At midnight last night I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As usual, the teams at WETA and Stone Street Studios and 3 foot 7 Productions have done a really fantastic job. I was able to visit the Hobbiton set in Matamata, NZ while they were beginning to rebuild it for the film. At the time I had to agree to a contract saying that I was not allowed to post pictures online because at the time it was still not certain if the film was going to go off (This was in July and November of 2010 – the actor’s union issues and Guillermo del Toro pulling out happened around these times and so it was tricky). I was able to see firsthand there the amount of work the people were putting into the set. It was incredible. So many tiny details! I remember walking by a man painting lichen onto the doors of the hobbit holes by the Water. You never see close ups of these holes, but they still put those details in. Now that I’m allowed to share them, here are the some of the pictures of the Hobbiton set that I took on July 1, 2010:
The Party Tree
The Green Dragon
Bag End at the top of the Hill
Hobbit holes along the Water
And in comparison, my pictures from early November of 2010:
Overview of the Hobbiton set