Lord of The Rings Diary

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Extended Edition — Cast Commentary audio track

So charming. I could listen to the raw audio all day.

Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, and Billy Boyd are all pretty obviously recording their commentary together but Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellan, and Sean Bean are on their own doing their commentary. It’s still very enjoyable even if they aren’t directly interacting with each other, but the Hobbits commentary is a lot more fun when they’re playing off each other. Unfortunate though that they didn’t add any Viggo commentary even if it was taking clips from his interviews.

The Hobbit: An Unexpectd Journey

Extended Edition

Despite the fact that I am *much* more fond of the cast and characters after seeing all the Appendages, this makes the movie only minutely more enjoyable. It still is a major drag.

I mainly enjoy seeing Elijah Wood if I’m being 100% honest…

I wish these films dedicated themselves to being *The Hobbit* rather than Peter Jackson’s continuation of his adaptation of Lord of the Rings.

Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King

Theatrical Cut + 2 Extended Edition scenes

What about side by side with a friend? (2/2)

Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Theatrical Cut + 3 Extended Edition Scenes

I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This is Gimli, son of Gloin, and Legolas son of… (looks at palm) T. handrail? (1/2)

Appendage Eleven: Out From the Gate

Chapter 7: Erebor Pickups (Jul 2013)

This appendage is so fun LOL

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Theatrical Cut + 2 Extended Edition scenes

Can you protect me from yourself? (2/2)

Appendage Eleven: Out From the Gate

Chapter 7: Erebor Pickups (Jul 2013)

honestly the only thing keeping me awake while I cram for finals

The Appendices, Part Eleven: The Gathering Storm

General Review

We can tell you made it up on the spot peter... It isn't really a brag to fail to have storyboards and scenes prepared for your actors when you film

Overall though one of the Appendages I enjoyed more!! I've seen 7, 8, 9 and now 11 and this one was very enjoyable (mostly because it included more of the actors I like lol)

Appendage Eleven: The Last Stage

Chapter 7: July 26th 2013

This chapter covers:

• Peter posting on Facebook
• The death scenes
• Richard Armitage final fight scene
• Graham McTavish final fight scene
• The Roxy
• Dean O'Gormans death scene
• Aidan Turners final fight scene
• Armitage final fight cont'd
• Aidan Turner final scene (bangs fixed)
• Wrap party
• Actor gag real
• Actor gifts
• Concluding statements

Dean O'Gorman so kawaii slash joke

Graham McTavish being so emotional about finishing filming is so sweet... crying while hugging Dean and he cried while hugging Martin it's so nice to see that everyone is so comfortable w each other that they can do that

Aidan Turner having to redo his last shot because Kilis bangs looked wrong... I do agree though the final shot looks much better

Appendage Eleven: Out From the Gate

Chapter 7: Erebor Pickups (Jul 2013)

This chapter covers:

• Dwarf actors training
• Building Bomburs horn
• Creating the armour
• Shedding the heavy armour
• Running into the Battlefield
• The initial battle sequence
• Bifur losing his axe
• The Chariot sequence (jambags)
• Bilbo fighting with the laketown men
• Martin Freeman playing pingpong
• The Acorn scene (Freeman's last day)

Stephen very dryly blowing against the horn that makes no noise... so awkward

It's so silly to see the chariot was done practically LOL it rolls so slow

The Jambags is possibly the only worthy part of this movie and I'm so happy to learn Phillipa and Fran wrote it and not Peter cause it's so funny

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YAMBAGS BUT PETER READ IT WRONG... Graham McTavish making Martin Freeman cry cause his voice was breaking when he said goodbye to him...

Appendage Eleven: The Clouds Burst

Chapter 7: Dale (Jun 2013)

This chapter covers:

• The upside down bat stunts
• Evangeline doing her own stunts
• Ingrid Kleinig doing Tauriels stunts
• Laketown Refugees
• More Legolas stunts
• Surprising Orlando
• Orlandos last scene
• Taking the Hobbits to Isengard
• Thorins death
• Gandalf comforting Bilbo
• Ian McKellans last day filming

I HATE THE UPSIDE DOWN BAT SCENE ITS THE STUPIDEST THING

I wonder if Richard Armitage as a queer person and as someone who grew up with the Hobbit as a piece of literature that has inspired him greatly thinks Thorin and Bilbo are queer.

Appendage Eleven: Many Partings

Chapter 6: End of Principal Photography (Jun-Jul 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Pickup filming Erebor w/ new sets
• Saying Goodbye to Bilbo
• THE TOMBS
• Thranduils tent
• Wrap up filming for 2012
• The wheel
• Ian McKellan last day of shooting

Big fat beard covering your fat face we will give you a dignified death...

BRUH JAMES NESBITT SAYING KILI FILI THORIN ARE THE WORST FIGHTING FAMILY IN THE WORLD AT THEIR TOMBS...

Lee Pace saying all he does in this movie is sit around LOL I wouldn't ask for anymore

I think of last day of shooting and I remember Elijah's last day on LOTR and I get upset...

Appendage Eleven: The Gathering of the Clouds

Chapter 5: Erebor (May-Jun 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Building sets and costumes on time
• Closing off Erebor
• Cast Read-throughs at the barrier
• Lee Paces horse
• Dwarven Armour (Pantomiming)
• Erebor sound design
• Dragon-sickness
• Building sets on a time crunch
• Peter winging filming Erebor
• Pushing filming back a year to write

Three and a half years of pre production on LOTR vs everything being made the day of on The Hobbit explains a lot... Richard throwing a huge brick at Jed and Jed was thinking it was a fake one but it had weight so he got the wind knocked out of him and everyone laughing at him nnnooo...

Ian and Luke Evans gallops are so funny during the read-through

Thank god Ian read the book cause why did the script writers not use that material ???

