Peter Jackson has posted a new Vlog dispatch from Middle Earth, featuring a few minutes of bonus Comic-Con footage.
Yes, the famed director and his LOTR-Hobbit gang look like a band getting ready to go onstage while the crowd roars, with the biggest round of geek applause going to none other than Elijah Wood (aka Frodo).
The rest of the webcast depicts Jackson narrating the last five days of what was a very long shoot, 266 days to be exact.
You see the cast and crew hainge fun on the last day of the second unit shoot goofing around, Andy Serkis (Gollum) plays some music on saxophone, and he even directs some second unit action footage himself.
Once the second unit shoot wraps, Serkis tells the crew, “Quite frankly, I can’t imagine this occurring anywhere else on the planet, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
And again, to use a rock star analogy, there’s also footage of people pushing equipment around everywhere early in the morning when it’s still dark, and it gives you the feeling of how much work is involved in making a film, especially a film this epic.
But you also do get the impression that as tough and grueling as the hours and lack of sleep would have to be, they also really enjoy their work and felt kind of down when it was finally time to wrap it all up.
On the very last day of the shoot (day 266), Peter Jackson is wearing his 3D glasses while watching some footage.
Finally he says, “Well unless anybody has anything else they want to shoot, I think we oughta call it a day.”
Jackson then gathers everyone together, McKellen still in his Gandalf wardrobe and make-up, and thanks everyone for everything. C hampagne is popped, streamers fly, but as Jackson promises, the web diaries will continue throughout the post-production process, so do stay tuned.
