Welly-moot visits Stansborough

Peter Kenny visited us today from Brisbane, Australia. He was in Wellington for a few Hobbit 2:DOS events, and I had arranged to take him to Stansborough Fabrics, the people who created the fabric for Gandalf's cloak, as well as the Elven cloaks used in LOTR.


To get us there, I managed to convince Wellington Rover Tours to lend a hand, and they provided me with a van for the afternoon. Peter Kenny will be coming on one of the LOTR tours over the weekend as well.

 
In fact, Stansborough created far more than just a bit of fabric for LOTR. Think: over one kilometer of fabric for LOTR; enormous amounts for The Hobbit movies, more for Avatar, Narnia, The Waterhorse, Thirty Days of Night, and a whole lot of other movies.

A few scarves with different colours weaving patterns.

We arrived as a small group - it was just me (Jack), Peter Kenny, Franziska, and Adam, and Kris joined us as well. When we got to the factory, Cheryl Eldridge met us at the door, and took us into the small shop area. Through the window we could see the enormous looms already.

Cheryl explains some of the finer point of the machinery

Cheryl described how the factory came to be, from breeding these odd looking grey sheep, to finding the old looms, to searching for people who had the almost lost knowledge to use them (and fix them when they break)!
 

This loom is set up with the LOTR Hobbit pattern, ready to go.

Barry took over the tour, and showed us what he was working on. All items are created by hand, and apart from some mechanical tools, no modern machinery is involved in the process at any stage. It's nice to know that when you see the final product on screen, I think. The looms are over 100 years old at the stage.

Barry making hats for a certain wizard. Note what SECRET ingredient he's using!

After seeing how the hats were made, it was Richard's turn - to show us the looms in operation. Incredibly noisy, I tried to film a bit of it but got too close, and Richard shut them off, as apparently (and only occasionally) the little shuttle can shoot off and kill the closest camera person. I'm not sure if he was kidding but took him at his word!

Richard looks calm, while the loom has become a blur of action. Peter looks on and seems impressed!

All in all, a great afternoon - I think everyone enjoyed seeing the factory in action!

Franziska looks like she had a good time.

Stansborough has an online shop as well, where a lot of products are offered for sale. Check them out, they ship to most countries.

Stansborough Fabrics visit - be quick!

Had a great time at the second Hobbit movie (again) last night, at the Embassy Theatre Midnight Screening. While there, we met up with the lovely people from Stansborough Fabrics, who not only created the cloaks for Gandalf in the Hobbit movie, but were actually wearing them at the cinema last night as well.

Cheryl and Barry Eldrige, who own the fabrics company, have invited us for a visit later this week, to coincide with Welly-moot friend Peter Kenny's visit from the Brisbane Tolkien Association. I spoke to my boss at Wellington Rover Tours, and he's provided a van for Friday afternoon as well, so here's the deal:

Friday the 13th of December, I will take a mini-van with Peter Kenny, and 10 empty seats from Wellington City to the other side of the Wellington Harbour, to the Stansborough factory in Petone, where they will take us for a guided tour around the 100+ year old looms. If you would like to see this, email me as soon as possible at jack@welly-moot.com and I will tell you where to be at 2:00pm on Friday afternoon. The first 10 people get in, so be quick. First come, first served.


This is a free event, but there are STRICTLY limited spaces available, so please, do be quick!


Stansborough created fabrics and clothing for LOTR, Hobbit, Avatar, Narnia, and a host of other Wellywood productions, so this is an exciting opportunity to see where it all happened!


We'd also like to thank Wellington Rover Tours for helping out with transport for this event as well. Rover Tours have been running LOTR tours in the Wellington region for longer than anyone else - so if you're after a great tour, please do check out their website as well. All their guides are crazy about the LOTR movies, so you can't go wrong.

So, email me asap, on jack@welly-moot.com !

Come meet the Welly-moot before the Midnight Session at the Embassy!

