The Hobbit
From Wings to Rings
This blog update is for those of you that have not caught up with my news.
A few weeks ago I handed in my notice as Director of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum.
On the 1st September 2009 I commence my new position as Media and Communications Manager for Hobbiton Movie Set & Farm Tours in Matamata.
The last seventeen years of my life in Wanaka have been amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed my work and all the wonderful people I have worked with. I will miss you all.
I will continue to undertake my work for Warbirds Over Wanaka so will still be able to keep in touch with many of you.
However, I felt it was time for a change so now I move from one passion to another. The Alexander Family in Matamata have become good friends and I am really looking forward to working with them, Henry Horne and the rest of the staff.
Please excuse the brevity of this blog but I am currently half way through a journey of commentary around the English Airshow Circuit. I will be in touch with many of you upon my return late July.
For those of you who want to follow my experience of living with hobbits you will be able to check here, the Hobbiton page, Facebook and Twitter. Once I commence work I will be updating all of these regularly.
With my best regards,
Ian
A few weeks ago I handed in my notice as Director of the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum.
On the 1st September 2009 I commence my new position as Media and Communications Manager for Hobbiton Movie Set & Farm Tours in Matamata.
The last seventeen years of my life in Wanaka have been amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed my work and all the wonderful people I have worked with. I will miss you all.
I will continue to undertake my work for Warbirds Over Wanaka so will still be able to keep in touch with many of you.
However, I felt it was time for a change so now I move from one passion to another. The Alexander Family in Matamata have become good friends and I am really looking forward to working with them, Henry Horne and the rest of the staff.
Please excuse the brevity of this blog but I am currently half way through a journey of commentary around the English Airshow Circuit. I will be in touch with many of you upon my return late July.
For those of you who want to follow my experience of living with hobbits you will be able to check here, the Hobbiton page, Facebook and Twitter. Once I commence work I will be updating all of these regularly.
With my best regards,
Ian
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Link Catch-Up
22/12/08 11:57 Filed in: Film | Photography | Announcement | Travel | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | New Zealand
As we approach Christmas I looked at the desktop of the Mac and found some links I had put aside to post on my bog. So, without further ado here they are!
I also would like to thank all visitors to my website for your support. Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2009.
NZ On Screen
A fantastic resource to help you discover the best of New Zealand television and film.
UK Photo Guides
A great idea. Personal and intimate guides to locations through England and the best places to photograph them from.
The Hunt For Gollum
This film will be free to view on the internet next year. Has a nice look and feel to it.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM - FULL Trailer 1 from Chris Bouchard on Vimeo.
Born of Hope
This film is currently in production and is a 60 minute Lord of the Rings inspired film that will be released free to view on the internet.
Born of Hope - 2008 Teaser Trailer one from Born of Hope on Vimeo.
I also would like to thank all visitors to my website for your support. Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2009.
NZ On Screen
A fantastic resource to help you discover the best of New Zealand television and film.
UK Photo Guides
A great idea. Personal and intimate guides to locations through England and the best places to photograph them from.
The Hunt For Gollum
This film will be free to view on the internet next year. Has a nice look and feel to it.
THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM - FULL Trailer 1 from Chris Bouchard on Vimeo.
Born of Hope
This film is currently in production and is a 60 minute Lord of the Rings inspired film that will be released free to view on the internet.
Born of Hope - 2008 Teaser Trailer one from Born of Hope on Vimeo.
In Search of Rivendell
Last week I was visited by an American writer, Ethan Gilsdorf. He is travelling New Zealand looking at Lord of the Rings Locations and the placement of New Zealand as Middle-earth.
He has a great sense of humour and is very easy to talk to.
Most of his travels around New Zealand seem to be with a video camera glued to his eye as he captures special moments. These have then been posted onto the blog of his hometown newspaper The Boston Globe.
I found this clip on his blog of yesterday as he searches for Rivendell at Kaitoke Regional Park near Wellington.
This location is featured extensively in The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook. It is also great to see an interview with Wellington Rover Tours who undertake Lord of the Rings sightseeing tours of many Wellington film locations.
What doubled my pleasure in watching this video is the very thumbed copy of my Location Guide being used by the tour guide as a reference.
Excellent!
He has a great sense of humour and is very easy to talk to.
Most of his travels around New Zealand seem to be with a video camera glued to his eye as he captures special moments. These have then been posted onto the blog of his hometown newspaper The Boston Globe.
I found this clip on his blog of yesterday as he searches for Rivendell at Kaitoke Regional Park near Wellington.
This location is featured extensively in The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook. It is also great to see an interview with Wellington Rover Tours who undertake Lord of the Rings sightseeing tours of many Wellington film locations.
What doubled my pleasure in watching this video is the very thumbed copy of my Location Guide being used by the tour guide as a reference.
Excellent!
In Memory
04/09/08 10:23 Filed in: The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings
Thirty-five years ago this week we all lost our beloved JRR Tolkien to this world. On the 2nd September 1973 a light went out in Arda.
Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar,
I'll find the heavens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-earth at last.
I see the Star above my mast!
In a totally inadequate form of memorial I completed this image last night. Taken in the Yorkshire Dales it is my impression of how Hobbiton might have looked after the Party Tree was destroyed by the evilness of Saruman.
Farewell Pauline Baynes
06/08/08 15:40 Filed in: The Hobbit
It is very sad to see the death of Pauline Baynes, as reported by my friends at TheOneRing.net.
When I first started reading Tolkien the imagery of these strange sounding places demanded I needed a map to follow these journeys. Even as a child I had a love of geography, spending hours poring over contours to find hidden places and secret glens. I distinctly remember (like it was yesterday) searching everywhere to find a map of Middle-earth, and eventually one was ordered in for me from our local Whitcoulls.
