All right, let's shoot something.
Feels like being home again.
We wanna kick into this movie with a lot of urgency.
- It's just like the race is on. - The race is on.
Sword.
"Can it get any more intense?" Then the next week we start the week out...
...and go, "Yep, this one's more intense."
- Nineteen. - See?
Yeah, I've been playing table tennis a lot. Mainly with Mark Hadlow and Jed Brophy.
Oh! Lovely shot, that.
I've played probably 20 games, and I'm unbeaten, and I plan to keep it like that.
That's it, sorry, mate.
- It's okay. - I'm so sorry.
Georgia, my makeup artist, is telling me off a lot of the time...
...for getting my feet all mashed up from the fancy footwork.
- At least in this bit I am running from Smaug. - Yeah.
And action.
Dragon turns to you.
Corning towards you, it's about to breathe fire. It's gonna breathe fire-- Flames!
Cut. Good. There was some good stuff in there.
So we're in the process of putting the final touches on Smaug at the moment.
Um, I'd love to show you, but sorry, can't. You'll have to wait.
Hello?
During principle photography...
...Pete really didn't have a full idea of what he was gonna look like.
- He has to be very purposefully done. - Yes.
You know, very-- Consider nothing happens accidentally down the length of his body.
The one thing that I actually knew I wanted...
...from the very beginning is to make him just massive.
Where are you, thief?
So we're basically just trying to figure out how to shoot something without a big dragon.
What he looks like, how big he is, where he's gonna go.
Smaug's just woken up, basically, and he knows someone's there.
And that's what we're in the middle of shooting now.
And now standing up and facing the dragon.
Smaug's lair had to be something that was very, very impressive.
The set is amazing.
Full of coins, cups, goblets.
I'm looking for something. I lost my wedding ring.
Huge mountain of gold. I've never seen anything like that.
Dwalin.
--I've lost.
This scene, we're running away from Dori.
- We just cannot bear it. - Beg your pardon?
The dragon's bad enough, but then there's you.
This is the tragedy of this Hobbit thing:
They've gotta find someone they can ridicule and make fun of.
I just keep to myself and get about my business...
- ...and try and provide a professional attitude-- - And cut.
We're gonna do a little chasing shot now.
So we'll run you boys through and then run you guys through.
- Okay. - Like a car chase--
Go!
We're actually connecting a scene we shot last year.
Stay where you are. Nobody leaves.
This new bit...
...we're being chased through the streets of Lake-town.
They're all after me. I spend the whole film being chased.
The Dwarves have all arrived in Lake-town.
And I have heard that there are...
...some disreputable types, but of course Bard is hiding them...
...and I need to go and round them up and arrest them for the mayor of Lake-town.
Stephen Fry plays the Master of Lake-town...
- ...and we've had a bit of fun finding... - Yes.
...the character of the Master, which has evolved into something wonderful.
Yeah, he's suave, debonair...
...almost unnaturally handsome.
Somebody has to take over the mantle from Orlando Bloom.
- I saw you shaking that ass. - Ha, ha, ha!
Welcome!
The Master has run Lake-town for decades, really...
...with a fair but firm control.
My life is made much easier by the presence of Alfrid...
...who is my servant, confidant to some extent.
I think I'm doing some spying today.
Lucky Alfrid. Alfrid has to empty my chamber pot every morning.
And the weird thing is, I rather think Alfrid enjoys it.
Doesn't old Stephen Fry look sleazy? But I suspect he's supposed to.
Looks like a real politician.
One of the surprises about part two of The Hobbit...
...is it's going to really be a social commentary on good government.
And hopefully you look forward to learning a lot about politics...
...when you come to see this movie.
It's the penultimate day of pick-ups, tomorrow we will be done.
We've been shooting for weeks...
...and it's all culminated in a couple of days doing some serious overtime.
It's the last day after 23 years. Just when we're getting to know each other some.
Just when you were getting to fall under my spell.
- That's it. - So here we are, the city of Dale.
After tonight, it's all gonna go.
It's all gonna be taken away, stored and packed...
...and pretty busy getting this place back to how we found it.
Everything's being demolished.
I think when we finally walk out of Stone Street...
...and it's clean and clear and everything's packed...
...it'll dawn on me that it's over and that I have to find another job.
People are kind of walking around...
...not too sure where they're going to go to next, what they're gonna do-- Hang on, one moment.
Weta Digital, Shane speaking.
Get that? Did you get that? Eh?
Hopefully, fingers crossed, that's where I'll be going to next.
I'm working on it, it's called a "reception voice."
Weta Digital, Shane speaking.
You wouldn't guess we're still working...
...we have a deadline in about an hour and a half.
We are screwed. Ha, ha, ha!
- Make sure it's good. Don't screw this up. - How have you guys gotten on today?
I think we're starting to hit full momentum.
Hobbit 2 has a lot of things we haven't had to push the envelope on yet.
The sluice gates, fighting down the river with the Dwarves.
Somebody measured the distance of water we need to simulate...
...something like a kilometer and a half.
Well, we're dealing with 200 billion pieces of treasure.
From the shoots on the MoCap stage with this 1.8 tons of gold...
...we were able to capture all the intricate details of the way the coins interacted with each other.
We've got a lot of the spiders done.
Aah!
We've got a lot of Smaug already done.
- Hello, Smaug. - You reckon we could show anything today?
We're really kind of in our crunch time.
We're in the stage where we see P.J. almost daily...
...so I shouldn't even be here.
So I've not heard this myself, guys, so we'll see what it's like.
At the moment we've got editors all round the building...
...frantically cutting sounds to feed into this room.
Gary's looking at the barrels at the moment.
We've got water sounds.
We've got some combat for the axes, for the swords.
We've got arrow fly-bys.
We've got Orc vocals.
We've got just tons of stuff in this scene.
We are working hard, I mean, and...
Michael doesn't want me to be interviewed, so he's gonna keep rolling with his loud music.
- Which is-- - Not to panic anybody...
...but we gotta get the movie done.
Pete's working around the clock and so are we, so...
And roll.
Don't take that one.
Oh, Jesus. Okay, yep, one more. Let's just do one more.
Everything that this camera does is being recorded by the computer.
So as I move around, I'm moving around in the virtual world.
Shoot, where the hell am I? Oh, in the front doorway.
Well, actually, won't be long.
We'll be done with this and we'll have a cup of tea.
It is like shooting an entire movie in a very self-contained world with one camera.
Just like I used to do in the old days at home, Super 8 camera.
Yep, got it. One last one for luck.
Now you visit Smaug, it's quite fun.
Not a good thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
- Set... - And roll.
So I hope you enjoyed that blog. Now, there is one more to go...
...before the end of the year.
And, um, that blog is going to basically cover...
...what we're doing here in the Wellington Town Hall.