Welly-moot

Welly-moot 2.2 (April 28th, 2013) - Dual Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sat, 04 May 2013 09:50:00 +0000

We had our second meeting this year, on Sunday, 28th of April. All the regular members attended: Jack, Alex, Kris, Martin, Ash, Cinnamon, Ben, Iain, Ryan and Jennifer with Hawk, Annabel, Kumi, and one new visitor; Kate from Germany.

We started with Jack opening the moot. He mentioned two projects; Mt Tolkien (the renaming of the mountain in South Island) and Riventroll (a statue in Rivendell (Kaitoke Regional Park)). Unfortunately the naming of Mt Tolkien was not successful at this time. However, we will continue to try to rename a New Zealand feature officially – we might be able to do some local renaming (perhaps formalise Rivendell). We will keep everyone informed. Regarding the Troll statue, we have applied for the Art Grant from Creative Wellington NZ for Riventroll’s funding. We are still waiting for the contract from them in the end of May. Fingers crossed!

Some updates from the members; Cinnamon showed us the photo of herself with a large group of the Hobbit’s cast, including Sylvester McCoy (Radagast), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Dean O’Gorman (Fili), from this year’s Supanova in Brisbane, Australia.

Welly-moot member and jeweller Annabel has finished creating a gorgeous badge for our group. The introductory price for members at the meeting was $16, and it will shortly be available on our website for $20 (not including P&P). An announcement for that will be made soon.

Another great piece of news is that local LOTR touring company Wellington Rover Tours has granted us a special discount of 50% off for Lord of the Ring Full-day Tours for Welly-moot members. At this stage the discount will go all winter, so book in over the next few months. Send Jack a message and he can arrange the tour at the special price.

So, come and join our Welly-moot meetings, and enjoy this VERY special deal! Ben will be the first of our members to enjoy this, as he's booked in later this week. Hopefully we can get him to write a quick update about it afterwards.

Some other news:

Tolkien’s new book will be published in May 2013 (The Fall of Arthur).
Armageddon in Wellington on 1 - 3 June 2013. Annabel will have a stand, and we may be able to get representation there as well. More news as it comes to hand.
Kim’s Dragon is at Shelly Bay at this moment if you want to see it.
Two members of the Chilean Tolkien Society are coming to Wellington, and will take Jack’s tour with Ben. This report will post soon! (their site in "Google English" via Google Translate)

Kate mentioned that a German Sword Trainer is coming to Auckland in May. She suggested if we have enough people we can have the workshop in Wellington as well. However it was too short notice and we didn’t have enough time or resources to prepare for this. Hopefully in the future we may have another opportunity like this.

The Themes:

Finally, it was time for our discussions. The main topics were “What is your favourite part in Hobbit book?” and “Tolkien’s other tales and short stories”. To allow for a more active discussion, we divided the groups into two smaller circles and we had exciting, and fun discussions, with appropriately high geek-levels.

Theme 1 – What is your favourite part in The Hobbit?

A lot of people liked the moment where the Dwarves come Bilbo’s place, because it is so funny. Alex likes Gandalf and Bilbo’s first encounter – Gandalf said “What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that…..”. It is a very “unexpected” reply, and from this conversation onwards, unexpected incidents happen continuously to Bilbo, which is one of the main elements.

Part of the group - Martyn on the left, Cinamon and Ash at the top. (that's Kate's arm to the right, and Kris's head at the bottom)

Kris read the part of the book with her nice low tone to make people concentrate even harder. Even young Hawk was completely drawn in...

Theme 2 -Tolkien’s other tales and short stories

In addition to his mythopoeic compositions, Tolkien enjoyed inventing fantasy stories to entertain his children. (Wikipedia) – Alex did her home work

The Father Christmas Letters - annual christmas letters from Father Christmas for his children
Mr. Bliss
Roverandom
Smith of Wootton Major ( Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major, like The Hobbit, borrowed ideas from his legendarium)
Leaf by Niggle (part of Tree and Leaf)
On Fairy-Stories (part of Tree and Leaf)
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
Farmer Giles of Ham

Kris recommends “Roverandom”; it is easy, shorter, and fun. We agreed that the stories have fairytales, giants, wizards, dog which talks, magic, etc, and it is not only children but adults can enjoy these stories. Other opinions are that adults tend to analyse the stories but children don’t and they just accept them and enjoy them. Why shall we not enjoy them rather than analysing or criticising? Overall it was fun discussion and we will do it again.

Ben, Ryan and Jack debated whether the shorter stories could be interpreted as being fairytales told within Middle-earth by its own denizens – potentially a post “war-of-the-Ring” Middle-earth, long after the elves are all but forgotten. Certainly Roverandom and Smith of Wootton Major could be read as such, while Leaf By Niggle is more of a “meta” work, a story that perhaps describes how the other stories came about.

Ben on the left, then Ryan & Hawk, Jenifer, Annabel, and Jack at the bottom (wearing the Finnish Tolkien Society's t-shirt)

An interesting point arose when sympathy was expressed for both Tolkien as well as for Peter Jackson, who have both described originally as creating their works for themselves, but have later also both said that the can’t read/watch them again (references?). Iain suggested that this echoed Frodo’s predicament in saving the shire, but finding himself unable to stay there afterwards. Interesting.

Welly-moot this year

We are based in Wellington NZ and so, will most likely have great opportunities to get involved locally especially next a couple of years because of the Hobbit 2 & 3.

Welly-moot will be actively looking to join any event and hopefully won’t miss any opportunities! Because of that, we want to organise Welly-moot parties in December 2013 and 2014.
Movie marathon – LOTR 1, 2, 3 and Hobbit 1 at Embassy Theatre before Hobbit 2 would be great idea. Jack will look into this in before the next meeting.
We will invite people from in film industry in Wellington to our meetings.

As Jack was too busy talking to others, the meeting was closed by Kris and Alex. The next meeting will be on Sunday 14 July 2:00pm. We usually have meeting every two months, however this June, Jack and Alex are going to Japan, where they might be able to visit Tolkien Society in Japan! Expect a report if this ends up happening!

We will keep everyone informed on this website when any activities we will do. All posts here are automatically placed on our Facebook page as well as on our Twitter account.

- Alex

Chilean Tolkien Society visits Wellington

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:30:00 +0000

A little while ago I received a message from two representatives of the Tolkien Society in Chile, Paula Menz and Rodrigo Krebs. They are currently travelling around New Zealand, and would be in Wellington on the day of the moot last week. Unfortunately, they wouldn't arrive in Wellington until after the meeting had finished, so that was a no-go.

Then I found out that they had also booked in for a full day LOTR tour around the region, so I decided to take an extra day at work, and show them around instead. Our own Ben was also booked on that day, so it seemed like a great opportunity to have a few hardcore Tolkien fans on board, all together.

It ended up being a fun day (as most of my days are). We started the tour on Mount Victoria, for the famous "Get Off The Road" scenes, including a Shortcut to Mushrooms. After that, we headed straight off to the Weta Workshop, as we were booked in to the new "Window Into The Workshop" exhibition that Weta has now formally opened to the public. We got lucky - there were trolls about outside, as well.

Bert (or Tom or William)

After the workshop, it was time for an early lunch at the Scorch-o-rama, and then straight on to the Kaitoke Regional Park, north of Upper Hutt, for a good look around Rivendell. More locations on the way back, including the beautiful Isengard in Upper Hutt's Harcourt Park, and that took it to well after 5:00pm.

I decided to drop off the other passengers first at their respective hotels, and then us four remaining hardcore geeks went off to continue the Tolkien discussions over dinner at one of my favourite local noodlebars.

We dropped Ben off at his residence, and eventually Paula and Rodrigo as well.

Ben, Jack, Paula & Rodrigo

Paula and Rodrigo, it was great to meet you both - we're sorry you couldn't make it to the meeting but there's always a next time! I've added your Tolkien group to our official page of Friends.

If you find yourself back in Wellington for any reason, we'd love to hear from you again!

- Jack

Welly-moot 2.2 (April 28, 2013) - Dual Themes!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:23:00 +0000

Due to the increased size in the group, this month we're going to try discussing two separate themes. The size of the group and the venue means it's becoming harder to hear everyone properly. To adjust, we're splitting the group into two separate themes, and you can pick (and switch!) at any stage of the meeting.

