DAY IN THE LIFE: On Set Of Peter Jackson's Hectic 20-Hour 'Hobbit' Shoot
8:20 a.m.: Jackson lives a mere five minutes from the studio. He says sometimes he heads to the set without a plan for the day. He wings it.
9:15 a.m.: It takes a while to prep filming. Jackson says they actually filmed these two people in penguin suits.
"Should be shooting soon. Two cameras, both with 16 mm lenses. Two huge wide shots of a fight happening on an enormous set that filling most of K Stage ... The photo: yes, we did actually just film this. Please don't ask me to explain!"
10:30 a.m: There's a lot of racing back and forth between sets and stages.
"Had to race to A Stage to try and explain to Graham (left) and Christian (right) why they were shooting their Dwalin fight against green screen, and not our beautiful expensive set as planned."
From filming to the edit room. Jackson has to figure out where to place music in the film with composer Howard Shore.
"Midday: "Spotting" involves talking through edited scenes with Howard, and figuring out everything he needs to do a first pass at the music composition - where music should start and stop, what mood it should have, themes to use, moments to punctuate. That type of thing. To stay on schedule, Howard needs 10 mins of cut footage every week. This week we only have 3 & a half mins for him. Fortunately, he's very good natured about it. It's happened once or twice before!"
They do manage to get in time for fun. 2:00 p.m.: "I asked the various Thorins to pose just before they headed off to lunch. One of these is Richard Armitage, and two of them are not. It's your guess ..."
4:30 p.m.: Jackson returns to filming the final scenes of the third movie due out in 2014.
"We're battling on, shooting Thorin in a climatic duel for the third movie. Finishing the entire shoot with the end of his story. Fitting I guess. It's obviously not the very end of the movie itself. That scene was actually shot about 2 years ago. But it's tough emotional stuff to punch on with into the night. Keeps us on our toes until the bitter end!"
7:30 p.m.: Graham McTavish finishes his last scene as Dwalin.
8:15 p.m: It's nearly an hour past when filming was supposed to end and Fili (Dean O'Gorman) and Kili (Aidan Turner) just finish filming their first scene.
"Aidan and Dean nail their first shot today. They've been waiting patiently since lunchtime."
Here's the tent where Jackson spends a lot of his time with his script supervisor, editor, assistant, and producer during shoots.
9:21 p.m.: Still filming. "Just shot this close up of Richard. Look for it in Dec 2014!"
10:32 p.m.: Finally, they film the final shots of the movies.
1:08 a.m.: The day isn't over yet. After a 20-hour day and 771 days of shooting, Jackson comes home to a party …
... and his cat, Mr. Smudge.
Peter Jackson couldn't be at Comic-Con this year because he was filming "The Hobbit" ...
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