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News from Bree
spymaster@theonering.net
May 11 2010, 8:10pm
Post #1 of 13
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TheOneRing Radio Show: Richard Taylor & Michael Pellerin
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This weeks guests on TheOneRing.net Radio Show are WETAs Richard Taylor and LOTR/King Kong DVD producer Michael Pellerin!
Click on over to BlogTalkRadio to hear Richard talk about the LOTR Blu0ray DVD, and to chat live with Michael! The show airs May 16th at 2pm Eastern. Click here for more info!
Richard Taylor, ONZM, is the creator and head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop. A close friend of Peter Jackson, he and his company created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Jackson's epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. This included two for The Fellowship of the Ring in Make Up and Visual Effects, and two for The Return of the King in Costume Design and Make Up.
Michael Pellerin, founder and CEO of Pellerin Multimedia, Inc. (PMI), is an award-winning DVD producer and filmmaker. He and his PMI team have produced more than 100 hours of behind-the-scenes documentaries for DVDs and earned numerous honors, including The DVD Academy’s “Best Disc of the Year” three years in a row for the Collector’s Editions of The Lord of the Rings, produced for New Line Cinema.
For the past five years, PMI, a Los Angeles- and New Zealand-based company, has worked with Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson on all of his films, producing all the behind-the-scenes material for The Rings trilogy and, most recently, Universal’s King Kong.
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Patty
Immortal
May 12 2010, 1:19am
Post #2 of 13
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I WILL be rivited to the spot! /
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Permanent address: Into the West
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MrCere
Sr. Staff
May 12 2010, 2:31am
Post #3 of 13
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A strong endorsement from the annoying guy . . .
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Mr. Taylor and Mr. Pellerin are very literally two of the greatest people to talk to / hear from from the LOTR movie universe. Both are highly intelligent and highly interesting and highly energetic. I put them RIGHT up there with Peter Jackson.
Taylor, for my money, is one of the best public speakers around and Pellerin is extremely personable and incredibly passionate about all of Tolkien - not just the movies. He WAS THERE for the making of these films in ways that even the filmmakers can be jealous of.
I suspect (seriously just a hunch, I don't know) that that he will talk about the possibility of the Ultimate Box Set which to me, might be the most desired of all LOTR movie stuff of all time.
I have nothing to gain by directing you to listen, but these are two gentlemen that I am complete fans of. I suggest not missing it.
I have no choice but to believe in free will.
The cake is a lie
The cake is a lie
The cake is a lie
My blog
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Kangi Ska
Half-elven
May 12 2010, 4:18am
Post #4 of 13
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I will be listening, maybe Richard will crack and spill the beans on the big project.
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Oh and by the way I just read that Weta will be doing the effects for a new Planet of the Apes movie.
Kangi Ska
There is no place like the Shire...There is no place like the Shire...There is no place like the Shire...
At night one cannot tell if crows are black or white.
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
May 12 2010, 9:31am
Post #5 of 13
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technology here COOPERATES!!!
Thanks! :D
 
"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West."
~Hug like a hobbit!~
I really need these new films to take me back to, and not re-introduce me to, that magical world.
TORn's Observations Lists
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
May 12 2010, 9:35am
Post #6 of 13
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their passion and how it hasn't faded after all this time and how much of themselves they gave to it. Taylor especially has such a distinctive voice and pattern of talking that I love to listen to. His excitement is unmistakeable :) Same with Pellerin! You've got me geeked about this more than I was already! *twitch*
"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West."
~Hug like a hobbit!~
I really need these new films to take me back to, and not re-introduce me to, that magical world.
TORn's Observations Lists
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Patty
Immortal
May 12 2010, 4:06pm
Post #7 of 13
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You can't mean it. Another Planet of the Apes movie?
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There is another $9.50 I won't be spending. Or if it's in 3D, another $15.
Permanent address: Into the West
Must. Have. The Precious! Give us the Blu-ray Ultimate Box Set!
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Patty
Immortal
May 12 2010, 4:07pm
Post #8 of 13
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I know. But for me, it's not my technology--
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it's my lack of technological knowledge. I hope all you have to do is click on the link.