If you've got your Embassy Cinema tickets to the Midnight Screening of Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug, then we'll see all of you in the cafe at around 10:30pm or so, for a pre-screening buzz-out! Come and join us, before the movie kicks off, it'll be nice to see everyone beforehand.

Alex and I will be in costume, and should be easy to find. Depending on how tired we all afterwards, we should have a quick get-together afterwards as well.

This photo, taken at the Live Fan Event in Wellington on November 5 this year, was printed in the Indian newspaper The Hindu. From left to right, there's Viv, Alex, Jack, and Wayne, pictured in front of a readership of 100 million Indian newspaper readers (thanks to Marcel Aubron-Bülles from the UK Tolkien Society for the tip).

So, to recap, we're meeting in the upstairs cafe in the Embassy Cinema, from about 10:30pm onwards. If you're not yet a member, come meet us as well, we'll be easy to spot!

  - Jack


[NB - As always, if you're missing the picture and the links, you're probably reading this on Facebook. Come to the blog instead, at www.welly-moot.com, and subscribe to us there.]

Roundup of Wellington "Hobbit 2 Release" events

There are now so many events around the release of the second installment of The Hobbit trilogy that I get to use the word "plethora" in a sentence!

Middle-earth News has a good premiere roundup as well.


In order of date, the following things are planned:


December 2-3 : Official Release (Los Angeles, USA)

• Livestreamed to Wellington, starting at 3:30pm, December 3rd (NZ Time)
• URL for the livestream is on the official Hobbit Movie Facebook page.
• Check time in your own country here.

December 4-5 : Live Google Hangout with Peter Jackson (Online)

• Livestreamed to Wellington, starting at 7:15am, December 5th (NZ Time)
• URL for the livestream is on the Hobbit's Google+ page
• Check time in your own country here.

December 9th : Marine Education Centre Charity Gala (Embassy Cinema)

• URL for more details at the Embassy Cinema website
• Doors open at 6:00pm
• Doors close at 7:00pm
• Movie starts at 7:15pm
• As of right now (9:00pm, 28/Nov), there are still tickets available for this.

December 10 : Special (alleged) screening for the crew

• Heard this one on the grapevine. I don't know anything official about this, but I'm really pleased to see that the actual people who made the movie get to see it nice and early too.
• As far as I know it's invite only, and crew only as well.
• Don't bother asking, you won't get in. :)

December 11 : Special Preview (Reading, Courtenay Central)

•  Competition winners only, I believe
• Movie starts at 6:15pm

December 11 : (hopefully) Screening of Hobbit 1 ??? (Embassy Cinema)

• We're still in talks with the Embassy about this one. Hopefully we can watch part one from, say, 8:00pm, ahead of the midnight session at midnight

December 11 : Costume Party at the Roxy Cinema

• This one is organised by Red Carpet Tours
• Movie starts at midnight - I assume this is actually 12:01am, so technically the 12th of December
• Tickets are sold out, but the details are here.

December 12 : Midnight Session (first public screening)

• Movie starts at one minute past midnight - 12/12/13, at 12:01am
• This is the first "proper" public screening of The Hobbit, and will mark the start of the Box Office (I think). Due to the fortunate layout of the International Date Line, New Zealand STILL gets to see this before anyone else. 
• As far as I can tell there's satill tickets available for this one as well.
• Check the Embassy website for more details.

December 13th : LifeFlight Charity Event (Embassy Cinema)

• Event starts at 5:15pm
• Movie starts at 6:05pm
• Will be attended by William Kircher (Bifur) and Joe Letteri (Weta Digital head FX wizard)
• UPDATE - Tickets are now sold out
• More details (if you already have tickets) are available on the LifeFlight website

Apart from this plethora(*) of special screenings, I know there's also a large number of Laketown Extras attending one of the sessions on December the 14th, and will have a communal picnic somewhere the next day (15th). Don't know when, don't know where. I'm not invited (though Alex (my wife) is, but she's not telling me).