Theme 1) Your favourite part of The Hobbit
Theme 2) Tolkien's other tales

For theme 1, bring along your copy of The Hobbit book, and feel free to read a small section of it to the group, and explain why you enjoyed that part more than others.

For theme 2, we will talk about some of Tolkien's other tales, not set in Middle-earth. Farmer Giles, Roverandom, Leaf by Niggle, or any of the others - what makes them special? Do they relate to Middle-earth at all? Do they share common themes? Let's talk!

Also, we hope to have Annabel Graham with us again. Annabel is a jeweller who creates beautiful pieces for Doctor Who fans the world over, and she's hand-crafted a bronze badge for us. She showed us a sample at the last moot, which was adored by all.

The Welly-moot badge - get one now!

As promised, we've managed to keep the price very low compared to her usual pieces - it will be less than $20 (a final price will be set before the meeting).

So please, bring a $20 note, and wear the Welly-moot logo with pride.

We'll see you next week - bring friends, family, or perfect strangers! And please, spread this announcement on your facebook pages, twitter account, work noticeboards, etc.

- Jack

Update from our Austrian friends

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 21:31:00 +0000

Recently I received an email from Astrid who visited us in 2011. Astrid is a member of the Austrian Tyrol Tolkien Smial, and some of you may remember that she joined us for a meeting in December 2011, together with Peter Kenny from the Brisbane Tolkien Fellowship.

She has blogged about her experiences in New Zealand, including her time at the Welly-moot. Their blog is mostly in German, but she has graciously translated the relevant pages into English for us.

For her New Zealand experiences, read here.

For her Welly-moot evening, start here.

Astrid is considering coming back for another visit in the future - I think she should come back for December 2014, the release month of the LAST Hobbit movie. It should be a fantastic month!

- Jack

Welly-moot 2.1 (Feb 24, 2013) - All about Tolkien

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:10:00 +0000

A great meeting on Sunday - an almost record number of people turned up - 19 in all! Especially good since we hadn't done anything other than announced it on this blog (which automatically posts to Twitter, Facebook and Google+). So, apparently you guys are all watching then! Always good to know!

The meeting started with a welcome message from me to the first Welly-moot of 2013.

From far left/top, clockwise - new member Annabel; Charlene; Miranda; new member Elliot; Wayne; new member Karena; Kris; Jenifer; (and in front, backs turned) Alex; Kumi, new member Ben, and Mervi

We have several new guests; Annabel and Elliot joined us today - I met both of them a week before, at the Weta Cave while I was showing a group around on a tour. Annabel is a jewelery designer who has created some beautiful pieces for her Doctor Who passion, as well as recently a badge for Weta Workshop's Doctor Grordbort Range. Elliot is currently studying digital animation and SFX, among other things.

I had handed Annabel a Welly-moot card in the hope they might both make it for the moot, so that went well! What I hadn't anticipated was that she liked our logo so much she made a badge out of it!

Welly-moot Bronze Lapel Pin

I will talk to Annabel further about this - I'm very keen to be able to offer our members the chance to buy this - you'll be supporting a very talented artist! Can everyone drop me a message if you're keen on buying a badge - they'll be in the vicinity of $10-$20 each, depending on final design and number of orders, I suspect.

Ben also attended for the first time, he's from Christchurch originally, and has decided to make Wellington his new home. Ben has also done some papers with Corey Olsen, aka the Tolkien Professor, so it sounds like we have another hardcore Tolkien fan!

Finally, Karena also joined us, from France. Karena had been on a tour with me the day before, and had taken me up on my invitation. I suspect Karena won't join us again since she's only in NZ for a short time, but it was very nice to have you with us, all the same!

Also with us for her last meeting was Mervi, who will have to return to Finland again shortly, after her extended stay in New Zealand. We will all be very sad to see her go, but at least she has another Tolkien group to return to - Suomen Tolkien-seura Kontu ry. Mervi gave me a present from her group - a beautiful T-shirt with "Hobbit" written in Suomi and in Runes. Thank you - I shall wear it with pride!

From far left/top, counterclockwise - Ryan; Jenifer; Kris; (in front) Karena; Wayne; Elliot; Miranda; Charlene; Annabel; Martyn; Mervi; Ben; Kumi; Alex. The empty seat is mine (-Jack). Missing here are Adam, who was getting another coffee; and Hawk and Annabel's two girls (separate table - their discussion was about whether boys can wear tutus or not).

Next on the agenda was to discuss the two projects we're currently working on - the naming of Mount Tolkien is awaiting me to write a letter to the Geographic Board to let them know of the Tolkien Society's support for the proposal. I shall finish that by next moot, so an update on that then.

The big project is still the Stone Troll project out by Rivendell in the Upper Hutt Kaitoke Regional Park. We're referring to the beastie as Riventroll. Currently we're spending an astounding number of hours into filling in an Arts Council Grant application form, and that should all be done (and handed in!) by the end of this week. After that, we can relax a little!

Finally then, we got onto the main theme for the day - "It’s All about Professor Tolkien". Kris brought some beautiful books and introduced the drawings and pictures by Professor Tolkien and shared them with the group. Hobbiton, Rivendell, the Eagles, Smaug the Dragon, and the Lonely Mountain all were drawn by Tolkien. Kris also had a lovely postcard from a valley in Switzerland that looked remarkably like Rivendell. Apparently Tolkien had stayed in the valley, and the inspiration does seem to match. It also looked very much like Ted Nasmith's version of Rivendell.

It was also remarked by a few people that the Lonely Mountain looked somewhat like Mount Taranaki in New Zealand's North Island.

The discussion went to Tolkien's languages, and how it all begun with his love for them. There are some noted similarities between Quenya and the Finnish tongue, as well as between Sindarin and the Welsh language. We consulted with our resident Welshman, Martyn on this, and with our Fin Mervi.

A quick poll was taken also - had everyone read LOTR and Hobbit? Of the 16 adults, 15 had read The Hobbit, and 12 had read LOTR. I thought we'd also asked Silmarillion readers but I can't find the statistic for that right now.

As we rounded the afternoon's discussion off, Kris wanted to know if anyone had ideas for future meetings. Here are a couple:

Tolkien's short stories
Tolkien's theology (and his academic writings)
Middle-earth cuisine

Please let us know any other ideas you may have.

That concluded the first meeting for 2013 - if this one was anything to go by, it should be a cracker year!

- Jack

Welly-moot 2.1 (Feb. 24, 2013) - It's All About The Professor

noreply@blogger.com (Kris) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 01:28:00 +0000

This week's meeting will be whatever we each make it. Bring something to show or tell that you admire or enjoy about Professor Tolkien; his writings, his art, his life's story. There was something special about this man that has made "The Lord of the Rings" the world's most beloved book. What is at the top of your list?

To start us off, here is a recently published group of photographs of the Professor and his wife, Edith. It's a peek into an English academic life where books and growing things had equal value, it seems.

Click here for the whole Gallery

Thinking ahead, please bring your ideas for our next meetings - things you've been wanting to discuss.

See you Sunday at 2:00 at the Embassy Cinema upstairs cafe.

Welly-moot dates for 2013 - note them in your calendar!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:02:00 +0000

Time is creeping up on us! The first meeting of 2013 approaches already, and we haven't even announced the dates yet! So, let's do that right now.

Since last year's the dates seemed to suit most people most of the time, we're just going to stick to the same basic schedule as before - every last Sunday of the even-numbered months, at 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema.

This year's schedule is as follows:

Welly-moot 2.1 - February 24th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema
Welly-moot 2.2 - April 28th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema
Welly-moot 2.3 - July 14th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema(*)
Welly-moot 2.4 - August 25th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema
Welly-moot 2.5 - October 27th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema
Welly-moot 2.6 - December 29th, 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema

The meeting themes will be announced separately, before every meeting.

(*) Meeting 2.3 is not on the usual schedule, since we'll be overseas for our holiday on the last Sunday of June.

Welly-moot 1.6 (Dec 29, 2012) - International Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:37:00 +0000

For Welly-moot 1.6, the last meeting of 2021, we enjoyed a shared international lunch at Jack & Alex’s place. We had asked for members to bring food from their own countries, and so, the yummy meals and desserts came from seven different nationalities. A big thank you to everyone who brought nice meals, especially thanks to Noei who brought three different Thai meals and thanks to Alex for preparing and organising this occasion.