Permanent address: Into the West
Must. Have. The Precious! Give us the Blu-ray Ultimate Box Set!
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Celedor
Rivendell
May 12 2010, 11:43pm
Post #9 of 13
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Sometime back I was a guest on TheOneRing.nets radio show, where I talked with Mike (xoanon), and I thought it might be fun to post a transcript of it here.
Mike Regina: This weeks guest is J.W. Braun. Hes the author of a great book called The Lord of the Films: The Unofficial Guide to Tolkiens Middle-earth on the Big Screen, and this is quite an interesting book. It is basically a companion to watching the films. So if youre watching these films, and you want to know more about a certain scene or whats going on here and whats going on there, you grab J.W.s book and you read it and you basically get all the latest and greatest information from the films, from, you know The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Here with us now is J.W. Can you hear me, J?
J.W. Braun: Im here, Mike. How are you doing?
MR: Not bad. How are you?
JW: Im doing really good. Im excited to finally talk to you after reading your posts and exchanging e-mails and everything with you for over ten years, you know?
MR: Exactly, exactly. Youve been doing this for quite a long time. Its been very fun. And you did it you created, you wrote a book and got it published. Congratulations on that. It is not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination to be that dedicated and to get a book out there for people to enjoy, so congratulations on that.
JW: Well thanks, Mike. With Ringers: Lord of the Fans congratulations on that you know how difficult it is to get people to buy into the fact that you can sell something like this, and to get people to back you and get the product out. And I just hope that just like Ringers, which is a fantastic documentary its so nice that thats wonderful, because as Tolkien fans we want our products to be better than Star Wars products and Star Trek products I wanted this book to be worth the time that Lord of the Rings fans would spend reading it, and Im really proud of it.
MR: Absolutely. So when did you conceive this idea, and how long did it take to come to fruition?
JW: Well, its kind of funny because when I was only like nine or ten years old it was back in the 80s, and were kind of about the same age a friend of mine had a book on the bus with him to school that was a Star Wars trivia book. In fact, I think he still has it. And it caught my eye. I noticed a few things about it. I noticed #1, it was written by a nine year old, the same age that we were, and #2 it wasnt endorsed by the Star Wars people or Lucas or anything like that, and #3 it was a really bad book. And I thought, If this guy can do this, and if we can just write a Star Wars book, and at that time you know Return of the Jedi was all the rage, and its out there being sold, why cant I do this? And I think it always sat there in the back of my mind, and then when The Lord of the Rings phenomenon just became this incredible thing in pop culture, and you had the talk about The Hobbit films, it kind of came together in my mind this is like 2005 and 2006 and I thought, you know, I could write a book about The Lord of the Rings movies, and I could do it so that it was right and not like some of these other books Ive read. There are a lot of things I really wanted in the book like photos and interviews and different things. I could do it the way I wanted to do it, and I could come out with it before The Hobbit came out when people were ready to look back at The Lord of the Rings. And so that al kind of came together in my mind at that time, and then I went out and found a publisher and got it done.
MR: And I was just breezing through it this morning and I was picturing myself sort of watching the films and doing a quick reference to follow along with the book. And I think thats sort of a new experience that fans who have seen these films in the theater and on DVD a million and one times they could sort of sit back and enjoy them with the book a different way now because its almost like pop up information that they didnt know beforehand, and I think thats really interesting to me.
JW: Yeah, I didnt want to take away the individual fans perspective. You know, I say right away at the beginning: we all have our different interpretations of the films, we all see something a little bit different. I didnt want to take away from that, and I wanted the fan to still believe what he or she wanted. I just wanted to add some information, and like you say, you can read the book while watching the movies or you can read the book and then watch the movies, and it sort of makes it like your watching the movies all over again for the first time.
MR: Yeah, absolutely. I think that brings a new aspect to watching films. And I even actually learned a couple of things, and you know, like you said, doing this for the last ten years I would have thought I knew everything about the production, but I learned a couple things here and there, so I think its a valuable asset to add to your Lord of the Rings collection. Will you be doing any kind of book tours or how has promoting the book been for you?
