Touring Middle Earth!
New Zealand Travelog #37
Matamata, NZ - Sat, 20 Apr 2024, 12pm
Where is Middle Earth? In one respect it exists only in fantasy, a creation of J. R. R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. In another respect when director Peter Jackson made 4 movies set in Middle Earth starting twenty-some years ago, various real-world locations were used for filming. The crew created an enormous location set for Hobbiton in a farmer's field outside Matamata, NZ. That's where we went today.
Yes, you can tour Middle Earth. A bus ride takes visitors from the parking lot to the set of Hobbiton, where there are guided tours throughout the day.
There's a lot I could share about this fantastic Behind-the-Scenes tour. I'll keep this entry short to avoid falling further behind in my travelog; I'll follow up with more later. But for now, two things. Well, three.
First, this set is from The Hobbit, not from any of the LotR trilogy movies. That's because after LotR completed filming in 2003 they destroyed the set! Destroying sets, even location sets, is standard in movie-making. Part of the reason is that the sets are constructed with lots of fake materials, made to look just real enough for just long enough to film the requisite scenes. But when they filmed The Hobbit subsequently, it was written into the contracts that the sets would be built durably so they could become a tourist attraction.
Second, the Hobbit holes on the set are a mixture of 90% human scale and 60% human scale. The 60% scale construction was used in the scenes where Gandalf was on screen in the village. The 90% scale construction was used when only actors playing Hobbits were around. This created a sort-of forced perspective look that helped sell the idea that average-height human actors were actually 3½ feet tall, like hobbits.
Third, once the former movie set became a successful tourist attraction, the number-one request from paying visitors was, "How about letting us enter one of the hobbit homes and walk around in it?" It wasn't in the original plans to do that, but it's an idea the company liked. Just recently they finished construction on a pair of homes tour groups can walk through. ...And not just look-but-don't-touch walk through, but please-touch-and-feel-everything! I'll share pics and video from our hands-on walkthrough in a subsequent blog.
Matamata, NZ - Sat, 20 Apr 2024, 12pm
Where is Middle Earth? In one respect it exists only in fantasy, a creation of J. R. R. Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. In another respect when director Peter Jackson made 4 movies set in Middle Earth starting twenty-some years ago, various real-world locations were used for filming. The crew created an enormous location set for Hobbiton in a farmer's field outside Matamata, NZ. That's where we went today.
Yes, you can tour Middle Earth. A bus ride takes visitors from the parking lot to the set of Hobbiton, where there are guided tours throughout the day.
There's a lot I could share about this fantastic Behind-the-Scenes tour. I'll keep this entry short to avoid falling further behind in my travelog; I'll follow up with more later. But for now, two things. Well, three.
First, this set is from The Hobbit, not from any of the LotR trilogy movies. That's because after LotR completed filming in 2003 they destroyed the set! Destroying sets, even location sets, is standard in movie-making. Part of the reason is that the sets are constructed with lots of fake materials, made to look just real enough for just long enough to film the requisite scenes. But when they filmed The Hobbit subsequently, it was written into the contracts that the sets would be built durably so they could become a tourist attraction.
Second, the Hobbit holes on the set are a mixture of 90% human scale and 60% human scale. The 60% scale construction was used in the scenes where Gandalf was on screen in the village. The 90% scale construction was used when only actors playing Hobbits were around. This created a sort-of forced perspective look that helped sell the idea that average-height human actors were actually 3½ feet tall, like hobbits.
Third, once the former movie set became a successful tourist attraction, the number-one request from paying visitors was, "How about letting us enter one of the hobbit homes and walk around in it?" It wasn't in the original plans to do that, but it's an idea the company liked. Just recently they finished construction on a pair of homes tour groups can walk through. ...And not just look-but-don't-touch walk through, but please-touch-and-feel-everything! I'll share pics and video from our hands-on walkthrough in a subsequent blog.