A selection of the food. All of it was great!

We enjoyed the meal as much as the discussion on “Hobbit: Unexpected Journey”. Noei has seen the movie the most times, five times both in 2D and 3D formats. She gave us her views, and we talked about the difference between 2D and 3D, and 24fps and 48fps.

Comparing the story of The Hobbit movie with the original book, we were impressed and enjoyed Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit. The original story is of course only a single book, and aimed at children. Peter Jackson has expanded the story by inserted some characters into the mix, like Radagast the Brown, who is not in the original Hobbit book (but is in LOTR). We were also surprised at how rabbits were so useful for escaping from Wargs...

We went around the room for everyone’s favourite characters. Thorin, Gollum, Gandalf, Balin, Nori, Kili, or even “all of them” were mentioned. Unlike in the book, all of Jackson’s thirteen Dwarves have distinct characters and their hair styles and faces are well-designed, and easy to distinguish from one another. One comment came back - the ladies like Thorin (Richard Armitage) because he is good looking, of course :)


(Most of) the group - Counter-clockwise starting at Bilbo (yes, we listened to the soundtrack) - Hanne, Warren, Kris, Noei, Ryan, Jennifer, Hawk, Mrs & Mr Rasmussen, Heike, and Jack. Missing: Alex (photographer), Erika (getting more food, probably)

Both Heike and Alex mentioned the scene where Bilbo encounters Gollum for the first time in the cave, where Gollum is talking to himself and tells himself to “Shut up”. The group really liked Andy Serkis’ performance of Gollum. Gollum looks younger, and is both more evil but also more childlike at the same time. Andy Serkis (and the digital team behind him!) did a great job of the physical and virtual performance of Gollum.

Lastly, we discussed our expectations for the second Hobbit movie - The Desolation of Smaug. Some of the Welly-moot’s members are Extras in the Hobbit movies, and they are expecting they will be in next movie. One of the most anticipated creatures is Smaug. We can’t wait to see more of him, and expect that we will finally see the whole Smaug in action!

Plans for the group in 2013

We will gather as usual every two months. The first meeting will be on 24 February 2013. We will keep informed in this website (and via the usual Facebook and Twitter etc).

The big project this year will be “Riventroll”. We will set up a separate website for this project and start fundraising in 2013. We will keep everyone informed.

The other project we’re going to try and get involved in is the “Mount Tolkien” project that was begun by Aaron Nicholson from Manapouri in Southland. The group is right behind him in his efforts to honour Tolkien with his own New Zealand mountain. The mountain is currently (officially) unnamed, so this is not before its time!

Two minor but significant events this year - the DVD/Blu-ray release of “Hobbit 1” will be along shortly, and hopefully there will be Extended Releases, like LOTR’s.

And of course December 2013 will be another Hobbit Release month, so there will be lots of excitement again for that. Stay updated by following the blog, our the Facebook, or the Twitter feed. Subscribe so the information comes to you and you don’t have to go searching for it every time.

2012 - the year in (brief) review

The year 2012 has been extremely successful year for Welly-moot. It was our first official year. It was the year we became officially affiliated with the UK’s Tolkien Society. We now have official T-shirts, a Welly-moot banner, the committee members have business cards, and there's even a rubber stamp!

We had 6 great meetings, hosted some fantastic guests, and discussed Tolkienish background information. We lined up for Premiere Tickets, almost missed out, got saved by Sir Peter Jackson himself, then attended the Hobbit Premiere, had the World’s Best Ever Second Breakfast on a Red Carpet, and finally watched the world’s first showing of The Hobbit movie.

We have been visited by other Tolkien Society members from overseas groups, as well as individuals who were previously not part of any other Tolkien groups.

So a great big “Thank You” to all the great members of Welly-moot who made it all happen this past year, with all your good conversation, your amazing knowledge, and all your unbridled enthusiasm!

Also a big “Thank You” also to all our friends, our wonderful visitors, and to all the organisations who helped when we needed a hand, with a special thank you going out to Sarah Meikle and Helen Player from Absolutely Wellington Tourism, for all their help in getting us into the first screening of the movie, and for providing all those goodies, both on the red carpet, as well as at the Cinema later.

And of course to Sir Peter, Matt Dravitzki, and the entire team for taking us to Middle-earth one more time!

Now let 2013 begin!

Welly-moot 1.6 : The Hobbit 1 - An Unexpected Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 02:51:00 +0000

By now I expect that most (if not all!) of us have seen the new movie - I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. Personally, I can't wait for the next installment, although I guess we'll have to. :)

Currently I'm sure you've all had the same problem as me - there's a bit of a transitionary period between my first viewing, and that of a lot of people I've spoken to who haven't yet seen it. I keep having to bite my tongue and not talk in too many spoilers!

The next Welly-moot is coming, and due to my work commitments, I've changed the date from the usual Sunday (30th of December) to the Saturday before (29th of December). I thought it might be nice to go into the meeting not having to worry about that, so we can all discuss the movie to our heart's contents.

The start time has also changed for this meeting - we'd like people to come at 1:00pm (instead of the usual 2:00pm).

Finally, since a number of our members are only in New Zealand for a limited time, and may have missed a "proper" Christmas get-together, we thought we would offer our home for this meeting.

NB - Not the Embassy Cinema this meeting!

As such, we would like to keep control of how many people are coming, so if you could drop me a quick line with approx numbers, that would simplify things hugely. My email address is jack@welly-moot.com.

We would like to make it a similar event as our Second Breakfast event at the red carpet premiere, so I'm asking everyone to "bring another plate" please. That seemed to work exceedingly well, and I think everyone enjoyed that on November 28th!

What we would like people to bring though, is something home-made. Perhaps something traditional from your home-country? We will make it an International Lunch!

So, the details:

Where : Our home. Details via RSVP (email me)
When : 1:00pm, Saturday, December 29, 2012
What : International Lunch, bring-a-plate (home made/cooked/baked please!)

So, email me, and I'll give you the address to come to!

- Jack

Review: The Hobbit 1 - An Unexpected Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:57:00 +0000

Bragging rights: it's now the evening of the day of the release of the first Hobbit movie, and I've seen the movie twice already. I cheated - I somehow managed to get red-carpet tickets last week and watched it in 24fps already. Last night though (or more accurately, early early this morning at 12:01am), I watched The Hobbit 1 - An Unexpected Journey in (almost) all it's glory - 3D, 48fps, and ATMOS sound system, at the theatre where it opened last week, the Embassy Cinema in Wellington (the only technical format missing was IMAX, which isn't available in Wellington).

Before I start my review though, I should point out a few biases of mine - a full disclosure, if you like. On the Tolkien front, I read the Hobbit when I was a teenager. Personally, I don't mind a few changes from one medium to another. The LOTR movies deviated from the books in significant ways, and I, for one, am glad of them. I actually hope The Hobbit movie will be different from the books as well, in more than a few places.

To film a book exactly like a movie will always be impossible, and so film makers are faced with either making a movie closer to the book (and upset movie fans), or making a better movie (and upsetting book fans). Given the choice, I'd far rather see a better movie than a faithful movie. I don't particularly have any problem reading a book after seeing a movie, and seeing where the movie came from.

Now, I say that as one of the founding members of this New Zealand Tolkien fellowship. Some changes are warranted. That doesn't mean that I think the professor was wrong, just that he wasn't a script writer.

Next admission - I hate 3D movies. If you've been paying attention to my NZ Noldor blog over the years, this shouldn't come as a shock. I have yet to see a 3D movie where the 3D aspects of it weren't just designed to try and impress me. I'm totally fed up with the old "throw stuff at the camera, that will be cool" school of 3D movies. In the opening scenes from Avatar 3D, it was very quickly obvious that the setting of the movie was designed to show off the awesome effects, and James Cameron lost me as a fan the moment that 3D blob of water was floating in mid-space. It was a cool effect, sure, but how was that part of any story?

On a related note, I walked out of Avatar with the biggest headache I've had in the last 10 years. I don't think that's an overstatement, either. It wasn't particularly entertaining, and I haven't watched Avatar again since the first time (on yet another unrelated note, I have since watched Fern Gully again).