If anything changes I'll keep this page updated, so keep checking back for more info!

This page is published on the welly-moot blog, and if you're reading this on facebook, google+, RSS, or twitter, or even via email, you may be missing the links. Check www.welly-moot for more details. That's always the source.



(*) you thought I'd forgotten.

PRESS RELEASE - Hobbit 2 Gala Tickets on sale TODAY.

The second Hobbit movie premiere may be in L.A. this year, but that doesn't mean Wellington will be left behind. It looks like we're having a party after all!

We have just received a press release from Roadshow, the NZ distributors of the Hobbit movies, about a charity event with a preview of the second movie, the Desolation of Smaug.

In short, on the evening of December the 9th, there will be a Gala event hosted at the Embassy Cinema in Wellington. The movie itself will start at 7:15pm, but the doors will be open earlier, and it sounds like a grand event is planned, with six of the dwarves in attendance.

Tickets will be $100, with all proceeds going to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre. 

Book your tickets through the Embassy's website - they go on sale at 3:00pm TODAY.


See you all there!
--
Update: Better link here.
--

The full press-release follows:

PROCEEDS FROM THE NEW ZEALAND GALA PREMIERE OF THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG TO GO TO LOCAL CHARITY

Charity Gala Premiere Set For Monday, December 9, in Wellington

This year, the general public and avid Hobbit fans alike will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at the New Zealand Charity Gala Premiere on December 9 at The Embassy Theatre, Wellington.

The film, a production of New Line Cinema and Metro Goldwyn-Meyer Pictures (MGM), opens across New Zealand cinemas on December 12.

Tickets to the prestigious event will be available for purchase from Thursday, November 21 at 3pm on the Event Cinemas website (www.eventcinemas.co.nz), Roadshow Film Distributors announced today.

Cost per ticket will be $100 with all proceeds raised at the event to go to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre.

“We are proud to support The Marine Education Centre, they give so much to this city, we are very happy to be able to give something back," said filmmaker Peter Jackson.

"We are delighted to be involved with this event and the money raised will help us to reach more people of all ages to inspire them to want to learn about our oceans,” said Judy Hutt of The Island Bay Marine Education Centre.  “We think education is the key to caring for our environment and the younger you start learning the better. We also think that the best way to learn about marine life is to have close encounters with it.  That's what the Island Bay Marine Education Centre is all about."

Actors from the film, including Jed Brophy (Nori), Stephen Hunter (Bombur), Mark Hadlow (Dori), John Callen (Oin), Peter Hambleton (Gloin) and William Kircher (Bifur), will also be in attendance.

Along with being among the first in the world to see the next film in Peter Jackson's epic Trilogy, guests will also be treated to light refreshments and canapés prior to the 7.15pm film start time, have the opportunity to walk away with some exclusive merchandise from the film and a few other surprises.

New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Present a WingNut Films Production, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.  The screenplay for the film is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro, based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Jackson also produced the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh.  The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Philippa Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-producers.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), with New Line managing production.  Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.

IMPORTANT !!! Special Announcement this afternoon around 2:00pm!

I've just had word from above that there will be a special announcement for the Wellington Hobbit fans this afternoon - I will be able to reveal more around 2:00pm today, Thursday 21st of November (NZ time).

Please check this blog today - time will be of the essence!



As an aside - I'd like to get people's opinion about whether we should set up an "urgent announcements" mailing list. Good idea?

Please send me some feedback, on "jack@welly-moot.com".


  - Jack

First Midnight Session of Hobbit 2: DoS

I've just been alerted to the fact that Wellington's Embassy Cinema has put tickets on for sale as of lunchtime today (30 minutes ago!), for the first public screening of the new Hobbit Movie.

I'm currently on the road (well, parked beside the road), so I don't have all the details here, but call the Embassy right now if you want tickets to this screening!

Don't delay!