All of a sudden the adventure was real, progress could be followed. There were even little illustrations of places that until then I had only imagined. It was a treasure. It was drawn by Pauline Baynes.
That map hung on my bedroom wall in a home-made wooden frame constructed by my Uncle for over ten years and every reading of the book was punctuated with glances at that map on the wall.
Of course, Pauline Baynes accomplished much more; her images on the slip cover version of The Lord of the Rings provided me with a glimpse into Middle-earth and what it might look like.
In 2006 when I worked on Cameras in Narnia it was again a Pauline Baynes illustration of Lantern Waste that looked at me from the cover of my copy of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.
Thank you Pauline for all you have created in the fantastical worlds that I have had the opportunity to live in. Your achievements will live with us for ever.
When I first started reading Tolkien the imagery of these strange sounding places demanded I needed a map to follow these journeys. Even as a child I had a love of geography, spending hours poring over contours to find hidden places and secret glens. I distinctly remember (like it was yesterday) searching everywhere to find a map of Middle-earth, and eventually one was ordered in for me from our local Whitcoulls.
All of a sudden the adventure was real, progress could be followed. There were even little illustrations of places that until then I had only imagined. It was a treasure. It was drawn by Pauline Baynes.
That map hung on my bedroom wall in a home-made wooden frame constructed by my Uncle for over ten years and every reading of the book was punctuated with glances at that map on the wall.
Of course, Pauline Baynes accomplished much more; her images on the slip cover version of The Lord of the Rings provided me with a glimpse into Middle-earth and what it might look like.
In 2006 when I worked on Cameras in Narnia it was again a Pauline Baynes illustration of Lantern Waste that looked at me from the cover of my copy of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.
Thank you Pauline for all you have created in the fantastical worlds that I have had the opportunity to live in. Your achievements will live with us for ever.
Middle-earth Returns to NZ
25/04/08 12:52 Filed in: The Hobbit
Finally today the news we have all been waiting for. Guillermo del Toro will direct The Hobbit and it will be made in New Zealand. More can be found on this announcement from my friends at TheOneRing.net.
Now I start thinking about the possible locations that could be used in the two films (The Hobbit and the prequel to The Lord of the Rings).
It was obvious to me that New Zealand again had to be a major star. This country and its remarkable scenery has become the embodiment of Middle-earth to millions of people. The media hype from the three films may have lessened but the fans have not. Sales of my location guide continue and the books have become one of the five biggest sellers in this country. I mention this because it proves the popularity of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings - fans will visit Middle-earth Aotearoa for many years to come. The Hobbit will reinforce that.
Where will they film? The crossover between the books does create some locations that have to be the same.
Hobbiton and Rivendell are two that immediately spring to mind. The vision of these places was created by Tolkien and then turned into three dimensions by Peter Jackson and his team. The journey Bilbo undertakes between these two points is the same almost that Frodo and Sam take some seventy seven years later. I can't imagine that they could look any different in the new films.
We do have a number of new locations in The Hobbit to ponder though but luckily Tolkein did describe some of these locations vividly;
We have a journey through the Misty Mountains via a different route.
Goblin Town
The Clearing
Eagles Eyrie
The Carrock
Beorn's Farmstead
Mirkwood
Thranduil's Realm
Lake-town
Ruins of Dale
The Lonely Mountain
Then we must look at the prequel and here we need a Palantir for some whilst other locations we have already seen.
Dol Goldur
The establishment of Barad-dur
Balin re-colonising Moria
Saruman and Isengard
The journeys of Aragorn
Gollum and his search for The Ring
I have no doubt that many of these locations will be found in the unlikeliest of places. Who would have imagined The Great East Road traversing the pine trees near Tarras for example.
There is one thing we can be assured of though, we have the right team to find the locations and the right team to translate them into Middle-earth.
Now all we have to do is wait.
Beorn's Meadows
Now I start thinking about the possible locations that could be used in the two films (The Hobbit and the prequel to The Lord of the Rings).
It was obvious to me that New Zealand again had to be a major star. This country and its remarkable scenery has become the embodiment of Middle-earth to millions of people. The media hype from the three films may have lessened but the fans have not. Sales of my location guide continue and the books have become one of the five biggest sellers in this country. I mention this because it proves the popularity of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings - fans will visit Middle-earth Aotearoa for many years to come. The Hobbit will reinforce that.
Where will they film? The crossover between the books does create some locations that have to be the same.
Hobbiton and Rivendell are two that immediately spring to mind. The vision of these places was created by Tolkien and then turned into three dimensions by Peter Jackson and his team. The journey Bilbo undertakes between these two points is the same almost that Frodo and Sam take some seventy seven years later. I can't imagine that they could look any different in the new films.
We do have a number of new locations in The Hobbit to ponder though but luckily Tolkein did describe some of these locations vividly;
We have a journey through the Misty Mountains via a different route.
Goblin Town
The Clearing
Eagles Eyrie
The Carrock
Beorn's Farmstead
Mirkwood
Thranduil's Realm
Lake-town
Ruins of Dale
The Lonely Mountain
Then we must look at the prequel and here we need a Palantir for some whilst other locations we have already seen.
Dol Goldur
The establishment of Barad-dur
Balin re-colonising Moria
Saruman and Isengard
The journeys of Aragorn
Gollum and his search for The Ring
I have no doubt that many of these locations will be found in the unlikeliest of places. Who would have imagined The Great East Road traversing the pine trees near Tarras for example.
There is one thing we can be assured of though, we have the right team to find the locations and the right team to translate them into Middle-earth.
Now all we have to do is wait.
Beorn's Meadows