Ok, that all said, let me start by stating that I LOVED this movie. I used to judge how good a movie was by what was in it - I don't do that anymore. I prefer to judge it by how it makes me feel. The Hobbit had me sitting there mesmerised by the beauty of the landscapes, even as the film's story danced around the one in the book. Tolkien's Hobbit book was never more than a children's story, and as such skimmed over or even skipped entire events that must reasonably have happened. The book works as a children's book, precisely because of that. Some of the book's sections are silly and whimsical and fun, and would have made the movie unbelievable.

In the first chapter of the book, we are told that the thirteen dwarves show up to Bilbo's door. This troupe of dwarves have apparently lost all their belongings, and are now wandering around Middle-earth in search of a good burglar. Their temporary home is far away, and their quest will bring them across many miles of wildlands, woodlands, rivers, and mountains. Are we seriously expected to believe that they would bring an orchestra's worth of musical intruments to this great trek? Two fiddles, three flutes, a drum, two clarinets, two viols "as big as [Dwalin and Balin] themselves", while Thorin himself apparently goes to war carrying a golden harp. The Misty Mountains song in the book isn't set to specific music, but what Howard Shore has done with it, had the hairs in my neck stand on end. No instruments were used in the movie but it worked much better.

Other things were also removed - the talking purse belonging to one of the trolls for instance. I had hopes that their names would also be changed from the uber-english Bert, William and Tom, but Peter Jackson has made it work, by giving them uber-english villain characters, even more so than Tolkien himself did. It may be cliched but it works. The problem of three big, noisy, bumbling trolls somehow sneaking up on 13 cautious and suspicious dwarves has been resolved by taking the problem seriously, something Tolkien didn't have to do in the child's book.

Throughout the movie, there are extra incidents and other seemingly superfluous additions to the book's plot, all designed to bring the Hobbit movie into line with LOTR. I think it will give the final series, once completed, a more coherent feel, which is totally lacking in the reading of LOTR after reading The Hobbit.

I won't go into the plot details too much, to avoid too many possible spoilers, but overall I have to say I was thoroughly entertained by the story, and also by how much extra story I was being told. A lot of this story is straight from Tolkien's other works, with some embellishments and dramatisations.

I predict that Peter Jackson's Hobbit will work precisely because of this. His inventions are relatively minor, but he manages to do what Tolkien never finished - to create a version of the Bilbo's story aimed squarely at an older audience.

I briefly wanted to mention the new technologies behind the story. I mentioned my dislike of 3D as a story-telling tool. So far I've not seen any movie that has used it as a secondary device after "plot". There have been many other 3D movies, and although I've not seen most of them, none appear to have resisted the urge to simply throw stuff at the audience. Peter Jackson tells us a good story first and foremost, and uses 3D as one of many different tools. The 3D I saw last night was subtle in some places and understated impressive in others. The 3D rain was a thing of beauty - it made all other movie rain seem fake. The rain was all around the characters, and it felt more real than anything I've seen before.

One other nice 3D device was the subtitles - when more than one character was speaking in non-english, the subtitles were brought back further depending on who had been speaking. This worked so intuitively that nobody I spoke to had even noticed it.

The other new thing of course, is the higher frame rate of 48 frames per second. To achieve this, the Embassy has had new projectors installed a few weeks ago, capable of brighter projections, and at higher framerates. Obviously a huge screen like the one at the Embassy needs a fair amount of energy to get the best results, and last night the movie was hair-sharp, and incredibly easy on my eyes at least.

One previous issue I had about 3D movies is the level of darkness. Essentially, you're sitting in a dark room with sunglasses on. This can cause eye-strain, which in my case has lead to massive headaches. However, with the new brighter projection at twice the framerates, coupled with what seemed to me to be lighter shaded glasses, this appears to have been solved. I watched the movie last night at 48fps, and I felt I could easily have watched it again straight away, with no ill effects.

The common complaint I keep reading online about the 48fps is that it looks "too real". I can't quite understand this - how can this possibly be a bad thing? Yes, it looked "realer" than anything I've ever seen on a big screen, and I loved it! Surely that's the point of going to the cinema? If I had to make a prediction, I'd say that 48fps is here to stay. We will all get used to it, and in ten years time we won't be worrying about frame rates, motion blurs, and other problems long-since solved and forgotten.

Having seen the Hobbit in both 24fps and 48fps formats, I can confirm that the higher fps was far easier on the eye, especially in the panning landscape scenes, and the fast chase sequences. During the Goblin Mines sequence it was far easier to get a sense of what was happening, and I had a better chance to look around the huge caverns and see more detail. As Peter Jackson is so fond of reassuring us, 48fps is a more submersive technology - it really takes you down there as an active participant, something which I did not expect to happen but did.

If I have any complains, it's this - The Hobbit wasn't long enough. The movie seemed all-action, all-of-the-time. There was little time to relax. The LOTR's plot took us to Rivendell and we relaxed when Frodo slept, and slowly the Council scene got us back into recovery mode. There was no such reprieve during The Hobbit - the conflict merely chances from Dwarf vs Orc, to Dwarf vs Elf, and then to Dwarf vs Goblins, and back to Dwarf vs Orcs again. I'm really hoping the extended editions (as promised by Peter Jackson during this year's San Diego's ComicCon) will address this. As a long time "marathoner", I would like to be able to watch The Hobbit as a whole story in a single day as well. The way it stands, it might be too much of a good thing if all three parts move as fast as this one. There's plenty of time for pausing every so often - but I guess there's so much story to tell we can't afford that luxury in this Cinema Edition. Bring on the 4 hour versions, I say! :)

All in all this movie is a very worthy addition to the Middle-earth saga. The dream-team was brought back together - the same scriptwriters, director, special effects houses, and the same actors as much as possible. The results are obvious, and impressive.

I think The Hobbit 1 - An Unexpected Journey will stand the test of time, like LOTR has done. I can't wait for the blu-Ray box set, I guess around Christmas 2014 or so.

In the meantime, I think I'll go see it again at the cinema, in 48fps again. For the third time in two weeks.

- Jack Machiela

Second Breakfast on Nov 28 (Red Carpet Day!)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:50:00 +0000

One week to go, and the new Hobbit movie will have its premiere! To say we're mildly excited about this would be a bit of an understatement!

Welly-moot has decided to celebrate the day with a very good hobbit habit - Second Breakfast!

So, on the day of the Premiere (Wednesday, November 28th), if you're a member of Welly-moot - now or in the past - or if you just want to meet up with fellow Hobbit-fans on The Biggest Hobbit Day Ever, then come and join us here in Wellington!

In keeping with our usual meetings, the Second Breakfast will be a totally chaotic affair - we start at roughly 10:00am, and finish when all the food is gone. The picnic will be held underneath the Tripod at the Embassy Theatre end of Courtenay Place.

Remember to bring your own food and drink - Welly-moot doesn't have any budget (or even a bank account), so we rely on everyone to pull their own weight.

We're expecting a few other people to come and join us - travellers from other lands - so let's make them feel welcome! (Travellers from other lands intending to join us - "bring a plate" applies to everyone!)

Oh, and costumes are encouraged, of course!

Click on the banner above to make it bigger, and feel free to pass it along to other interested people. The more the merrier!

One final thing - TVNZ will be there on the day with cameras, so let's make it count. See you all there!

- Jack

PS - there will be an announcement about the First Public Screening tickets soon, so please be patient!

Again - PWT was NOT to blame - more info

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:42:00 +0000

Just to take the blame off PWT - the Hobbit movie was originally supposed to be released on the 13th, uptil about 2 or three weeks ago, when the studio decided that NZ should get it one day earlier.

That means PWT had bought the tickets when it wasn’t open to the public (8 weeks ago), and it would indeed have been filled as a special private “preview” session. So that’s in all likelihood why they got permission to buy all the tickets to the midnight session, and most likely because they had to commit to actually giving the tickets away in competitions all over the world. For instance, the Fabric Softener competition (that was advertised on Wellington buses a few weeks ago) mentioned the date of the “preview” as the 12th, and not as the 13th.

So I don't think that PWT is to blame. They had a deal, and the deal was changed on them halfway through.