Lee Pace so kawaii... the horses being removed because Lees horse wasn't cooperating

William Kircher blaming Aidan Turner for stealing his prop when it was Jed Brophy and Dean O'Gorman... THEYRE SO MEAN TO WILLIAM INSINUATING HE IS THE LAME ONE... They do know which clips to choose though for the yearbook section I have to say

Richard Armitage saying he could tell Peter didn't know what he was filming I will strangle everyone

Appendage Eleven: In the Wake of the Dragon

Chapter 4: Lake Pukaki (Dec 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Cast Read-through
• Dressing the set
• Alfrid and extras
• Kili and Tauriel
• Post production audio recording
• Jamie being in every bkg shot
• Alfrid mobbing scene
• Victoria as the Continuity supervisor

It's so nice that a lot of the cast had input on the script! I think Peter was just struggling

The extras screaming too loudly and drowning out the sound in Aidan and Evangeline's scene...

Ryan (Alfrid) getting his trousers ripped open by the extras on accident... and then they started to split on every take

Continuity supervising is so interesting i've never seen this before it sounds very fun

The best at continuity: Bard (Luke Evans), Thorin (Richard Armitage), Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt)

The crew theorizing that Victoria, the continuity supervisor, choosing the actors she thought were the most attractive first..

Appendage Eleven: Under the Shadow of the Mountain

Chapter 3: Rock & Pillar Range (Nov 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Helicopter Operations
• preserving the environment
• Weather on the Location
• Getting stranded on location

Great that all the casts first time in a helicopter was also in costume LOL

Bro genuinely so drawn out cause they did the same helicopter stuff in LOTR behind the scenes and they spent maybe a minute on it whereas this segment I’m on minute 6… just helicopters… I wish they dragged out LOTR BTS this much

Also very funny that the cast got stranded on the mountain in their costumes

Appendage Eleven: Fire and Water

Chapter 2: Attack on Laketown (Aug 2011/Apr 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Luke Evans as Bard
• The Hailstorm
• Luke Evans on the Bell Tower
• The Bards Longbow
• The Black Arrow
• Crew extras (Orlando's mom)
• Stephen Fry as the Master of Laketown
• Outdoor Laketown set
• Burning the Laketown set
• CGI Dragon Fire and Smaug
• CGI Destroyed Buildings
• The Desolation of Smaug (per say)

As a Canadian seeing the "snowstorm" that halted production... This is what the country looks like in the spring here lol!!

Peter Jackson is pretty gutsy to compare the beginning of Five Armies to James Bond

Appendage Eleven: In the dungeons of the Necromancer

Chapter 1: Dol Guldur (May 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Fleshing out Gandalfs Journey
• Antony Sher as Thrain
• Thrains doubles
• Kiran Shah as a scale double
• Filming with the 2nd Azog design
• Cate Blanchetts kids
• Galadriels role
• Ian McKellans corpse prop
• McKellan working with Blanchett
• Ringwraiths
• Christopher Lee as Saruman
• Hugo Weaving as Elrond
• Galadirels transformation
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Necromancer
• Learning Black Speech (backwards)
• Cate Blanchetts last day of filming
• The Wheel

Its so lovely seeing Cate Blanchett and Ian McKellan getting along so well LOL

The amount of greenscreen, I am always amazed. James Nesbitt traveling 12,000 miles to spin the wheel and his prize was to hold a ball... he looks so proud in the picture they took of him as Bofur

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Extended Edition

The end to a trilogy of bland color, pointless filler, bad writing, and ugly CG… and it bears its title proudly.

I’ve watched appendacies 7-9 by this point, and I truly mourn what could’ve been seeing all the scrapped art and the attempts to be practical. Genuinely, it makes me sick to think about what could’ve been, not even just referring to Del Toro‘s design (though I mourn this too), but the design made while Jackson took over that he threw away in favor for CGI-fest.

Evidently, Jackson, to almost every other shoot seems to have thought to himself „It doesn’t look right, we‘ll just do it digitally“. The amount of work the animation and CG teams had to do for these trilogies and all (seemingly) last minute... It shows...

The way they handled the deaths too like how did anyone allow this movie to be made...

I do have to say though, the bagginshield people probably enjoy this movie quite a lot lol…

The Appendices, Part Eight: Return to Middle-earth

General Review

This appendage (the first half) sticks much closer to the dwarves and their actors than the other appendages I've seen so far (7&9) because it's all about getting them casted and figuring out their characters, design, costume, and personality. The second half is less interesting imo.

Unlike the other appendages (7&9) one is not about the filming schedules and behind the scenes for certain sequences, it it about designing everything for Unexpected Journey like characters and sets.

I took some creative liberties in breaking up the chapters more. (breaking up one chapter into sub segments because it would be too long otherwise)

Appendage Eight: The Songs of The Hobbit

Chapter 7

This chapter covers:

• Blunt the knives
• Misty Mountains
• Bofurs song at Rivendell
• Down down in Goblin Town
• Misty Mountain Reprise for credits

For Blunt the Knives they wanted a flute and just so happens James Nesbitt can play the tin whistle LOL isn't that nice. I do like that Dwalin plays a fiddle... and Kili and Fili jumping around the Bag End set lol

I'm sorry im not a huge fan of the singing. They sound great but i've never been a fan of the singing in the movies.

I didn't realize that Bofur is standing on the same plinth that Frodo puts the one ring on when he sings !!!!! Waow GROWLS LOUD!!! and they took a song Frodo was supposed to sing in Bree (that he learned from Bilbo) and made it Bofurs song LOL Bilbo must've learned it from Bofur or Bofur learned it from Bilbo...

The doc is ended with the premiere for The Unexpected Journey which was pretty fun other than that.. Again, sorry, I just don't like the music very much.

