New Zealander builds Hobbit hole

Ananova / The Evening Post ^ | 1/26/02

[John Farson]

New Zealander builds Hobbit hole A New Zealand man has built a Hobbit house. Carl Gifford, a stonemason from Wellington, says he used a 10-tonne digger to make the hole. He's put rocks either side of the front door and plans to install a chimney and lantern on top. He told the Evening Post he was embarrassed as he was constructing the home. He said: "I must admit I was hiding as the cars were driving past. I thought, 'These people think I'm an idiot'." The house is part of a series of stonework mounds, designs and sculptures dotted around his land. "I'm just having a bit of fun. Things that were built by those ancient people like caves have always fascinated me."

[carton253]

Aragorn!!!!

Special thanks to Penny1... who made all this possible.

[carton253]

Closer... now what did I do wrong? Thank you for being my teacher on webposting 101!!!

[BibChr]

I think they got some wrong. I don't think Boromir says "I must find him," but something like "What have I done?" Somebody did some obssessive work, though! (I fear a bootleg copy, faugh! spit!)

Dan

[Penny1]

Hmmm...I'm not sure...it's saying it's "undefined," which probably means you left something out of your code--make sure your quote marks are there on each side of the link, and make sure you didn't leave off your ending >

Are you previewing before you post? 'cause that'll tell you whether or not your code is correct--the picture will show up in preview if you've done the code right...

[carton253]

Thanks... now that I know you see the pictures, I can get it right.

[Penny1]

I've already heard about a bootleg copy, but I don't think that's what they did--if they had a bootleg copy, they would have gotten the lines exactly correct. I would be willing to bet they worked with some friends who have all seen the movie multiple times. There are huge chunks of scenes out of the movie that I could swear I could reproduce word-for-word. Although how they got the elvish, I have no idea.

[HairOfTheDog]

I know, but I will be more careful from now on about any boasting. I am not liking the parts you did come up with. This girl has enough demons.

[carton253]

Voila...

[HairOfTheDog]

Good morning!... just waking up here, but I am planning to do chapter 3 this morning when my chores are done.... Yes?

[NewCenturions]

Very nice. Notice the use of lighting and subdued colors...(appreciating art for art's sake).

[HairOfTheDog]

How do you suppose they did the first shot - effects wise? It is super well done if it was really shot twice. I can recognize now the times when children were used as doubles on far away shots, but this one is obviously not a double. And this is a rare close up where you can still see their feet, and anything they might be standing on. Are those two actors working that scene alone and they put them together later? - That would be so hard to do, as an actor. Are they looking at tennis balls?

[HairOfTheDog]

You know, the more I look at it... It doesn't look like Frodo was not just shrunk down or he would be too "small" looking. hmmm.... They did some magic here.

[Penny1]

This one was a very interesting series of shots in the film...

I'm not convinced that isn't a double standing in for Frodo in that particular shot, though I'm not entirely sure one way or the other. What I find fascinating about that scene is that there are a few frames of it where EW and VM are actually playing off of each other and are almost the same height. This is not a criticism, because I think they really wanted the actors to be able to react off of each other in that scene, so they cut as much as they could out of each frame so that it wouldn't be obvious that they were on the same level.

It works particularly well once Aragorn has knelt, because then they are looking eye-to-eye. They could then shoot that part of the scene with both of them standing so that they could actually play off each other. It makes the scene a bit more "real" for me, though throughout the movie the actors do a fabulous job of conveying the emotion of their conversations even while they're not looking at the actual actor who is playing the particular character they're supposed to be talking to. It's really wild when you think about all the things they had to adjust to in order to make the size difference convincing.

[carton253]

This is only my opinion... but I don't think you need to do much to get the shot to work. Just have Viggo kneel down and use Elijah's original height. Scale of the scene so it reflects Frodo's height and voila!

On the tighter shots where we don't see faces, they might have used the little actor and Viggo, and Elijah and the 7'-0" actor that doubles as Gandalf, Boromir, and Aragorn when the hobbits need to be smaller. (The fight scene between Boromir and Pippin being the best example of using both small and large actor)

They probably didn't act opposite tennis balls. Even if they shot the scene twice and put it together later on the computer, the actors probably acted opposite each other.

Tennis balls or other visuals are used when the "image" is completely computer generated. In the case of Smeagol/Gollum, Andy Sirkus was put into a special suit with reflectors at different points in his body. He will be removed and the computer generated Gollum inserted. But Sean and Elijah acted with Andy...

Editing... what a wonderful tool!

[2Jedismom]

Wow! Fixin' to be 2000! I'm glad I'm going to be here to see it! I'm all ready, all stocked up with extra canned goods and bottled water, got a generator and candles. Let P2K come, I'm ready!

[HairOfTheDog]

OK.. I can't imagine how actors can work in the environment they work in, blue screens, tennis balls, stand-ins, and all out of sequence, and still convince us that it is real. Amazing.

[ecurbh]

Shall we call it "P2K" for "Post 2000"?

[JenB]

Thank you for those... educational.. photos. Give us, um, some real insights into Aragorn's character, really. I mean, just look at that last one - oh dear. Um, I need to find something else to post about.

So... anyone else think Gimli is a perfect definition of the word 'irascable'? Or what about this - since Frodo and Sam don't have magic elf-rope or lembas, how exactly are they going to get to Mt. Doom?

[2Jedismom]

Good idea! Woohoo! Get ready Carton253!

[JenB]

Man.. is he going to get it again? And must 2000 be a useless post about getting 2000?