Nine fantastic behind-the-scenes videos for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug!

These short 1-2 minute videos original appeared on YouKu, though they have since been uploaded to YouTube. They feature all the different aspects of film-making: directing, screenplay, art direction, costume design, makeup hairstyling, cinematography, vfx, sound editing, and much more!

What has been happening in the world of Tolkien fandom!

A new poster, interviews, videos, announcements, fan creations, and more!

It seems that someone has got their hand early on a copy of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Annual 2014!

Here are six more high-quality scans of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Annual 2014. There are several more photos of Tauriel and Bard the Bowman, plus a wider shot of the barrel scene. You can pre-order the book for yourself on Amazon, but for know, you will have to content yourself by going beyond the break. 

The Dwarves, the White Council, Wizards, Trolls, and more!

The other day I came across a slough of new videos on a Japanese website. They are the most interesting videos I have seen since the last official trailer, so be sure to watch at least a few of them. These videos contain exclusive behind-the-scenes info and interviews, so they are well worth the watch, even though they do have Japanese subtitles. 

Another info-graphic for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey!

Find out more about the wide variety of weapons carried by Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves! If you thought the weapons were cool in the movie, here is your chance to see them up close!

Poster by David Chalmer

Here is the second part to A (Guessed) Preview Into The Desolation of Smaug! Once again, I will give you summaries of the chapters in The Hobbit that I think will be covered in the movie, and then discuss various picturess. I tried to divide the posts equally (so there will be four chapters covered in this one also), but this one may be shorter as there are not very many photos left. However, do not let that discourage you from reading the rest of this post!

This post will contain a summary of what I think will happen in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I may be correct in my assumptions, but then again, I may be a mile off the mark. I will go through the book and the photos that have been released and try to draw parallels, creating a rough sketch of what the movie will be like. There is a potential possibility for SPOILERS, so I warn you, if you want to be completely surprised by the next movie, do not proceed beyond the break. 
I will summarize each chapter and compare it with pictures and then combine the lot with my personal thoughts. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey goes through Chapter VI of The Hobbit, so it is safe to assume that The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug will begin in Chapter VII.

Did you ever wonder how Peter Jackson managed to make the hobbits and dwarves so much shorter than everyone else? In the Lord of the Rings, the scene was shot twice, one with the actors that were to be shrunk and the other with those of regular stature. This created a problem because it was a real hassle to shoot a scene twice and refine it. However, with the better technology that has come around since then, things were done a little bit differently with the filming of The Hobbit movies.The actors were filmed on two different sets at the same time. One set was what we actually see in the theater, and the other was a green screen so the two could be merged. This separation allowed the camera to be brought a lot closer to Gandalf, making him appear larger. The camera filming the first set was placed upon an Aerocrane, and its movements were turned into data by a computer, scaled down, and sent to a Genuflex crane filming the second set.The second camera mirrored the movements of the Aerocrane, though on a much smaller scale, preserving the illusion that Gandalf is much larger than the dwarves and Bilbo. That is not even the amazing part. Each was filmed in 3D, and many takes reached 12,000 frames, which takes up about 2 terabytes of data. That is a lot.
I would like to give special thanks to Popular Mechanics' Eric Vespe for posting this information and photo. The post can be visited on the Popular Mechanics website via this link.

Here is another TV promo, focusing on Thorin. We also get a glimpse Azog, and a few frames of new scenes. Enjoy!

Here is an awesome video that over thirteen minutes long! It is SPOILERS galore, but it is still worth it to watch. Nearly every actor who has a major role speaks a bit. It gives great insights into the plot and story line. They used the appendices of The Lord of the Rings to add a bunch of history, especially concerning the dwarves. Unfortunately, you have to be a tried and true Tolkien fan to enjoy all that, so The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has already received a lot of flack. Enjoy!

The Hobbit TV Spot #10

Here is TV Spot #10! It adds a whole new twist to the plot by showing a few more scenes with Thorin Oakenshield. It seems that he especially needs aid in reclaiming the Lonely Mountain. Maybe its a matter of honor or avenging past wrongs, but it will be interesting to see the story play out in the movie. Enjoy!

The New Zealand Herald has a really cool feature on their website. They have pictures of the actors and the characters they are transformed into. It is amazing how much makeup and prosthetics it takes to make a dwarf. Check it out!

I know this is probably not what you want to read about less than a month from the premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but another The Hobbit Lego set has been revealed. #79004 is called Barrel Escape, and features the dwarves and Bilbo escaping from the elves in barrels. This set is most likely a little confusing to little children because the elves, who usually are good, are the bad guys in this particular set.

Here is the newest TV Spot, and it contains very little that has been shown before. It mostly is of a scene where Bilbo is talking before all the dwarves and Gandalf. Now this is just speculation, but I think that this occurs just after the incident with the three trolls, when the the rest of the company is still questioning Bilbo's courage.

Beyond the break are five new images of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), courtesy of ThorinOakenshield.net.

What follows are some awesome new pictures for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. They mainly feature goblins, wargs, and Radagast. There is also a picture of the trolls, and a few dwarves. (A few are scans, so they might be a little blurry) However, they contain major spoilers, so beware! Also, some the pictures may be a little creepy, so I wouldn't recommend showing them to small children.

Here are yet a few more stills from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. This first one is of Fili, Kili, and Bilbo, and it comes from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: The Movie Storybook. The second is of Fili and Thorin Oakenshield.

Bag End Behind-the-Scenes

Here is Denny's 'exclusive featurette' of The Unexpected Party! The dwarves  have a good time of it. Also, there is an enormous amount of food involved. However, there are definitely spoilers in this video, so beware!

Comicbookmovie.com scanned a few behind the scenes photos of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from Brian Sibley's tie-in book The Official Movie Guide. They include Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, a group of goblins, Nori and Bofur, Andy Serkis in his motion-capture attire, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, and a group photo of all the dwarves draped in spider-webs, obviously from their entanglement in Mirkwood. I fully acknowledge that these are scans of a book that were on another website, but I will post them nonetheless, but beware, they contain spoilers.

The latest and greatest The Hobbit Lego set was just revealed earlier today. As earlier spoilers have hinted, this scene will not be in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but rather will most likely be in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, when the dwarves and Bilbo complete their journey to the Lonely Mountain. #79001 is called Escape from Mirkwood Spiders, and it includes minifigures of Legolas, Tauriel, Fili, and Kili.