Tourism New Zealand, 3 foot 7 productions, Warner Bros., and others bring you ‘The Book of New Zealand’ exhibit. This is an invitation only event being hosted out at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA. It combines set locations, images of real world New Zealand, and a little movie magic to bring to life much of what makes New Zealand the perfect location for all things ‘Middle-earth’. Here are a few images from the event and a video of the opening greeting, please enjoy.
On Monday night, Tourism New Zealand hosted an opening ceremony for ‘The Book of New Zealand’ with a few special guests, including Dan Hennah and Ra Vincent, who helped set up the set locations used from “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug” featured throughout the exhibit. The set locations are mixed in with images of the real world New Zealand locations making for a very visually stunning event. The event opens with a video intro from Peter Jackson that becomes interactive as what is seen on screen becomes live. The below video shows that video and then the Ceremonial Greeting that came afterwards.
The Greeting was performed by New Zealand singer Hinewehi Mohi, a delightful presence at the event. ‘The Book of New Zealand’ takes you to the Pelorus River, the location of the Barrels sequence in the book. Across from that is one of the giant dwarven heads seen outside of Erebor, which was located at Hidden Bay in the Tongoriro region. Then you enter into an inner area and encounter the Laketown set, which was filmed in the Lake Pukaki area. And finally, you enter Beorn’s home, with locations in Paradise down near the Queenstown area. A few photos are below showing some of the sets and scenery, enjoy.
Barrels with Orc Arrows in them and the Pelorus river behind it.
Dwarven Head outside of Erebor
Laketown Bridge
Fishing boat at Laketown
Beorn’s Home set
Me in Beorn’s chair.
And here is the ‘Making of’ video to show you how this was all put together.
Dan Hennah explains how and why they made ‘The Book of New Zealand’