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Hobbit Production diary online

Stuff NZ reports:

Sir Peter Jackson has provided another insight into the filming of The Hobbit, with a second production video diary posting on his Facebook page. 

The video diary was uploaded to Jackson's Facebook page this morning and has already been widely viewed, with some people saying it gave them the "chills", and many stating that the posting made them even more excited for the films' release. The 10-minute video follows Jackson and his team on their mission to find suitable filming locations - and it's much more complicated than one would think. 



A team of 17 travel the South Island in five helicopters in the search for ideal landscapes.
They had already identified areas in the Mackenzie Country and Mt Cook and decided that they would also film in Dunedin for the first time. They were also looking to find a suitable location south of Queenstown.The locations had to be appropriate for filming - but they also had to have enough space for two rugby fields of equipment. 

"It's weird on locations because you're standing in the middle of a mountain or valley or some beautiful place and you're having to try to figure out where are you going to put the crew tents, where are people going to get changed and where are the portaloos going to go - because all of that stuff has to be where you're not going to want to point the camera," Jackson says. 

"The last thing you want to find out in six months time is you're standing on this beautiful mountain and saying 'Wow this is exactly the shot I want to do' and you've got 20 portaloos in front of the camera." The video also features footage of Jackson talking to actor Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Serkis is directing part of The Hobbit films and chats with Jackson about the pressure they are under. 

"I always tell people I get exhausted at the end of the first couple of days and just stay exhausted until it finishes," Jackson tells Serkis. "I think it's a much better way to divide it into three blocks and have some time to look at what you've done... it's a much smarter way to shoot these big films." 

There were 254 days of shooting planned and the crew has already finished filming the first block. Filming of the second block would start on September 5.
Many of the staff are taking off overseas and indulging in their favourite hobbies during the break. Sir Ian McKellen who plays Gandalf was heading to London to perform in a stage production, others were travelling to Bali, Las Vegas and Paris for a holiday, one was planning a marathon, another was looking forward to sleeping in and one staff member said he planed to make a psychedelic sludge-rock album. 

But for Jackson, the work continues. "It almost feels like you're going on vacation," he says. "But you're not."

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