JW: Well Ive done some book signings in Wisconsin and Oregon which youve been nice enough to post about, and I wanted to tell you that I had people show up at the book signings from a hundred miles away, and I knew they couldnt have read about it from the local media, so I said, howd you hear about this? and they said, Oh, TheOneRing.net. I visit all the time. And there was a daughter, she was 13, and she made her mom drive her a hundred miles to meet me because she read about it on TheOneRing.net.
MR: Oh thats great.
JW: And also, Ill mention quickly, I just did a signing at a fantasy bookstore, and the people who owned it, when I told them it [the book signing] was going to be mentioned on TheOneRing.net, they were just elated because they said, Oh we visit TheOneRing.net everyday because, you know, theyre big fans. I dont have anything set up right now, any future signings, but I am planning on attending Gen Con in Indianapolis, and then Im going to try to see what I can set up afterwards. Ill probably be more in demand when the things for The Hobbit start to heat up. But you know, people can buy the book anytime at any place that sells books.
MR: Absolutely. Now for gathering information, how did you go about sourcing some of this information? I mean, there are so many people you could potentially interview, how did you sort of buckle down and focus on who you wanted to interview and who you thought would bring valuable information?
JW: Well it was sort of like you in that I know when you started this radio show you sent out like a thousand e-mails asking anybody who was associated with The Lord of the Rings project if they were interested, and thats why I did. I sent out a zillion e-mails and got various kinds of responses, and whoever would respond, Id try to see what they had to offer. But then a lot of it was just slogging through interviews other people had done in newspapers, magazines, and online and whatever, and checking that stuff out. It really helped following TheOneRing.net for eleven years. Because I remember, you know you started this thing back in the 90s
MR: Yeah, definitely, the 90s, which is like, you know, almost two decades ago I guess.
JW: Youre an old man now, you know!
MR: [Laughing]
JW: That was like when java seemed like it was a pretty neat trick, and now you have your own radio show. Just imagine in ten years, youre going to have your own television show.
MR: Thats what Im aiming for. Im aiming to be the next host on American Idol.
JW: Anyway, youve posted so much information the last eleven years, whatever its been, and Ive kept a lot of that information, and so a lot of that helped.
MR: So did you approach the publication company, the publisher, first with the idea or did you have the entire manuscript?
JW: No, I just had the idea, and I approached various publishers, and a lot of them were really interested. I think its the kind of book, actually, that there are a lot of different people who could have written it. I think it was a good idea, and Im kind of glad I pounced on it first. I think I did a better job than some other people might have done with it. Especially this is what your fans have to understand too its not like a publishing company decided, Oh The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien! Its hot right now. Weve got to strike! and then they put together a book about that. This is a book that was spearheaded by a fan who just loves this thing intimately, you know, and ECW Press made me an offer, and then I started working with them. And they were fantastic. And I just wanted to mention, Mike, you said, you really found out some things, which for you to be in the middle of this thing is really amazing: I wanted everybody from the experienced LOTR movie fan like yourself to the inexperienced movie fan to, first of all, enjoy the book, and to find out things that they didnt know before and not to go through every page and say, I already knew that I already knew that So its written so that a person who visited TheOneRing.net the last ten years could still read the book and enjoy it, and its still accessible to the person who may not know his Tolkien all that well and not be well versed in the books, they can still read and understand it too.
MR: Yeah for sure, and I love how you mention you can read the book cover to cover or you can just flip around to whatever scene youve always found interesting, or whatever scene youre currently watching and just get references, behind the scenes sort of information, and I love how you divvied it up into, What the Big Folk Were Saying, and What the Wizard Knows and all that kind of stuff, because it really makes you anticipate the next scene that were reading or watching. You know, Okay, whats the behind the scenes thing going on here, and what did J.W. write about here? It really is a valuable asset, and its a wonderful addition to the vast amount of Lord of the Rings books I have, and its really going to be one that the spine is definitely going to get broken over and over again. Ill be flipping through it, you know, constantly.