And as for PWT spending a meager $14000 on giveaway tickets to Hobbit fans all around the world? Come on, that's really not that much considering the usual council spending.

And there's a good payback for that. $14000 divided by 600 people coming into town, is less than $25 to get people to come into Wellington. Do you think they'll spend more than $25 each while in Wellington, on food, hotels, transport, other entertainment, etc? I'd consider that money incredibly well spent.

- Jack

We have tickets (but it was a difficult road)!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 05:47:00 +0000

It's been an interesting 24 hours.

This time yesterday we were getting ready to go to the Embassy Theatre to wait in line for the Hobbit Premiere tickets for the 12:01am 12/12/12 session. It seems Fate had different ideas.

We were pretty stoked - the brand new Welly-moot banner had been delivered early that day, and also the Welly-moot T-shirts had come in, and so we handed them out to those members who had made it to the Line-party.

It was also nice to meet up with some other familiar faces - Barry from Stansborough Clothing was there, and a few people I have hosted on a LOTR tour - Erin & Erica for instance.

We had originally agreed to meet at 11:30pm, but apparently the first people were already queueing by 5:30pm or so. Alex and I came in about 9:00 or so, and by 11:00 most people had arrived.

There were a lot of very excited people there. I guess all up there would have been around 50-60 people or so. One estimate had it at 200 but I actually took a rough count at one stage, just before midnight. Still a good turnout, I though - especially considering that the Embassy staff had only just announced one day before that the line-party was "on". We had less than 48 hours to announce and prepare. Quite a number of people were wearing cloaks of various descriptions, and a few people were in full Middle-earth costumes. Around 11:30pm, the atmosphere was buzzing.

That all started to change, around 11:45pm. Two guys behind us in line had been online and on the Embassy's website, hitting the "refresh" button to see if tickets were on sale yet. About 11:45pm, one of them noticed that tickets were available to some of the sessions. Odd, we thought - tickets weren't supposed to be on sale until midnight. But, you know, the main Auditorium seats 800 people, so plenty of time.

By 11:52pm, the call went up from the laptop guys that the tickets had sold out.

We still weren't called up to the ticket lines though. Around 11:58pm ((gotta love Facebook and the digital age - all this stuff is so accurate now)), we went to the line. Alex and I were the 4th group in line, and we were asked "which session would you like?". Um, the first one? Obviously? Isn't that why we came? No, they weren't available anymore.

That's roughly where the party ended.

We ended up having to settle for midnight tickets but in the (much) smaller auditorium, which does not have 48fps or the new Atmos sound system currently being installed in the building's main screening room. The prices were the same though. I bought six tickets, also some for a few absent Welly-moot members. The people behind us were told that session had also been sold out now. Some people bought tickets for other sessions, at later times or even dates. In other words, we weren't going to see it together as a group, or as the first country in the world.

There was a newspaper reporter there, interviewing a few people about how they felt, and what we thought may have gone wrong. I answered a few questions fairly bluntly, I think. On the way out we were photographed on his iPhone camera since the DomPost didn't think it would be a big event so hadn't sent a photographer along. Still, at least they showed up, unlike TVNZ or TV3, who I'd also called ahead of time.

Credit: Michael Forbes, Dominion Post

I thought the picture captured our mood pretty perfectly.

So what went wrong?

I've been on the phone most of the day today. I've lost track of the number of radio interviews I gave today. Radio NZ, RadioLive, Newstalk ZB. Other reporters as well. The Dominion Post suddenly decided they did need a better photo after all. One of the first messages this morning though, was a text message from Sir Peter Jackson's spokesperson, Matt Draviztki, to get in contact with him as soon as possible.

Apparently Sir Peter Jackson had heard about the fiasco, and wanted to get involved. Matt extended an astounding offer to the group - if I could get the whole queue back together, Sir Peter would ensure that we would see the movie in its full 48fps glory, come hell or highwater. I spent the better part of the morning trying to get in contact with 60 people who's names I did not take down last night. Luckily everyone seemed to be on Facebook, and there were a lot of photos taken.

NB - if you were there last night, and I haven't yet contacted you - please drop me an email on "jack@pobox.com", giving me your name, your email, and your approximate place in the queue, and a photo of yourself there if possible.

I also got a call from Sarah Meikle, who works for our city council-sponsored organisation, Positively Wellington Tourism (PWT). She told me what had happened. Apparently, about eight weeks ago the PWT had booked the entire first "public" session. They had asked for permission to do so, and had received it (so, the fault of this is NOT with PWT, or the Wellington Council).

The reason they booked the session was so they could arrange for a huge party, and they intended to give away tickets via competitions etc.

And so, it was decided to donate 120 seats to the Hobbit Line Queuers, and to the Welly-mooters.

So a MASSIVE "Thank You" goes out to Sir Peter and Matt Dravitzki for their initial offer of assistance, and to the PWT's Sarah Meikle for clearing up a mess that they did NOT create, and had no real reason to clean up.

Who's fault was it then? The Embassy Theatre? Not entirely, no. Certainly not the staff in the Wellington building. I've visited them this afternoon to disperse any "bad blood" and find out what went wrong. From what I can figure out, the staff in Wellington were expressly forbidden to talk about Hobbit screening times and sessions. They all knew, apparently, but were prevented by the Embassy's owners (Event Cinemas Ltd) from telling us about it. It's pretty messed up. It must have been pretty depressing for them to watch us for hours, knowing the party wouldn't last. Perhaps that's why they didn't approach us doing our stay? Nobody wants an angry horde of Hobbits on their back.

Elly, the manager from the Embassy and myself have sat down and talked briefly this afternoon. She knew nothing about this debacle until this morning, when all hell broke loose. I think she was telling the truth - certainly she looked pretty distressed while talking to me, and apologised for the whole situation many times.

So of the management of Event Cinemas I would ask this - please remember who pays your wages. It's the people who buy the tickets. And The Hobbit will be the three biggest movies in the next three years. Just sayin'. All we're asking for is some respect.

From here we move forward again. I'm waiting for the final arrangements from the PWT to come through, and I still need a number of names, and email address. So if you were there last night, again, please do tell me where you were sitting - I have a pretty good idea of how many people were there. Send me emails to "jack@pobox.com", with photos if possible. Once my team of experts is ready, we'll try to hand out the tickets as fairly as possible. This does mean we won't be able to cater for large numbers of extra tickets though, so expect one or two tickets per person, and I reserve the right to the final say over it.

If you know other people who were there, get them to mail me also if they haven't already.

One more thing - if you've already bought tickets, and don't need them anymore because of this - the Embassy has said they will happily refund tickets bought last night.

More information about the event will be posted here as it comes to hand. Stay tuned!

Some relevant articles on stuff today:

Hobbit fans disappointed at ticket debacle

Sir Peter saves Hobbit fans' day

And especially:

Hobbit fans pipped by tourism booking

[UPDATED 8/11/2012] And the next day, also on page 3 in the DomPost:

Hobbit tickets secretly sold months ago

YES! Embassy Theatre Box Office has agreed to open at Midnight!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 05:53:00 +0000

Breaking news! The wait is over!!

We've just heard that the Embassy Theatre has agreed to open up their Box Office for ticket sales, tomorrow midnight - at 12:01am, EARLY Wednesday morning.

So let's make it worth their while; if you are able, turn up to the Embassy around 11:30pm on the evening of Tuesday the 6th of November, ready to purchase your HOBBIT Tickets for December 12th!

This information was posted on their Facebook page:

**Due to a lot of expressed interest we will be opening our onsite Box Office sales at midnight on the 7th Nov (Tues night/Wed morn). The Box Office will be open for a limited time on this night and we will re-open at 9am on Wed morning**

Online tickets will be available from midnight on Wednesday (Tues night/Wed morn).

Phone sales will be available from 9am on Wednesday morning.

Information about screening times will be avaliable on Wednesday at midnight.

384 7657 or deluxe.co.nz or 10 Kent Terrace

Some Ticket pricing information was given as well:

Main auditorium 3D is $18.50 (adult) $14.50 (child/senior) $17 (student) - doesn't include glasses, which are $1 each pair (brand new-you get to keep them or you can bring your own Real D pair)

Alex and I will be there with our brand new Welly-moot banner, and hopefully we'll have the finished Welly-moot T-shirts as well, so we should be easy to spot!

