Detail. And Hobbiton :D

I went to Hobbiton recently. Mwa ha ha. And I signed a thingy that said I can’t tell anyone anything and my pictures must Never Go on the Internet. So unfortunately you don’t get any amazing photos of a movie set that’s about to start filming. I should be allowed to say it was awesome, though, right? Because it’s a Peter Jackson/Weta Workshop thing and awesomeness is kind of assumed.

But anyway, it got me thinking about detail and how much work people can put into something to make it special. Lots of the stuff Weta makes will never have more than a few seconds on screen, or maybe no time at all.

I think writing is a bit the same. A lot of the work is never seen. It might take six years to write a book, and six hours to read it. You might have written twice, three times, ten times the number of words that appear in the book. You’ve thought about a thousand different details, trying to get everything exactly right.

And drawing too. When you’re drawing you make all the light pencil marks, lines here and there and everywhere, and then finally you take your brush or your marker or whatever and you start the final shapes, the ones that everyone will see.

The bones are always there behind it, supporting and guiding. The work is put in, and even if you catch only glimpses of it, it makes things all the more real. You’re immersed in the film, the novel, the work of art. You know there’s an entire world in behind there.

 I think it would be awesome working as a set designer and maker on a movie. You’re making fiction into reality. When I see The Hobbit next year, I’m going to be awed and amazed by that reality.

Though I may spend a decent amount of time poking people and saying ‘I’ve seen that! I’ve seen that!’

:P