JW: Well I appreciate the compliment, Mike. Cliff Broadway, who you know rather well Quickbeam from TheOneRing.net wrote the foreword. And when he read the book he said, You know whats great about this? You can read it different ways. And I didnt even think about this exactly, but he said, You can read just the behind the scenes stuff all the way through, or you can just read the observations about the films while youre watching the films and just read it like that Its all organized in that way, and I also put in mistakes, and you can just read about the mistakes and spot mistakes throughout the films. Did any of those surprise you by the way?
MR: The mistakes? Yeah. The one that made me giggle the most and that I didnt know about is that Peter [Jackson], when he was doing his cameo for the first film [at Bree] was initially given a pipe to smoke, and that made him ill so they had to change it to a carrot for him to chomp on, and that made me laugh because Im just thinking about those early days when they were filming, and the Bree scenes were one of the first things they shot, and you know it seems sort of like almost a bad omen: they had to relieve an actor from the film, they had an entire set washed away, and then Peter gets ill from smoking a pipe, so it just sort of amazes me that they followed through with the entire production with that kind of start that they had!
JW: Yeah, I wanted to get stuff in there that even if you watched the commentaries you wouldnt exactly know because I didnt want people to say, well this is in the commentary. I wanted original information that I got from other sources.
MR: Thats great. Its great. It really is a wonderful companion piece, and I definitely encourage fans to go out there and go to amazon and order it. And I hope that this will get people interested in the book. And J.W., I thank you very much for coming on and chatting with us about the book.
JW: Well, thank you Michael. I also wanted to add that you have a link to the kindle version, and thats been proving popular. I think a lot of people got kindle for Christmas, and I wanted to mention that to the fans. Thank you a lot, Michael!
MR: No problem. You take care, J.W. Thanks a lot! That was J.W. Braun, author of The Lord of the Films: The Unofficial Guide to Tolkiens Middle-earth on the Big Screen, and Ive been flipping through it here during our discussion, and it really is an interesting companion piece to have, because like I mentioned I learned a few things, and you almost feel like you were actually there while they were making these films, because you learn about the troubles they had, you know, with props, trouble they had with casting initially, the behind the scenes stuff, the sudden changes they made to special effects or sounds or anything like that. It is really, really interesting, and Im looking forward to reading the book cover to cover and the next time I pop in The Lord of the Rings DVDs to have this beside me and checking it out as well. So thanks for J.W. Braun for coming on, and you guys should definitely check out the book when you get a chance.
-Celedor-
www.jwbraun.com
(This post was edited by Celedor on May 12 2010, 11:48pm)
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Patty
Immortal
May 16 2010, 9:22pm
Post #10 of 13
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Oh my goodness! Church didn't let out till late and I missed this!
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Please tell me there is a write- up of this somewhere!
Permanent address: Into the West
Must. Have. The Precious! Give us the Blu-ray Ultimate Box Set!
(This post was edited by Patty on May 16 2010, 9:25pm)
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Patty
Immortal
May 16 2010, 10:14pm
Post #12 of 13
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Yeah, I'm listening to it now. i thought I had to be here at 2...
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didn't realize it didn't have to be live.
Interesting that Pellarin turned down Avatar. He had a good reason, but man!
So far, I've really not heard anything new about the ultimate box set, although if he didn't know I'm so glad he SAID he didn't know. He is confirming MrCere's vision that download is quickly going to become "the thing".
It's awesome that he is such a Tolkien fan. No wonder he was the perfect person to "shepherd" these dvds.
Permanent address: Into the West
Must. Have. The Precious! Give us the Blu-ray Ultimate Box Set!
(This post was edited by Patty on May 16 2010, 10:24pm)
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MrCere
Sr. Staff
May 17 2010, 9:07am
Post #13 of 13
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Mr. Pellerin speaks with such passion and energy and knowledge that I can't help bt love listening!
I have no choice but to believe in free will.
The cake is a lie
The cake is a lie
The cake is a lie
My blog
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