Perhaps we should draw a few Dwarves on it, or a Dragon maybe?

It's all coming together nicely! Spread the word, and see you at the Embassy tomorrow night! Come in costume if you can/want!

And I would like to extend a BIG "thank you" to Elly from the Embassy for making it happen!

First trial T-shirt has arrived for proofing.

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:16:00 +0000

After spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to get T-shirts arranged, I've finally managed to get the first shirt here. I picked up the proof-sample today, and it looks great!


This man is more handsome because of the T-shirt

The "Welly-moot" logo is in a lovely gold colour, and the whole deal looks very good. I'm very happy with the end result. I've given the go-ahead on the rest of the order, and hopefully the rest will be here by the middle of next week.

For the one or two amongst you who have arranged an alternative method of delivery, that will be starting shortly - for everyone else, I will certainly have the T-shirts with me on Red Carpet Day (Nov 28), at the extra-ordinary Welly-moot picnic, under the Tripod across the road from the Embassy Theatre.

If you want to get the shirt earlier than that, please get in touch! I'm sure we can work something out!

- Jack

Welly-moot 1.5: Trolls

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:15:00 +0000

Last Sunday we had the fifth Welly-moot meeting of this year. We started with a welcome from Jack, who also shared updates on projects, general news, and introduced three Riventrolls.

Kim Beaton with an earlier project on the left - the three "mini-trolls" on the right.

The Troll project Jack and Alex are working on has been progressing nicely. Jack brought with him three original trolls maquettes made by the our sculptor Kim, and designed by her husband Warren. Jack will set up the website for this project to start fundraising as soon as possible. We will update any progress as it happens. ((Jack: Don't expect too much before the premiere!))

The group discusses Trolls

The most exciting topic is of course the Hobbit premiere. It is less than a month now! The plan is that on the morning of Premiere Day (November 28), Welly-mooters will make their way towards the the Weta Tripod (across the road from the Embassy Theatre ) for a picnic. We will have banners, and members will wear "Welly-moot" T-shirts, so people can find us. We are looking forward to meeting a lot of people from all over the world! There will be a full agenda posted here as soon as it's finalised, but that's the gist of it. If anyone has a cool flag, please bring it, and send me a photo so I can post it here for people to recognise on the day. I'll be bringing a Rohan flag, hopefully.

Related with the premiere, are some other events. One exciting party is the Hobbit Costume Party by Red Carpet Tours on 26 November Monday at Amora Hotel ($125 / person). And there are some other parties in the town on the same week of the premiere. The Youth Hostel (YHA) will be hosting a party as well, and I'm trying to find out if they will accept non-YHA guests at that event. More details as they come to hand!

The first 'Hobbit' movie will start showing from 13 December and the tickets will start selling on 7 November at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington and internet. Of course we want to have midnight-session tickets if there are any, however there will be distinct possibility that the tickets for 13 December will be sold out via the internet before the office opens at 9.00am on 7 November. We'd like "real" paper tickets, of course! For the Hobbit collections later!

So, Jack has spoken to Elly, the manager of the Embassy Theatre to please open the Box Office at midnight as well and if they receive enough requests to sell the tickets at midnight on 7 November, they will open the office at midnight. We're VERY happy to be there at midnight (12:01am, Nov 7th)

Elly has made her email address available, so please send your request to the Embassy Theatre as soon as possible!

Our new members, Ash and Cinnamon are big fans of the 'Lord of the Rings' and enjoyed talking about Tolkien's world and hearing related news. Originally they met Jack through one of his tours, and are living locally.

Ash, Cinnamon, Charlene, Hanne, Iain, and Jack

Hanne from Norway visiting NZ mentioned that in Norway they have sold the tickets of 'Hobbit' already, although they have been told off by the studio, and have ceased for now! One theatre has 15 screens to show 'The Hobbit' on 13 December. Amazing!

Ayako and Maki joined our meeting from Palmerston North. They have the passion for 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit', and drove a four hour trip to join us again. It was great to catch up with them.

Jack, Ayako, and Maki examine the Trolls

Special visitor, Ken, stopped by and say hello and join our meeting. Ken was an extra on The Hobbit, and it was great to meet him.

The regular member; Martin, Iain, Charlene, and Miranda discussed news and topics. Jack and Martyn debated the merits and demerits of Peter Jackson making the Trolls speak, as per the book (the outcome of that particular debate is as yet undecided).

Kris and Kumi bought offered apologies - Kris was still on holiday, while Kumi is busy studying for her final exams.

It was another fun meeting for the members and visitors. The premiere is getting closer and is becoming a focal point for the meetings at the moment. This most exciting event this year will start soon!

So to recap - there will be a Welly-moot picnic on Premiere Day (November 28), at 10:00am, underneath the Tripod (or closeby, depending on the crowds). More details will be announced soon, including pictures of banners and flags to look for on the day, so you can find us. Everyone (including non-wellymooters!) will be welcome - bring a plate though!

- Report by Alex, posted by Jack

Line Party possible in Wellington, NZ, but we need fans to email them quickly!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:09:00 +0000

(Reblogged from www.nznoldor.com)

Line Party possible in Wellington, NZ, but we need fans to email them quickly!:

It looks like Wellington MAY have a line party. We held Welly-moot (the meeting of Wellington's Tolkien enthusiasts) at the Embassy Theatre yesterday. I spoke to the Elly, the manager there, and asked her when Hobbit tickets to the December 13th opening would be available. She said at 12:01am Nov 7th (online), and 09:00am next morning (physical box office).

Then I asked her if she would consider opening the physical box office at midnight as well, and she said she'd consider it IF she got enough demand for it.

So: please, if you know anyone in Wellington who wants to stand in line for the world's FIRST official tickets (keep in mind our midnight happens an hour before anyone else's midnight!!), get them to send an email to Elly, the manager of Wellington's Embassy Theatre, at manager@deluxe.co.nz with a subject of "Please open the Box Office at 12:01am, Nov 7th for Hobbit Tickets!".

If it opens, I plan to be there on the night - let's see how many others we can get to join us!

Elly is a very nice person, and TOTALLY enthusiastic about The Hobbit, so please be nice to her when you email her!

We need the fans to show how important this is, so please DO email her!

Headsup - Welly-moot next week Sunday 28th! Get ready!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 05:16:00 +0000

And we have a theme - Trolls!

I will have an announcement to make at the meeting about my favourite project. Feast your eyes on this (mini-) guy...

I will explain all about him at the meeting. In the meantime, here's some reading homework before the meeting.

Also, if you have ordered a T-shirt but haven't paid for it yet, please do so online, or at latest on the day. I'm paying for them out of my own pocket at this stage and this is preventing me from buying cool Hobbit stuff.

And if you HAVEN'T yet ordered a T-shirt, it's a little late but I have ordered a VERY small numbers of spares. Be quick and you may get lucky (but no promises).

Unfortunately, the small number of orders meant I couldn't keep the cost under $20 and the price has gone up to $25. It's still not a lot to pay for a cool shirt, of course!

The meeting will start at the usual time and place - upstairs at the Embassy Cinema at 2:00pm.

See you there!

Welly-moot T-shirts for Nov 28, Hobbit Premiere Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 04:12:00 +0000

The Hobbit Premiere is getting closer and closer! This morning, the Wellington City Council made the official announcements for the big day, they can be found here on their website.

The Welly-moot will be there on the day - in what form is still being discussed.

To prepare for the day, we are printing a special Welly-moot T-shirt. The T-shirt is intended for Welly-moot members only - this way I can keep the costs down as I will only pay the shipping once. I do need to know how many shirts I should order though, so please do send me an email with details.

The T-shirt will cost approximately nz$20, and they will look roughly like this:

"Welly-moot, NZ's Tolkien Fellowship; 2012 - The Year Of The Hobbit"

Please order quickly - we would like to have them printed before the next Welly-moot, on October 28th.

Send me an email me with the following details:

Your name,
Number of shirts
Size(s) of shirts; S, M, L, XL, XXL

As soon as I have an accurate idea, I will contact you with my bank details, and I will put the order in. I can't afford to buy shirts with promise-notes, so I will not order T-shirts for which I've not received funds yet.

