<\/a>esday morning, and then drive back to Los Angeles hopefully in time to host our webcast TORn TUESDAY<\/a> at 5pm.\u00a0 Indeed, it was the fastest ‘there & back again’ sprint this poor Ent has ever attempted.\u00a0 A traffic-snarled return trip delayed our webcast significantly, so with apologies to that audience who couldn’t watch live I’ll report everything here from the top down.\u00a0 The nice folks at ThorinOakenshield.net have captured the audio portion of the show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WHY CINEMACON?\u00a0 THE REAL CONTEXT:<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First assembly that morning, on the very same stage where Celine Dion famously performs at Caesar’s Palace, included an intriguing “State of the Industry” address by the head of the National Association of Theater Owners (the folks putting on the trade show).\u00a0 The focus was on business economics and technological advancements that affect exhibitors, especially the big chains: Regal, AMC, Cinemark, etc.\u00a0 Notably, the conversation was framed around digital projection technology and the recent announcement by Twentieth Century Fox they will no longer distribute their films on 35mm prints, but digitally only — a move the studio will phase into place within 2 years.\u00a0 This context becomes important when we get to PJ’s presentation of the higher-frame-rate he’s used on THE HOBBIT.<\/p>\n

We were treated to live appearances by filmmakers ready to proffer their new work.\u00a0 It was great to see the DARK SHADOWS stuff from Tim Burton (he looked twitchy and delightfully eccentric as always) — but the next time you bring Johnny Depp out, at least let the man say something.\u00a0 He just waved and Thank You’d<\/em> the excited crowd only to leave the stage again…\u00a0 Christopher Nolan appeared and showed some of THE \"\"<\/a>DARK KNIGHT RISES, which looks like eight ways of awesomesauce! They fixed the unintelligible Bane problem by re-recording his ADR. Anne Hathaway looks surprisingly darker and sexier than her squeaky-clean image.\u00a0 That’s some interesting casting. Baz Luhrman, appearing pre-recorded, introduced his 3D adaptation of THE GREAT GATSBY, which to my mind looks like a tantalizing cross between MOULIN ROUGE and HUGO, and all to the good — it’s really gorgeous.<\/p>\n

When we got to the Peter Jackson intro bit, the audience was asked to put on their 3D glasses and there he was!\u00a0 Our familiar PJ was on-screen in 3D, sporting a little salt & pepper in his beard and looking rather hale for someone who is working so hard, yet eager to review notable technical advancements throughout movie history.\u00a0 He thoughtfully explained the adoption of different frame-rates when silent movies went to talkies.\u00a0 Saying that the industry had settled on a standard of 24 frames-per-second for more than seventy years now, it was time to bring everyone a sample of what 48 fps would look like.\u00a0 “Why build a ten-minute segment? Because I wanted to give you ample time to take it in, because it will take your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the look of it,” he explained.\u00a0 It was a fascinating preamble, but needful in that these film exhibitors, perhaps more than fans, want to know what goes into this new tech and what impact it may have on their business.\u00a0 As Ringer fans, our concerns are fidelity to Tolkien, and perhaps to another extent the movie-core fans want to see fidelity to PJ’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy<\/em>, as we expect the complete set of five films will be considered of a piece.<\/p>\n

RETURNING TO MOVIE MIDDLE-EARTH\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first thing we saw in 48fps were gorgeously bright shots of the clouds and mountains of New Zealand, the kind of sweeping areal photography that made us swoon in LOTR, thinking again that the country itself was the best piece of casting for Middle-earth.\u00a0 For a breathless moment I felt rather like someone in an audience seeing their first color film after endless years of only Black & White photography.\u00a0 Someone had lifted the glass off the windshield and you were looking at something *real* and in three dimensions.<\/p>\n

I was indeed taken aback by the presentation.\u00a0 What all did I see?\u00a0 I’ll break it down for you, keeping in mind this material was “unfinished” meaning incomplete green screen shots, no color-correcting, borrowed music cues from the Trilogy, etc.\u00a0 It was a non-continuous potpourri of scenes, most if not all from the first installment THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY.<\/p>\n

CHOCK FULL OF SURPRISES
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 **SPOILERS BEGIN HERE**<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from several seconds of familiar content seen in the teaser trailer this past winter, the clips quickly hit brand new territory:<\/p>\n