Appendage Eight: Goblin Town

Chapter 6: Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town

This chapter covers:

• Designing Goblin Town
• Creating the set
• The shit cauldron
• Designing Rock
• Designing the world for CG filming

Do not eat while watching this segment.

Appendage Eight: The Misty Mountains

Chapter 6: Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town

This chapter covers:

• The Stone Giants designs
• CGI + set filming

No comment really... Feeling drawn out whereas the first half of this doc there was nothing I wished to be left out.

Appendage Eight: Rivendell

Chapter 6: Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town

This chapter covers:

• Rebuilding Rivendell
• Entering Rivendell
• CGI Rivendell
• The observatory
• The White Council Chamber
• Steps for Cate Blanchett (Galadriel)

Alan Lee adding a ring onto his ring of Sauron from The Fellowship LOL

Cries hard... The miniatures are so charming from LOTR and they made it all CGI here...

Insane to think the sets they did make for the Hobbit are so amazing... like just imagine how LOTR was...

Appendage Eight: Rhosgobel

Chapter 6: Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town

This chapter covers:

• Designing Rhosgobel
• Building Rhosgobel
• Creating the props

No comment LOL I do like the detail that there is a gap in a branch in the shape of Radagasts hat from wearing it down over the years.

Appendage Eight: Hobbiton

Chapter 6: Realms of the Third Age: From Bag End to Goblin Town

This chapter covers:

• Hobbiton/The Shire built on location
• Bag End rebuilt on set B
• Designing the Pantry
• The Food!!!
• Designing the unused dining room
• The Bedroom

ELIJAH!!!!!! briefly as Frodo now, in an interview, and old Frodo footage.

Appendage Eight: Azog the Defiler

Chapter 5: The People and Denizens of Middle Earth

This chapter covers:

• Designing Azog
• Azog costume ideas (1st actor Conan)
• Redesign #1 (2nd actor John Rawls)
• Redesign #2, CGI over everything
• Manu Bennett as Azog MOCAP

Very interesting to me how much like an elf Azog looks in some of the original concepts... one can dream... I think he would've been much more memorable had he looked like that (or more beloved).

It is cool to see the original practical designs for Azog before CGI.

It's a bit disappointing to see what we could've had... like GOD some of this is so cool like Fury Road but nooooo we had to get the CGI blob... ARGH!!! I'm genuinely upset about this

SO A WHOLE HOBBIT MOVIE EXISTS WITH THE ORIGINAL OLD AZOG DESIGN… growls... they CGI'd over everything...

The Azog we know was done start to finish in only a few weeks (just over a month) and it shows.

I did not think I would care so much...

Appendage Eight: Goblins

Chapter 5: The People and Denizens of Middle Earth

This chapter covers:

• Designing the goblins
• Notary training performers for goblins
• Designing mutations and growths
• Filming the physical goblins
• Notary as goblins on MOCAP
• CGI mutations
• The Goblin King/The Great Goblin
• Barry Humphries casted as the King
• Barry Humphries MOCAP

Not much to say. Pretty gross

Appendage Eight: Radagast the Brown

Chapter 5: The People and Denizens of Middle Earth

This chapter covers:

• The wizards of LOTR
• Characterizing Radagast
• Sylvester casted as Radagast
• Designing Radagast
• Sylvester as Radagast

I didn't realize how asymmetric Radagast is. I think I just don't notice these small details... I feel like I miss everything now design wise.

Appendage Eight: The Stone Trolls

Chapter 5: The People and Denizens of Middle Earth

This chapter covers:

• designing the trolls (differentiating)
• creating the trolls digitally
• casting the troll voices (Hambleton, Kircher, and Hadlow)
• MOCAP training with Serkis
• CGI work on the trolls

So much detail I never noticed in the films. I didn’t even know the trolls were supposed to look different.

Appendage Eight: Durin Folk

Chapter 4: Creating the Dwarves

This chapter covers:

• Richard Taylor on the dwarves
• Developing the personalities/character
• Alan Lee and John Howes photoshop
• Dwarf prosthetic testing
• WETA photoshopping actor faces
• Sculpting clay faces of the actors
• Showing the cast the finished head
• Scaling (fat suits)
• Costume design (fabric, color)
• Scaling (face prosthetics)
• Scaling (hand prosthetics)
• Editing the face prosthetic
• Beards (Yak hair)
• The Weapons (making them unique)
• Cooling the actors
• Makeup and Costume units

I wish I could see all the different initial photoshopped designs of all the actors as dwarves cause why does kili have cornrows... I don't think you can have that...

The starfish for Nori, I love Nori

So funny to see them stretch Mark Hadlow and show a photoshopped version of him as Dori

The fat suits and different silhouettes, Nori built like a pixar mom...

I love costume design so this is actually a very nice segment for me at least

Oris knitted work is so cool to see with the coloring they chose like the lavenders and purples.

I've always loved Dwalin having all the furs on his costume. Armitage needing the boots to act correctly is so fun. Like the costume and your gait is so important.

Seeing the actors heads with just the helmet on with their ears is so funny... like they really are humongous without the hair...

And Peter being super serious about not having prosthetics under the eyes because John Rhys-Davids had so much irritation and swelling as Gimli.

Dwalin having prosthetic sleeves vs everyone else having the hands... poor creatur. Mark Hadlow making fun of Grahams normal forearms

THE ORIGINAL KILI PROSTHETICS POOR CREATURE... WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT LMFAO

Fran and Phillipa saying Aidan's whole face had to be seen because he had to look handsome... So the only thing he wears is the cowl to increase his head size and add ears and a little prosthetic on the tip of his nose. So he wears the least prosthetic of all the dwarves.