Today is Monday the 8th; get your orders in by the end of next weekend (so, by Sunday Oct 14th). I will be in touch soon afterwards with more details.

NB - if we can get orders for 25 shirts or more, the costs will go down.

- Jack

Welly-moot 1.4, the Middle-earth quiz

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Wellington's official Tolkien lovers group met last week Sunday, and it was the day of the Middle-earth Quiz, something we've all been looking forward to!

Before we could begin, we had some business to discuss though.

First point of business was Kris' update on our involvement in the Hobbit Red Carpet Release day. Kris is working hard on getting us a grandstand on the Red Carpet route on November the 28th, and all is going well - we are currently awaiting news from the council about this. So the message is - if you want to have a pretty awesome view on the Grand Day, now is the time to join the Welly-moot!

On a related note, Welly-moot T-Shirts are coming, so watch this space. I'll be working on the final designs for them in the near future, and they'll be available online as soon as possible. The decision was made today that rather than making profit on the shirts, we would sell them at cost, so everybody will have a chance to get one as soon as possible, to wear on the big day. Even if the Grandstand doesn't come off (but it will!), we will still look like a "proper" group!

Kris is also making a big banner/placard to use on the day - the final look and exact wording is yet to be decided but it'll be sure to draw the attention of all the stars as they make their way into the first showing of the first Hobbit movie. :)

Earlier this week, I posted a Call for Volunteers for various Welly-moot projects. We've had a good response from it, and indeed one of the volunteers made it to today's moot, so that was great to see!

The first project - upgrading the "Hobbit Hideaway" paths on Mt Victoria, is well on track - it looks like permission has been given by the Wellington Council for us to volunteer our time, so now we have to decide the practicalities of it all. Welly-mooter Wayne has offered his help since he works as a landscape gardener (when he's not winning Tolkien quiz shows). So I'll be getting more details and we'll have more to report on by next meeting - perhaps even a finished result!

The second project - renaming a New Zealand feature to honour the memory of Professor Tolkien - was also in need of a Champion, or in this case a trio of Champions. Since Martyn has some experience in this (he was involved in the naming of the current Moa Point on Wellington's south coast), he has offered some of his time to look into the matter. I've handed over what I had at this stage, and I will put Martyn in contact with someone else keen on this, who started this whole process - my friend Aaron from Manapouri in the South Island. Aaron has recently renamed various features in the Kepler mountain range for some New Zealand astronomers, so together with Martyn, they should be the right people for this job.

Fiordland Mountains with some unshaven guy

The third project - the Rivendell upgrade - is going forward with great strides. The Greater Wellington Regional Council has been working very hard this week, and Rivendell in the Kaitoke Regional Park has a new path, which should hopefully keep everyone's shoes a bit dryer when it rains.

The Park Rangers have also improved the space around the "Legolas" tree, where Orlando Bloom had one of his most famous publicity photos taken. So many people had used the tree's roots to stand on for their own version of the photo, that the tree had started to signs of distress, and so, a few years ago, the rangers had built a small wooden platform to pose on. This platform however interfered with the "naturalness" of the photos. In the most recent upgrade, the platform has been removed, and a small path has been built to reach around to the same spot, without interfering with the tree's root system, and without being obvious in any photos. I'll post some photos and some examples as soon as I have them.

Also part of this project is a trio of beautiful hand carved wooden "Elvish" informational bollards to guide visitors through the ex-movie set. In the upcoming weeks I will endeavour to get full information and updates about this. Suffice to say that the bollards have already been carved, the locations are set, and we're currently working on the information - in English and Sindarin.

The most exciting project of all though, looks like it's starting to kick off properly as well. We're seriously working towards getting a sculpture in the Rivendell area. Or rather, just outside, to greet Rivendell visitors. More on that later... MUCH more!

Eventually though, the business part of the Welly-moot was at an end, and the Trivia quiz could begin! The source material used was "The LOTR Trivia Game", which deals with questions from the books, and "LOTR Trivial Pursuit", which has questions from the movies.

I had some 50-70 questions ready, but in the end we only had time for about 15-20 or so. Too much time was spent arguing over the finer details or suggesting preposterous answers instead - in other words, having a good time and enjoying ourselves!

"...um, how many members are in the fellowship, no wait... too easy, let me choose another!..."

The final results were large incoherent, although we agreed that Kris answered the most questions correctly, with Martyn in second, and Wayne in third place.

Wayne won third prize

Everyone walked away with prizes though - Kris chose a complete set of five rare original Te Papa Museum collectible LOTR postcards, while Martyn both took home one of the gorgeous New Zealand/Middle-earth maps originally made for NZ Film. The maps were drawn by Daniel Reeve, who of course created pretty much EVERY map for Peter Jackson. Ever. The maps were donated by Wellington Rover Tours (so a big thank you to my boss Scott Courtney!)

Ruben looked very happy with his beautiful Hobbit map, drawn by Daniel Govar, and donated by Middle-earth News Network (thank you very much, Mark Ostley!).

Ruben was second from the bottom! Lucky we had plenty of prizes!

We are looking forward to the next meeting, which may be sooner than you think - September 22nd is of course the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, so we are working on organising a special party somewhere in the Outer Shire on the day (ie, Mount Victoria). Expect an announcement in the next few days!

- Jack

Volunteers needed for upcoming "special" projects

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 01:06:00 +0000

We are coming closer to the release of Sir Peter Jackson's first Hobbit movie! The Welly-moot is very excited about this, and especially the announcement that it's now officially a trilogy!

To coincide with the first release on November the 28th, the Welly-moot has a few Tolkien related projects coming up that we could use extra pairs of hands with. If you are keen to have your name permanently added to the annals of history, and aren't afraid of getting stuck in, drop me a line!

Some of the projects are:

A Rivendell sculpture - we're working on a gorgeous statue in the middle of one of Upper Hutt's parks, and we need help with some aspects of it, including the fundraising but also (eventually) with the actual sculpting of it. You won't need an artistic bent; we already have an artist in mind, but more on that later. She will happily train anyone willing to lend a hand.

We are also in the process of renaming a (currently unnamed) New Zealand geologic feature after Professor Tolkien, and we need a champion to crack the whip behind that. Again, all the difficult work is done (we have the location, and know the contact details of the Geographical Board who can initiate the process), we just need someone to manage to project from our end. This one is mostly just filling out the right forms, crossing the t's and dotting the i's.

Upgrading the paths on Mount Victoria. Does anyone have contacts with the Wellington Council so we can safeguard the trees that the Hobbits hid beneath in the Fellowship Of The Ring (aka, the "Shortcut to Mushrooms")? The current wet season has made a total mess of the path and it could definitely use a bit of work. Also, I'd love to discuss a change of the current mountain bike trail away from the tree roots, and perhaps moved by 20 meters or so. Again, I have all the contact details for most of these people, I just don't seem to find enough time to start this as a project.

There are more projects as well - we could really do with lots of extra hands!

Please email me if you have spare time and would like to make a difference to Tolkien fans around the Wellington region for a LONG time to come!

- Jack

Headsup: Wellymoot Trivia Contest, August 26th! Free Entry - All welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:24:00 +0000

So, you think you know your Middle-earth? Keen to be tested?

As previously announced, the next Wellymoot meeting will be held on August the 26th, upstairs at the Embassy Theatre, starting at 2:00pm as usual. Instead of a topic for discussion, this month we will be holding a trivia contest, although I would envisage that the contest will quickly escalate into a heated debate.

I will bring a lot of questions from various sources; The LOTR Trivia Game, which deals with questions from the books; LOTR Trivial Pursuit, which deals with the movies; and my little book "So You Think You Know The Lord Of The Rings?" (by Clive Gifford), which deals with the movies again. I might also sneak a few questions from "The Unofficial Narnia Quizbook" in there, so be warned! If anyone else has trivia material, please bring it, or alternatively, self-made questions are even better!

Trivia: The game box has a cover designed by John Howe!

There will be some prizes, hopefully enough for everyone who takes part. I will donate some LOTR map posters of various descriptions, and if anyone has "spare" LOTR items they no longer want but think they might be suitable as a prize, then PLEASE, bring them in! They will be gladly accepted! And if anyone reading this is unable to come to the meeting, and would like to donate to the cause, please drop me a line, I'll be happy to collect from any Wellington address.

