I was going to JRRT film premieres before it was cool
Two weeks out from the first installment of The Hobbit, Wellington is officially bonkers. Official events include:
* Banners everywhere promoting The Hobbit
* Hobbit silhouettes on the post office building
* Bag End door installation at Wellington Embassy theater
* Gollum installation at airport
* Traffic blocked/cut off downtown on day of movie premiere with parade
* Front page articles about Hobbit in local paper every day for past 2 weeks
* Hobbit stamps
* Hobbit collector's coins
* Hobbit market downtown this weekend
* Hobbit window dressing competition
Unofficial events include lots of bar parties - ale will be quaffed. The festivities were not so elaborate nor entrenched when I came down from Auckland for the TT and RoTK premieres. This should be, for a Tolkien fan, fandom paradise. Also, traffic at my fan site, and related correspondence, is up and positive. And yet...
I have heard from several folks that the people making this movie happen are under huge deadline stress about it, 100-hour weeks, not leaving the studio, etc. God knows what they're not saying. Dream jobs turn into nightmare jobs when workplace rights are swept aside. This fandom delight of a movie and associated festivities is a privilege, not a right decreed by Warner Brothers. If it takes longer to produce this media spectacle to allow the creators to rest and have lives, I've got no problem with that.
* Banners everywhere promoting The Hobbit
* Hobbit silhouettes on the post office building
* Bag End door installation at Wellington Embassy theater
* Gollum installation at airport
* Traffic blocked/cut off downtown on day of movie premiere with parade
* Front page articles about Hobbit in local paper every day for past 2 weeks
* Hobbit stamps
* Hobbit collector's coins
* Hobbit market downtown this weekend
* Hobbit window dressing competition
Unofficial events include lots of bar parties - ale will be quaffed. The festivities were not so elaborate nor entrenched when I came down from Auckland for the TT and RoTK premieres. This should be, for a Tolkien fan, fandom paradise. Also, traffic at my fan site, and related correspondence, is up and positive. And yet...
I have heard from several folks that the people making this movie happen are under huge deadline stress about it, 100-hour weeks, not leaving the studio, etc. God knows what they're not saying. Dream jobs turn into nightmare jobs when workplace rights are swept aside. This fandom delight of a movie and associated festivities is a privilege, not a right decreed by Warner Brothers. If it takes longer to produce this media spectacle to allow the creators to rest and have lives, I've got no problem with that.