Also the crew saying Thorin couldn't wear too many prosthetics because he had to be sexy

Everyone growing their beards out only to have it shaved off for fake beards… and everyone being jealous of Richard Aidan and Dean (Thorin, Kili, Fili) because they get to wear their own facial hair...

Dwalin axes being named Grasper and Keeper after Emily Brontes dogs because Graham liked them, so strange.

Armitage was the one who came up with the pal shield

Dwalin milk…

Appendage Eight: Mr. Baggins, The 14th Member

Chapter 3

This chapter covers:

• Casting Bilbo
• Balancing Sherlock
• Figuring out Freeman as Bilbo
• Bilbos sex life
• Freeman acting differently in every take
• Freeman behind the scenes
• Compilation of Freemans middle fingers
• Ian McKellan on Martin Freeman

Phillipa knew Martin from The Office and he had been the teams first choice as Bilbo for a long while (like since 2002). And Freeman also had to balance Sherlock with The Hobbit which is why he initially couldn't be in the film so the crew did extra auditions for Bilbo but they ended up needing Freeman in the end (Though I'm unsure about it). I do think he's a funny guy though there's a reason why he was in The Office.

Ian McKellan is incredibly fond of Freeman, which does make me like him a bit more.

Appendage Eight: Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur

Chapter 2: Distinguishing the dwarves by family

This chapter covers:

• The cast on William Kircher as Bifur
• The cast on Stephen Hunter as Bombur
• The cast on James Nesbitt as Bofur

I didn't know that Bifur didn't speak english at all until watching these appendages. AND I DIDNT EVEN KNOW HE HAD AN AXE BIT IN HIS FOREHEAD UNTIL THIS APPENDAGE... and he is a toy maker.

And Bofurs braids are so cute...

18 months in and everyone is still laughing at Bombur...

Appendage Eight: Dori, Nori, and Ori

Chapter 2: Distinguishing the dwarves by family

This chapter covers:

• The cast on Adam Brown as Ori
• The cast on Mark Hadlow as Dori
• The cast on Jed Brophy as Nori

The three actors (Adam, Mark, Jed) agreeing that they're all half brothers from the same mother is so silly.

Their interpretation:

Dori is family oriented. He worries about Nori who is the black sheep of the family and he mothers Ori because he’s the youngest in their family.

Nori is a theif/poacher. Jed actually tried to take something from every set he was on. He got about 50 pieces of gold while filming.

Ori was written around Adam’s audition for Bilbo. Ori wants to be mischievous like Nori but he can’t because Dori is watching him. And the skeleton in the mines of Moria in LOTR with the book in his hands is actually Ori!!!

Mark Hadlow: "Ori is the biggest virgin in the world"

Adam Brown and Graham McTavish are the biggest gossips on set and they both got their makeup done together.

And the cast being jealous of Jed because he's very skilled with stunts and riding horses and whatnot but they also find him insufferable because he's always joyous...

AND EVERYONE IS SO MEAN TO MARK HADLOW...

Mark Hadlow having DORI 1 as his license plate and Aiden Turner cringing so aggressively at it...

Appendage Eight: Oin and Gloin

Chapter 2: Distinguishing the dwarves by family

This chapter covers:

• The cast on Peter Hambleton as Gloin
• The cast on John Calle as Oin

So fun seeing John Rhys-Davies on set.

I also didn't know that Gloin handled the money and Oin was the medicine man of the group. and Oin is the medicine man because he makes "oin-tment" awful. I also did not know I could identify him by his horn and that he was hard of hearing.

John and Peter have the heaviest prosthetics and costumes too which I didn't know. John was 67 when filming...

Appendage Eight: Balin and Dwalin

Chapter 2: Distinguishing the dwarves by family

This chapter covers:

• The cast on Ken Stott as Balin
• The cast on Graham McTavish as Dwalin

I didn't even realize Balin was the dead dwarf Gimli sees in the mines of Moria

I say this in appendage 7 but the appendages make me like Dwalin sm lol!! he's definitely one of my favorites where before he was kinda just . another guy. Graham requesting to have a scary chair and getting a throne of skulls for the AC tent... and Graham saying Dwalin would be good at mixing drinks and then miming it and Adam Brown laughing at the motion he's doing

Mark Hadlow standing impossibly close to Graham and bothering him constantly...

Appendage Eight: Thorin, Fili and Kili

Chapter 2: Distinguishing the dwarves by family

This chapter covers:

• The cast on Armitage as Thorin
• The cast on O'Gorman as Fili
• The cast on Turner as Kili

Armitage is so dedicated to his role. He read pretty much everything Tolkien wrote and Tolkien‘s unpublished works. His devotion is very commendable. As Hambleton says, Armitage has a very strange sense of humor...

Everyone getting Fili and Kilis names wrong including Peter Jackson and their actors... before I watched the Hobbit I swear I read somewhere that their names were the other way around and I thought "Oh that doesn't fit as well" so you can imagine my surprise seeing the films and seeing it was the way I originally thought.

Armitage seeing Fili as the one that Thorin is carefully grooming to become king and Kili as the one that Thorin has a soft spot for and lets him do his own thing because he is so brash on his is such a good read on the characters, I see them the same way. (and also the makeup test for Aiden Turner they show here is so cute)

And Aidan Turner agreeing with the fan theory that Kili is half elf (though not for the reasons the fans do I think...)

Sorry I do love Graham McTavish a lot and it's so fun to see him on full prosthetics and costume acting like himself and not Dwalin...