The meeting, as usual, will be free entry, and open to all. The questions will range from very hard to really easy, so everyone will have fun!

Full details here.

See you there!

Welly-moot 1.3 (July 1, 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +0000

The third official Welly-moot of 2012 went very well last week. Kris had organised the meeting this time, as I had just returned with Alex from our trip to the Netherlands, and we were still thoroughly jetlagged. The moot-theme was "Weather", the requirement was "Bring your imagination", and Kris kept us on track.

(anti-clockwise from the left) : Wayne, Martyn, Kris, Jack, Todd, Charlene, and Mervi

After a relaxed start, catching up with each other and introducing new member Ruben to the group, we first got updated on the latest Wellywood rumours. Then, Kris got us started on the topic. Luckily we'd had quite a bit of interesting weather lately, so it all seemed quite relevant!

Discussing the weather are Charlene, Todd the Oliphaunt Rider, Jack, and new member Ruben

How do hobbits get through a cold winter? What would they eat? Would they have access to all modern cooking methods, or is it mainly stew, with a brace of conies added every so often?

There seemed to be an awful lot of corn being grown in the Peter Jackson's Shire - was it for hobbit consumption, or was it intended as pig-swill?

One of the conclusions we came to was that Hobbits would spend most winter days in the great halls, singing and dancing, and eating and drinking (and smoking!), so probably not much different to any other day, except indoors. Hobbits live the good life, it seems.

Kris, Martyn, and Wayne the Rohan, all deep in the discussion

Peter Jackson's movies appear to use the weather to convey various moods. It's often raining in the movie when the main characters are losing hope (think: Bree, Helm's Deep), and when hope returns, so does the good weather. Gandalf appears at the breaking of dawn at Helm's Deep - and Strider is revealed to be a good guy just as the rain stops in Bree. I don't believe this is a coincidence, and there are no doubt other examples of that in the movie.

--

It was a very friendly and happy meeting. A big thanks to Kris for setting the topic (and keeping us to it), and thanks to everyone for attending!

And to those who couldn't make it - the next meeting will be on Sunday August 26! We will have trivia quiz about anything related with Tolkien and his world. Looking forward to seeing you!

- Jack & Alex

A Winter's Tale of Tolkien - July 1, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Kris) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 19:17:00 +0000

As the northerlies sweep down over the hills and the southerlies chill us to the bone, cradle a mug and let your mind wander over Middle-earth. Imagine a small group of rangers - or a lone one - out in the snow-covered wilds, tracking orcs or watching over the Shire; sit yourself down in the Hall of Fire at Rivendell and listen to songs and stories; join Thror, King under the Mountain, for a feast such as only the dwarves can prepare; carouse with the goblins, or lurk with Gollum, in smoking, stinking caves somewhere hidden and dark; celebrate Mid-winter and the return of the light in the halls of Men; enjoy your well-stocked larder, barrels of ale, and a pipe by the fire in your hobbit hole.

How would a winter's day be spent in Tolkien's worlds? We shall spin some tales of our own at our next moot. Bring your imagination and coin for coffee and cake to the cafe upstairs in the Embassy Cinema at the end of Courtney Place, Sunday, July 1, 2:00-4:00-ish.

Sing "Tra-la-la-lally,
Tril-lil-lil-lolly!"

Welly-moot 1.2 (Apr 29, 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Jack Machiela) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:00:00 +0000

This weekend's Welly-moot went off without a hitch. Kris arrived early to set up, and was quickly joined by Barbara, who had flown down from Auckland especially for the moot. By 2:15pm, thirteen people had arrived to discuss Smaug and his dragonous cronies. An ominous number indeed!


From the far left, around the table ccw: Barbara, Jack, Charlene, Kumi, Hawk, Ryan, Brian, Harrison, Suzie, Wayne, Kris, and Martyn. Missing: Alex (taking the picture), and Iain & Partner who arrived shortly after.

Shortly after though, Iain arrived with his partner, bringing us away from the unlucky number, and coincidentally up to The Hobbit's "fellowship" numbers instead.

Kris, and Iain and his wife

After coffee orders and introductions, we got started. To set the mood, Kris had brought with her some prints from Alan Lee and John Howe, which were displayed on one of the tables.


Hawk spotted Nessie - potentially of Dragon-kind! Behind him, left, is Alan Lee's Smaug, and on the right, John Howe's version. Let's see what Peter Jackson's version ends up looking like!

Also on display on my iPad was a presentation created by Welly-moot friend Peter Kenny from Australia, who sent me the link in anticipation of our meeting. The presentation can also be found on his Facebook page. Thanks again for that, Peter!

Martyn opened with a discussion on Welsh Dragons, and where Saint George's story fit into England's mythology - not very well, by the sounds of things! Various versions of the myth were offered, including a Libyan one. It sounds like it was eventually Richard the Lionheart who brought the story to England.

Martyn in full swing, with Kris and Wayne considering the evidence.

Ryan shows Hawk a print of St George's dragon as a Wyvern (two-legged, winged dragon)

Next, Alex demonstrated her skills at the Japanese art of Origami. Origami is an ancient art that's been around since early in Japan's Edo period (early 1600's), and is now practiced widely around the world. The word "Origami" simply means Folding ("Ori") Paper ("Kami"). True Origami involves folding a square sheet of paper, without cuts or glue.

Alex concentrates while I read her notes out to the group. Barbara is mesmerised (as the rest of us were!)

Kumi and Charlene memorise every fold! (Right?)

Alex's chosen model was, of course, a dragon. She'd prepared a few extras beforehand, for everyone else to take home with them.

A selection of Dragons and Drakes

Japanese dragons are diverse legendary creatures in Japanese mythology and folklore. The style of the Japanese dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Interestingly, although wingless, they do often fly.

After Alex's Origami demonstration, Wayne spoke about English Dragon sightings in the 1600's. He had located a book with actual eyewitness accounts of Dragons, with some fairly detailed descriptions. I always wonder what that might have been - a crocodile? A Komodo dragon perhaps? Indonesia had been discovered, and trading would have been going well already. It's conceivable that somebody brought a giant Monitor lizard back for their own amusement, which had perhaps escaped somehow.

Or, of course, it could have been an Actual Dragon!

The discussion also touched, without definite results, on whether the fell beasts that the Nazgul ride on in ROTK were some form of Dragons, or at least Cold-Drakes. It seems they came from Angband, which is where (if memory serves me right) Morgoth created the Orcs from tortured Elves. Perhaps he also tortured Cold-Drakes into submission there? Was the great prison of Angband maybe Morgoth's Genetic Manipulation Laboratory?

On a related note, Smaug the Magnificent has recently been in the world news as well - he's made the top spot at the Forbes Rich List! Well, the Forbes Fictional 15, at least. Last year, he only made spot #7, although that appears to have been based on wrong assumptions of his wealth, and miscalculations. I'm impressed that the list has been modified, and he now claims his rightful spot at the top of the list! They don't call him The Magnificent for nothing!

During the course of the afternoon, it was mentioned that both Wayne and Iain had appeared in LOTR. Of course, since I had the Extended Editions on my iPad, that started a quick search for them both - and with success! Wayne is very easy to spot, and most people will probably remember his moment at the start of the Helm's Deep battle - Aragorn tells the archers to "Fire!", and Wayne repeats the call, moments later. Yes, the eye-patch is indeed real, and my guess is that Peter Jackson saw the appeal of Wayne's unusual look to give the battle an edgier, more visceral visual style.

Wayne with his signature moment

"Fire!"

Iain was harder to find, although also a nice important moment in the ROTK - moments after Arwen and Aragorn kiss after the Coronation, Elrond smiles the smile of a proud dad, and on the left side of the screen, behind Elrond's Elven neighbour, you can see Iain quite clearly (click on the picture for a better view)

Iain, after Aragorn's Coronation scene

Iain is on the far left, with the cool hat (click for a better view).

All in all, it was a very successful meeting. We met, shared stories, discussed the theme, and most importantly, generally had a great time of it. Thanks to everyone who attended, and made it all possible! Thanks also to the Embassy Theatre staff and their excellent coffee and cake - it was enjoyed by all! And to those who couldn't make it - there's always a next time - the next meeting will be on July the 1st.

- Jack Machiela