December 14, 2012 obviously can’t arrive soon enough for us Lord of the Rings (LOTR) fans.
Fortunately, Peter Jackson has finally updated his Vlog, this time providing an entirely different look at the Hobbit production in New Zealand.
“Sorry to be out of touch these past few weeks. It’s been very busy here on the set… What would you say to a little studio tour?” Jackson asks rhetorically.
Yes, fans are definitely in for a treat, because instead of showcasing location shooting (which we’ve already seen), the latest installment of Jackson’s video blog offers a comprehensive tour of the Stone Street studio facility.
Anticipation for The Hobbit remains high amongst genre fans, despite some whining about how Peter Jackson is ruining the LOTR franchise because he showed clips of the film at 48 frames per second instead of 24.
Luckily, the veteran director shows little sign of being discouraged by the shrill Internet yelping of a few spoiled (and clueless) dissidents.
“It wasn’t particularly surprising because it is something new. A lot of the critical response I was reading was people saying it’s different. Well, yes, it certainly is,” Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter back in May. ”But I think, ultimately, it is different in a positive way, especially for 3D, especially for epic films and films that are trying to immerse the viewer in the experience of a story.”
The director also emphasized that production wasn’t expected to wrap until July, so the above-mentioned clips were basically unfinished, lacking both color correction and visual effects. In contrast, the original LOTR employed various postproduction techniques to create a certain look for the movies, including “extensive” digital color grading, “added texture, and we took out highlights.”
“[Of course], we’ll do the same with The Hobbit, to make it consistent and give it the feeling of otherworldliness – to get the mood, the tone, the feel of the different scenes,” he said. ”We are certainly going to experiment with different finishing techniques to give the 48 frames a look that is more organic. But that work isn’t due to start until we wrap photography in July.”