And then the segment where Adam Brown and Mark Hadlow are... Complimenting Aidan Turner . you can tell this is edited by someone a bit beyond my years because I cringe every time I see it

Appendage Eight: The Company of Thorin

Chapter 1 (~2011)

This chapter covers:

• Difficulties when adapting the Hobbit
• Casting the Dwarves (Auditions)
• Peter Hambleton casted as Gloin
• Stephen Hunter casted as Bombur
• James Nesbitt casted as Bofur
• John Callen casted as Oin
• Aidan Turner casted as Kili
• William Kircher casted as Bifur
• Graham McTavish casted as Dwalin
• Adam Brown casted as Ori
• Ken Stott casted as Balin
• Jed Brophy casted as Nori
• Mark Hadlow casted as Dori
• Richard Armitage casted as Thorin
• Rob Kazinsky (Fili) leaving the film
• Dean O'Gorman casted as Fili
• (truly crappy) edit of the dwarves

I do think it's funny that Aidan Turner originally auditioned to be an elf... who do you think you are lil bro... but it's so cool to see that the casting directors knew they had to use him they just didn't know where. That sixth sense is amazing.

Also, Adam Brown auditioning as Bilbo is so silly, could you imagine

Also also, very cool to see footage of Jed Brophy's work in the lord of the rings!!!

Also also also, The Hobbit being what got Richard Armitage to want to be an actor as a kid and then being cast as Thorin!?

Dean O'Gorman auditioning as Bilbo and then being casted as Fili late. Imagine if he weren't in the film I cannot even imagine.

The Appendices, Part Seven: A Long-Expected Journey

General Review

4.5 hours of procrastination does awful things to a person. I've got a final in 9 hours.

Insanely long yet it feels as if so much is left out! So little fighting!!! Perhaps that's left to Appendage 8.

Appendage Seven: Home is Behind, The World Ahead

Chapter 14: Behind the scenes preview for film 2

This chapter covers:

• Saying the first of three goodbyes
• Finishing editing for the premiere
• The last shot of Smaug
• Previews for the second movie

Nice to be graced with Lee Pace.

Appendage Seven: Edge of the Wilderland

Chapter 13: Pickups & the Carrock (Jul 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Bilbo saving Thorins life from the Wargs
• Thorin Bilbo Closeup in Rivendell
• Filming Terry Notary as an Orc
• Filming on Weathertop
• Dori and Ori hanging off the Tree
• Peter Jackson dwarf cameo
• Ian McKellan falling asleep on set
• The Carrock summit
• Last day of filming + gifts

God. Viggo Mortensen on weathertop shown and mentioned. What a rush.

Appendage Seven: The Battle of Moria (T.A. 2799)

Chapter 12 (~2012)

This chapter covers:

• Filming the fighting with second unit
• Filming with McTavish (Dwalin)
• Filming with Armitage (Thorin)
• Filming the Oakenshield moment

Not much to say again. Armitage biting off half his lip was probably the highlight.

Appendage Seven: Return to HobbitonThe Epic of Scene 88

Chapter 11: Strath Taieri (Nov-Dec 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Running through the plains
• Stunt team running for second unit
• Pick-up filming for Ian McKellan

Not much to say here honestly. And Honestly not very much footage shown unfortunately, no fighting!!

Appendage Seven: Return to Hobbiton

Chapter 10: The Shire (Oct-Nov 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Filming Old Tooks party with baby Bilbo
• Filming Hobbiton on location (Elijah)
• Hobbit extras on location
• Bilbo running out of Hobbiton

Again, it's lovely to see Elijah as Frodo in these behind the scenes. And seeing old footage of Elijah's 19th birthday!!!

Appendage Seven: Out of the Frying Pan

Chapter 9: The Forest Ledge (Oct-Nov 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Filming the tree stunts
• The fire pinecones
• Lighting the forest set on fire
• CGI Eagles and the rigs

So silly hearing Dean (Fili) squeak when the animatronic tree hits him a bit harder than expected

Appendage Seven: Under Hill

Chapter 8: Goblin Town (Oct 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Goblin practical costume work
• Filming the dwarf goblin struggle
• Goblin performances using MOCAP
• Barry Humphries as the Goblin king
• Kiran humping Mark on Peter's orders
• Filming the fight scenes with CGI

Honestly not much to say here. Disgusting how much sweat came out of that guys silicone Goblin foot... why was it white???

Appendage Seven: Over Hill

Chapter 7: The Misty Mountains (Sept-Oct 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Simulating the storm
• Wetting the actors
• Filming in the storm
• Filming the trap door stunts

This scene is so unnecessary in the movie lol... Bofurs (James Nesbitt) braids are so cute ive never seen him up close without the hat. STEPHEN (Bombur) STUCK ON HIS BACK ALL THE PIPES ARE OFF BUT ONE WONT TURN OFF AND ITS POURING DIRECTLY ON HIS CROTCH... awful... Grahams (Dwalin) enthusiasm is so fun.

Appendage Seven: A short rest

Chapter 6: Rivendell & London (May/Jul 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Working with Hugo Weaving (Elrond)
• Lindir's return (FIGWIT)
• Thorins Company arriving in Rivendell
• Thorins Company having dinner
• Martins last shots on the first film
• Cate Blanchett (Galadriel) returning
• Christopher Lee (Sauroman) in London
• Christopher Lee with the cast and crew
• Filming Bag End in London (Elijah Wood)
• Elijah having difficulty getting feet on

I LOVE Hugo Weaving. So cool to see him behind the scenes for once! Ian and Hugo are a treat to see together.

Cate... so cutie behind the scenes. AND TWO FRODO SCENES BROUGHT BACK IN BLANCHETTS SEGMENT

Elijah saying the Hobbit feet feel normal to him LOL

Appendage Seven: Bastion of the Greenwood

Chapter 5: Rhosgobel (May 2011)

This chapter covers:

• CGI Rabbits
• Radagast stunts done by Tim Wong
• McCoy doing the close-ups

Very cool to see old footage of Tim doing stunt work as Frodo! Also fun to see him in a full prosthetic mask and on the sled Radagast has.

