IGN was honored to spend two days on the New Zealand set of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey last May where we observed filming and chatted with the cast and filmmakers about the highly anticipated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy novel.
At the time of our set visit, The Hobbit was still planned as a two-part adaptation. Suffice to say, the ensuing months saw the two-film adaptation stretched into a trilogy and much of the action-packed sequences that we observed filming will now happen in the second film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. That means we're under embargo for another year before we can tell you about the cool stuff we saw being filmed. So what can we tell you about our trip to Middle-earth?
We interviewed director Peter Jackson; Matt Aitken, Visual Effects Supervisor, Weta Digital; Richard Taylor, Creative Director, Weta Workshop; Peter King, Make-up and Hair Designer and Tami Lane, Prosthetics Supervisor; Bob Buck, Additional Costume Designer; and Dan Hennah, Production Designer. Cast members interviewed included Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins), Andy Serkis (Gollum, 2nd Unit Director), Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Richard Armitage (Thorin Oakenshield), Jed Brophy (Nori), Dean O’Gorman (Fili), Mark Hadlow (Dori), Peter Hambleton (Gloin), Graham McTavish (Dwalin), Ken Stott (Balin), John Callen (Oin), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), William Kircher (Bifur), Adam Brown (Ori), and Aidan Turner (Kili).
It was truly amazing to be able to set foot on the set of The Hobbit, which is situated on the backlot of Stone Street Studios where Jackson and Co. have long operated. It really was as collegial and familial as you'd think from watching those Hobbit vlog entries. The Hobbit has consumed all of Stone Street, with every office, wall, and corner of the studio touched by something from Middle-earth.
Here's some of what Jackson and his stars had to say about bringing Bilbo Baggins' journey to cinematic life. 
Lord of the Rings veteran Sir Ian McKellen found himself at the mercy of a new dual camera system this time out, one that simultaneously records the tall Gandalf and his diminutive co-stars in two separate locations: "So the 13 dwarves are over there in their set, and I'm over in my set, which is a little green screen cutout to make me look tall. With nobody else, 'cause my camera's enslaved to the other one, there isn't an operator. I can't see the people I'm talking to, so they're represented by pictures on top of poles, which light up when they're talking, and I hear them through a sound piece in my ear. I didn't feel like being back, I wanted to go away. I was very, very unhappy, miserable."
McKellen added, "I think because my reaction was so strong to it, it was very difficult and bewildering, Peter has managed to cut down the number of times we've done that since. But in the more general sense, it was the sort of feeling we had by the time we were making The Return of The King, that there had already been two films gone out, which had been much enjoyed. So we felt, which you don't often feel when you're doing a job, this is a job that the audience want me to do."
McKellen said the Hobbit films will go to greater lengths to explain why Gandalf picks Bilbo Baggins to serve as the dwarves' burglar, something Tolkien's book never quite does. "When Gandalf leaves the dwarves to get on with their job, you get to discover why he is supporting them. And that involves an overview of Middle-earth, which wizards and High Elves get involved with. So I think that will lead on very well, out of the story of Lord of The Rings, because when it's quite clear that Middle-earth is at stake. The Hobbit is an adventure story for kids, and told in the first person by someone who might read it to you before you go to bed. Lord of The Rings is about the end of the world. So the tone is clearly very, very different, and that will be reflected. It's reflected in the script, it's reflected in the casting, and it will be reflected, presumably, in the finished film. But alongside that, there's that lighter feel, or a more adventure-story feel. There will be the politics of Middle-earth going on in the background as a support."
McKellen said, "I think the script has made Gandalf a bit less bossy than he is in the novel. But he supports them on their quest, which they call it, and their desire to reclaim their land and property, with a different sort of enthusiasm than he would send the Fellowship off to retrieve the Ring. Which is why it's helpful to me that we should know what's going on elsewhere in Middle-earth, which dwarves tramping around the place, attracting the attention of old enemies and new, threatens to unbalance the ever-present sleeping dragon, the wisdom of waking him, now he's fully grown. If they're going to go off and do that, Gandalf thinks, 'I better be there.' And he's right."
Source : ign[dot]com
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