The Hobbit Chronicles: Book 5

I may be wrong, but I think this is the last volume in the Chronicles set. It's book five, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - Chronicles: Art & Design. My goodness, what a journey this has been. I've always known movie companions tend to be sparse on information, but they will always seem very bare now after I've gone through such detailed books as these. But movie companions are good introductions to most of the departments that helped create a movie--the Chronicles books are more specific in their focus.

By the time you get to this book, you wonder if there's really much new to go over. Yes, there was a third movie, but doesn't it mostly cover the same locations and characters seen in the first two movies? Maybe not as much as I'd thought. There's discussion in here about the destruction of Lake-town and the refugee camp its citizens set up, Galadriel's look for Dol Guldur, more sections of Erebor and Dale, new costume pieces for the dwarves and other characters, and some of the creatures and sets from the final battle.

Besides, of course, pouring over all the used and unused designs, I enjoyed hearing about the collaborative side of design, specifically how it overlapped with plot. If a certain sequence needed stairs, then those had to be worked into a set--that sort of thing. I think this book, more than the others, showed more of that plot angle. So that made for a new way of looking at how the concept artists, Weta Workshop designers, and costume artists were approaching their tasks.

My pre-ordered copy was signed by Alan Lee, Daniel Falconer, Nick Keller, and Gus Hunter. 

The Hobbit Chronicles: Book 3

Click for my thoughts on the first book and on the second.

Continuing on in my journey through this series of books, I now come to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Chronicles: Art & Design. That is, the Desolation of Smaug version of book one, which was for An Unexpected Journey. So once again, we have a bit less text than was in the second book and quite a lot of concept art, in pencil, paint, and digital.

Might I also just admire this cover. The first book was lovely, with its leather-like texture and faint map imagery. But this one, I think, inspires more awe. The texture is of dragon scales to represent the great Smaug and the shapes are reminiscent of the dwarves. Quite impressive. 

Since the format is the same as before, there is nothing new to report there, except my admiration for the continued tidiness and clarity of form. Some of my favorite sections were probably those on Beorn's home and Lake-town, given that those were also some of my favorite sets. It's designed to be so dilapidated, but I'm half in love with Lake-town; granted, I don't want to live there, but as a set and a setting, it's gorgeous. So much thought went into its conception that I could listen to everyone talk about it all day--and this book kind of let me do that, for a few pages, at least. And the concept art paintings for Lake-town--gorgeous. Indeed, they were for many other sets or characters, as well. The $40 list price on this book may be high, but given the amount of imagery within every page, that's rather reasonable. I'm wondering if this was my favorite out of the three books so far.

Well, Weta has shipped out my signed copy of Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon, so I should be writing up a reaction to that within the next month, I think. Then the next Chronicles book comes out around July. It feels good to be finally caught up with these books. 

The Hobbit Chronicles: Book 1

As exciting as the release of Weta's Chronicles series for The Hobbit has been, it has taken me this long to finally read the first book, page per page. I flipped through it before, but it seemed such a dense book that I couldn't get to it when I was still in school and even took a few extra months after graduating. Now, at last, I have moved through the first of the three books; I think perhaps I will take a break before moving on to the second. 

Everyone already knows this, but what a treat, what an amazing feat are these books. Just as the special features on the extended editions for The Lord of the Rings were a remarkable compilation of content, perhaps never to be surpassed, so are the Chronicles books. They just don't make special features as extensive as those, and they just don't make movie books as extensive as these. I like movie companions, but they're sparse on details. These books are not. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design already has the added benefit of being composed by the same people who did the work being discussed in the book. Daniel Falconer of Weta Workshop wrote the book, so all the short settings that start each chapter are written by him. These describe the content, whether it is about the dwarves or Gollum or Rivendell. But instead of just describing the places or characters, this text explains what is significant about it within the context of the film--and consequently what was important for the craftspeople and designers and everyone to convey through their work. 

The body of each chapter, then, consists of imagery and quotes. Concept art, prop images, makeup tests, everything like that. With each image or small group of images, there is at least one quote from someone in the crew describing the work. The quotes are usually about a paragraph or so, which means that you're never bombarded with information: you can take the time to savor each page, take in what they have said and admire their work. What's intriguing is that not all the images are of what made it into the movie. Sometimes there are things that were designed but were simply never seen or used by the characters. Sometimes there are early design ideas that contributed to the look that was eventually decided on. It's amazing to see all the work that was done and the thought that went into each decision. 

So many talented people worked on this movie that learning about the work they did is an adventure of itself. This book is amazing.