Appendage Seven: Roast Mutton

Chapter 4: Trollshaws Forest (Apr-May 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Changing the set around
• MOCAP trolls
• Filming fighting sequences
• Dwarves in bags and on the spit
• Dean O'Gorman being casted late

I never new John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) also played Treebeard until now.

McTavish (Dwalin) being the first and last off the spit is so funny. Adam Brown (Ori) vomiting... poor guy.

Deans (Fili) first day being a greenscreen shot where he's in a harness that's crushing his balls doing a stunt... just awful.

Appendage Seven: An Unexpected Party

Chapter 3: Bag End (Mar-Apr 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Filming Ian McKellan as Gandalf (Slave Motion control and Scaling)
• Filming Thorins company in Bag End
• Filming with Second (Serkis) unit begins
• Filming Thorins company eating

Ugh I always feel awful about Ian (Gandalf) seeing him so upset and distressed filming this segment. I think it was a shite surprise they had for Ian but who am I to judge. It seemed to have lifted his mood.

I do like seeing Thorins company trash bag end though

Appendage Seven: Riddles in the dark

Chapter 2: Gollums cave (Mar 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Andy Serkis as the second unit director
• Rehearsal for the scene
• First day of principal photography
• Serkis breaking the facial cam
• CGI Gollum vs Andy Serkis side by side
• How they animate Gollum

Kinda fun to see how practical some of this is and how that declines as they approach their deadlines LOL. Seeing the CGI Gollum directly beside Serkis was also pretty cool!!

Appendage Seven: The Journey Back to Middle-Earth

Chapter 1 (~2011)

This chapter covers:

• After Lord of The Rings (Considering The Hobbit)
• Guillermo del Toro
• Preparing for film (redesigning del Toro)
• First impressions from actors
• Dwarf boot camp
• Scale Doubles
• First read-through
• Peter Jackson hospitalized (hiatus)
• Horse riding with the dwarf actors
• Learning to move like dwarves (Notary)
• First Press Conference w/ actors (2011)
• Dwarf singing lessons
• Dwarf dialect coaching
• Jackson Returns to pre-production
• Weapons training for dwarves (& scale)
• Powhiri (Freeman being overdressed)

I watched appendage 9 before this and it seems that one had better chapter pacing? So far I feel like some of this could've been sectioned better because I'm almost an hour in and still on chapter 1!! I do really love seeing the training that Thorins company did though it's really fun to see them with bows and arrows and sledge hammers fighting each other.

The Appendices, Part Nine: Into the Wilderland

General Review

5 hours of behind the scenes. two of these per film... just about as well paced as the hobbit movies themselves LOL so I'm gonna review each chapter of this Appendage seperately

One note, If you like Dwalin you'll love this appendage. I think he's the actor most focused on with the bloopers and interviews.

Appendage Nine: Into the fire

Chapter 12: Behind the scenes preview for film 3

Finally done!! God. That was slightly painful. I wish this was split up into Behind the scenes like how LOTR was split with actor bits, CGI bits, building bits instead of having a HUGE doc. I can't even imagine what appendage 10 could have in it cause I've just watched so much.

Appendage Nine: Erebor Rekindled

Chapter 11: The Dwarf-Forges (Jun 2013)

This chapter covers:

• Writing the Dwarves v Smaug scene
• Armitage showing off the Erebor set
• Greenscreening Thorins company
• Setting up the golden statue/climax
• MOCAP filming Smaug in a 3d space
• Last 48hrs of sound mixing

ALL GREENSCREEN how genuinely frustrating!! Didn't even know what they were filming!! The sound mixing was actually pretty cool to see though

Appendage Nine: A Chance Meeting

Chapter 10: Bree (May 2013)

This chapter covers:

• Rebuilding the Prancing Pony
• LOTR BTS in Bree w/ Elijah Wood (1999)
• Building Bree for LOTR (1999)
• Building Bree for The Hobbit
• Polaroids from LOTR continuity albums
• Summarizing important parts from LOTR
• Planning out the shots (carrot man)
• Filming interior w/ McKellan & Armitage
• Bree extras

I love seeing the LOTR behind the scenes, but kind of upsetting that behind the scenes for a different movie happens to be the highlight for this movie doc for me!!

Appendage Nine: Barrels out of Bond

Chapter 9: The Elven Sluice (MaMay-Jun 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Deleted LOTR river scene repurposed
• Creating the sluiceway
• Working on the wet set
• Choosing victims for water dumping
• Waterproof Camera Rigs
• Martin Freeman drinking piss
• Conceptualizing the CGI scenes
• The sluice gate (barrels on wheels)
• Hydraulic Rig (Green gimps)
• Location filming — Aratiatia Dam
• The go-pro
• Creating the CGI river
• CG Legolas + Greenscreening
• Last day for the second directing unit
• Behind the scenes photography
• Cramming in the Gandalf sideplots
• Pickup filming

this looks so fun

WHAT DO YOU MEAN A BUNCH OF THE ACTORS WERE PISSING IN THE WATER ITS A CLOSED OFF WATER SET BRUH ID ALSO BE FURIOUS IF I WAS MARTIN (Bilbo) HE WAS SWALLOWING ALL THAT... it was stephen (bombur) and dean (fili) according to adam (ori) who were pissing...

I hate the go pro. Everyone does…

Appendage Nine: Down the swift dark stream

Chapter 8: The forest river (Dec 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Location filming — Pelorus River
• Filming the end sequence
• The fat suits absorbing water

A lot of talk about testicles in this segment. Cold river water gets that serious I guess. It's nice to see just how much they enjoyed the on location shooting!! Makes you wish more was practical.

Appendage Nine: Inside Information

Chapter 7: Smaugs Lair (Mar 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Bilbo entering the mountain
• Designing Smaugs Lair
• Maneuvering through the gold
• Readying the set for shooting
• filming Bilbo speaking to Smaug
• CGI coins

Smaug the Stupendous. Benedict Cumberbatch is lovely.

