A couple of weeks ago, we brought you the news that Martin Freeman had wrapped up his final scene in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, but now we have the even bigger news that the final day of filming has finished. To commemorate the historic event, Jackson decided to do something a little unusual for such a busy man and live blog the events of the final day, starting from getting up in the morning to his triumphant return home to his cat.
Jackson explains his idea in one of his Facebook posts, saying:
“Our last day of shooting. Ever since starting these blogs, there’s been something I thought I’d like to try one day (as well as answering the other 19 questions I owe you!) – blogging throughout a shoot day in real time. Try to give you all a feeling for what we deal with on an average day. Today is not exactly ‘average’, given it’s our last day of shooting, but if I don’t do it today, I never will! So here goes … I’ll try to update as much as I can during the day. At least with a quick photo. Text will depend a little on how busy it gets.”
Most of the photos that he shares require no explanation as they’re mainly shots of cast, crew, and equipment. However, in case you were wondering about the penguins, they’re doing lighting captures. Jackson explains a bit more: “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.” It may not make much sense now, but he promises that we’ll be seeing much more details on the extended cut of the third film.
At the end of it all, Jackson wraps up a 20-hour day, 15 years of Tolkien, and a shoot that lasted 771 days. You have to admire his enormous commitment to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. His Lord of the Rings films are simply amazing, and thus far his work on The Hobbit has been nothing less than extraordinary. Like the millions of other fans around the globe, I can’t wait to see the other two films, which I’m sure will be just as fantastic as the first.
However, there’s still a lot of work to get to that point. Wrapping up filming is just the first step. Now Jackson and his crew must get back to the daunting task of post production, and as we’ve seen in the behind the scenes blogs, that’s no easy matter. Here’s wishing them the best in getting their Herculean task completely done.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters on December 13th, 2013, while The Hobbit: There and Back Again arrives on December 17th, 2014.
Check out the gallery below and let us know what you think in the comments!
(Source: Peter Jackson’s Facebook)
