Well not all middle earth just the Shire, well just Hobbiton . The set for Hobbiton is near Matamata and can be visited on a most expensive tour. The farmer must have thought all his Xmases had come at once when Peter Jackson and the film company turned up and said they wanted to give him sheds of money to build the set there and then leave him with a huge money spinner after.
There are lots of outside HobbitHoles of varying sizes. Most quite small, but some like Bag End or Sam Gamgee's house big enough for the actor to pass through the door. There are also a couple cunningly designed on a slope so that Gandalf can stand at one end and look huge and Frodo at the other and look small. All filming for the Hobbit stopped in November 2011 even though the last 2 films aren't out yet (how is he going to make a trilogy; he may have enough film but he hasn't enough plot; I fell asleep during the first) but they retain the set in pristine condition with the garden plots fully gardened and watered in the drought.
The party tree is a real tree, but the oak over Bag End was cut down some distance away, slliced up, numbered , rebuilt, and an army of students paid vacation jobs to tie on artificial leaves made in Taiwan. There is also an apple tree that according to the book should be a plum tree so every apple and leaf was taken off and plum leaves and fruit substituted.
The besgt bit is the Green Dragon. Only the outside is used in the film but it is a full pub inside which was used to service the extras, (you had to be 1.60m or less, I would have qualified), and operates as a pub where you get free beer or cider on the tour, not to mention loos. It would be a bonza place for a wedding but probably more expensive than the Lake Palace ,Uidaipur.
I've included lots of pics so you can play find them in the video.
No comments:
Post a Comment