3:06:00 SIX SEVEN METIONED!!!!!!!!

Personally seeing how vibrant some of the ungraded shots are makes me mourn what film we could've gotten had this grey goop not been so seductive to jackson.

Appendage Nine: On the doorstep

Chapter 6: The Lonely Mountain (Feb 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Statues outside Erebor
• The Hidden Door
• Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug
• Destroying the Hidden Door

Honestly this whole documentary is making me much more fond of Dwalin (Graham McTavish). They focus on his behind the scenes a lot more than the other actors in this whole appendage.

Appendage Nine: Queer Lodgings

Chapter 5: Beorns House (Nov 2011/Mar 2012)

This chapter covers:

• Using Greenscreen on location
• Scale work for Beorns set
• More green screening
• The large scaled dining room
• Bomburs running scene

The greenscreen scaling (though this CGI is needed) is so frustrated to see! So many amazing actors to do a scene with and you’re put into a little green room on your own.

Dean (Fili) running full speed and Stephen (Bombur) catching up to him is so fun though

Appendage Nine: Flies and Spiders

Chapter 4: Mirkwood Forest (Sept-Oct 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Filming on set with Thorins company
• Green suits for CGI
• Ian McKellan at the Elven Gate
• Carrying Bombur
• The spiders
• Covering the dwarves in web
• Peter Jacksons tea addiction
• More webbing with the dwarves

Again, the fun bits of this doc for me is when you have all of Thorins company together so the scenes with the spiders and everyone covered in webs are a treat to see.

Appendage Nine: In The Halls of The Elvenking

Chapter 3: The Woodland Realm (Sept 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Lee Pace as Thranduil
• Design: Aging of costumes
• Elf Extras casting
• Thorin and Thranduil greenscreening
• Evangeline knife-work
• Alan Lee deleted greenscreen shot
• The barrel scene
• The dwarves in the Mirkwood dungeons
• Kili and Tauriel

I will keep complaining about this. Genuinely 10min of coverage for every 5sec scene in the movie (which isn't so nice for the side characters I dislike, but very lovely for the ones I do like so. Pick your poison)

Orlando Bloom (Legolas) Feltoning before Felton when it comes to that wig and the whole father thing... Sorray but I have to make the comparison.

Lee Pace (Thranduil) walking around set in his wig and uggs. Enough said...

It's sm fun to see the behind the scenes for the whole dwarf company. I wish they mixed those in better. The only bits they showed for the barrels (for now) was before they're in the water. Excited to see the rest of that.

Kili (Aiden Turner) and Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) are so cute, Sorry I tolerate this hetslop.

Appendage Nine: Shelter on The Long Lake

Chapter 2: Bards House (Sept 2011)

This chapter covers:

• Scale work (1:1.42)
• Kili surgery (Evangeline learning Elvish)
• Nesbitt family extras
• Ingrid Stunt work as Tauriel
• The toilet
• The Black Arrow

Evangeline (Tauriel) is so lovely. I know the Bard (Luke Evans) and the Master of the Lake are all important but there's so little of the dwarves in this appendage so far! The toilet stuff was fun but it's very minor in this section

Appendage Nine: A Warm Welcome

Chapter 1: Laketown (Feb 2012)

This chapter covers:

• The fish
• Orlando Bloom stunt work
• CGI/MOCAP work for orcs
• Dwarf Greenscreen work w/ Armitage
• Alan Lee Cameo
• Women of Laketown extras
• Laketown spy extras (Colbert)
• Master of Laketown and Alfrid
• hitting Alfrid with Eggs
• Animal Testicles

The fish was kinda fun! Orlando (Legolas) is kinda Tom Felton before Felton but this isn't even the worst of it... It was kinda cool to see more of his old footage doing sword work from LOTR though.

Stephen Colbert, eh.

About 10min spent on each 5sec scene with the Master of Laketown and Alfrid, and that's pretty much what the Hobbit is all about though.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Extended Edition

A lot better with the Kili side plot, but also a bit cornier. I’m biased. The go-pro footage was truly awful…

Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King

Theatrical Cut + 4 Extended Edition scenes

Im glad to be with you Samwise Gamgee 😭😭😭😭😭😭 here at the end of all things 😿😿😿😿😿

Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King

Extended Edition

IM GLAD TO BE WITH YOU SAMWISE GAMGEE HERE AT THE END OF ALL THINGS 😭😭😭💔💔💔💔

The Hobbit: An Unexpectd Journey

Extended Edition

LOTR: Enough to make a grown man cry 😿

The Hobbit: That too but … well … 😹 At least Frodo was there

❗️I haven’t read the Hobbit so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Easy Punches to land that I feel everyone complains about:

• This movie is SO stretched out and long! You can feel the filler
• The worst parts of LOTR was the CGI and this movie is almost entirely CGI reliant
• A cast of 13 dwarves is hard to wrap your head around and they all kinda become one amalgamation of a character (I think I only got past this cause I knew of some characters beforehand so I could at least different them from the rest of the pack) and it doesn’t help that all their names are the exact same minus a letter (Though this is mostly Tolkiens doing)
• The Hobbit is trying to be LOTR when it should be simply The Hobbit. It wasn’t meant to ease into the world in the same manner imo…
• Linked to the last point, this movie feels very YA.

Genuinely half of this movie can be cut out and nothing is lost … other than dwarf butt

Other stuff I don’t see people talk about too much:

I find Martin Freeman does not play Bilbo Baggins in this movie… he plays Martin Freeman… I don’t find Bilbo charming really, but more like a sore thumb compared to the rest of his company. I get that he is the odd one out but it feels like that in more ways than just species or behavior, he just feels so modern. I think that’s mostly because of Freeman’s delivery, and Martin Freeman surrounded by 14 dwarves and a wizard doesn‘t make a coherent picture, at least to me. It takes me out of the film a lot. That’s not even including how often I find Bilbos annoyance with everyone else annoying myself… relax crodie…
If Bilbo is supposed to be like this maybe I just dislike Bilbo, idk.

Also, I empathize with Thorin very little. When he gets hurt why should I care! He’s a jerk at every turn! He’s very unlikable at least to me… but people praise his character arc so I’m holding out lol

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

4hr Hobbit Trilogy Fan cut — pt1 + pt2

At least Legolas was there kinda

The Hobbit unfortunately was never meant to fit well within the realm of Jacksons LOTR movies, and I wish the pieces weren’t so forced together

Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Theatrical Cut + 3 Extended Edition scenes

… and sméagol the cute

The Hobbit: An Unexpectd Journey

4hr Hobbit Trilogy Fan cut — pt1

Dude I was accidentally watching a fan cut that reduced the movie down to 1hr 20min and I STILL thought it felt insanely dragged out.

How is anyone supposed to watch 3 hours of the original film with THAT much filler??? I’m just gonna finish the fan cut and then watch the actual movies over again once I can download them all online … 😭😭😭

The Passing of an Age

Main Cut

Feels like the end to all things. An upsetting watch for all the right reasons.

Filming — Cameras in Middle-Earth

The Making of ‘The Return of the King’

Now with two separate HD scenes of Viggo Mortensen and Billy Boyd kissing

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Theatrical Cut + 2 Extended Edition scenes

That orange scene and Gandalf spinning

Behind The Scenes (Main DVD cut)

The Making of ‘The Return of the King’

It’s like the worlds largest condom. Ribbed for her pleasure. — Elijah Wood

Easter Egg — Interview — Elijah Wood by Dominic Monaghan

The Making of ‘The Return of the King’

WHEN WILL YOU WEAR WIGS !!!

Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King

Extended Edition

Im glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things

Easter Egg — 2003 MTV Best Virtual Performance Award

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

Deserved

Gollum — Gollum's Stand In

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

That suit was probably brown by the time they finished with the trilogy

Gollum — Andy Serkis Animation Reference

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

I heart Gollum

From Book to Script: Finding the Story

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

I do want to read the books at some point and detail the differences between the movies and the books, this is a lovely segment to see certain decisions they made to match the pacing of the film.

Warriors of the Third Age

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

Helms Deep is such an insane sequence and I'm so happy it got it's own segment in the behind the scenes because even watching it on screen it's overwhelming, to see not even a blink of all the work that went into filming this is amazing.

Filming — Cameras in Middle Earth

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

The ent crushing Merry and Pippins 👀

and of course Viggos tooth and toes also being crushed

Designing and Building Middle-Earth — WETA Workshop

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

You forget when watching these movies just the astoundingly huge amount of extras they had for the orc, elf, and human armies and how each extra needs armour, makeup, prosthetics, clothing, weapons, and none of these areas can be lacking or it ruins the whole army. Just amazing. I'll say it again and again but WETA made Lord of the Rings.

Designing and Building Middle-Earth — Designing Middle-Earth

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

Building Rohan is just unfathomable to me.

Behind The Scenes (Main DVD cut)

The Making of ‘The Two Towers’

He doesn't like the macademia nut...

Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Extended Edition

Happy Birthday Aragorn 🎉 (The toe fact™️)

They’re taking the Hobbits to Isengard

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Extended Edition

Get some sleep, Frodo.

Visual Effects — Miniatures Big-atures

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

I was genuinely shocked to learn some of these backgrounds were miniatures and not just digital renders like Isengard or pieces of Rivendell. I don't know how many more times I can say 'amazing' btu the artistry in these movies is amazing.

Visual Effects — Scale

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

I have no other synonyms for 'amazing' I can use in these reviews. All the scale work is *so* seamless it's amazing to see it being fimled. Genuinely just has my heart. It's so easy nowadays to just do this all with CGI, it is so so so cool to see it tinkered with and done practically.

Filming — Cameras in Middle-Earth

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

viggo falling off a canoe (in theory)

Easter Egg — MTV — Council of Elrond

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

I fw it

Filming — A Day in the Life of a Hobbit

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

The practical and CG scale work in these movies will never not amaze me

Designing and Building Middle-Earth — WETA Workshop

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

Jacksons Lord of the Rings would not be Lord of the Rings without WETA. WETA Workshop *IS* Lord of The rings.

Genuinely such a treat. These behind the scenes are so much more than silly anecdotes from the actors (though those are amazing too). You don't "get" a movie until you see how it's made, and WETA *made* Lord of the Rings.

Designing and Building Middle-Earth — Designing Middle-Earth

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

I will NEVER shup up about how much of these movies is done practically. It's amazing and as a "modern" viewer, you just assume these things are greenscreen but its so so so so cool to see like... they legit just built all of that. They actually built Hobbiton, they actually build Rivendell. Just amazing. It's unfathomable. How lucky we are to have these films.

Designing and Building Middle-Earth — Costume Design

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

Genuinely beautiful textile work. I could listen to Ngila Dickson talk about these pieces for hours. Her oscar is so deserved.

Filming — The Fellowship of the Cast

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

and then they drank a second bottle of champagne

Behind The Scenes (Main DVD cut)

The Making of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring'

elijah farting on dominic

Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King

Theatrical Cut

for froyo

Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Theatrical Cut

Gandalf the Gay — Ian McKellan

Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Theatrical Cut

Are you frightened?

Yes

Not nearly Frightened enough. I know what haunts you.

//

I swore to protect you

Can you protect me from yourself? Would you destroy it?

I would have gone with you to the very end, into the very fires of mordor