I’m happy to see that my entry on the huge obstacles to getting to be an extra or a minor crew member on The Hobbit film has been linked on some fans’ discussion forums. A participant in one German group asked for information on a related topic. Suppose one were to go to New Zealand and hang around outside the studios or drive behind the production vehicles going out to a location. Would it be possible to catch a glimpse of the sets or watch some of the filming? After all, as this fan points out, one is free to use the public roads.

When The Lord of the Rings was being made, many people tried to do just that, though probably most of them were New Zealanders. They were termed “spies,” and some of them tried to take photos to post on websites. I discuss this phenomenon in the “Spy vs. Spy” section of Chapter 5 in The Frodo Franchise. The Helm’s Deep and Minas Tirith sets were built in a quarry in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington, and some spies spent hours creeping through the dense undergrowth to reach a vantage point above the area. Others trained long lenses on the quarry from across the valley to take fuzzy photos. On the whole, though, spies were usually frustrated in their attempts to get near the filming locations.

For someone coming from abroad to try and see what’s happening during principal photography for The Hobbit, what might the situation be like? Rings was in principal photography for about fourteen months, not counting the pick-ups filmed in 2001, 2002, and 2003 for each of the film’s three parts. As announced, The Hobbit and the bridging film connecting its action with Rings are planned to be shot simultaneously. For two features instead of three, the shooting might last more like ten months. Let’s assume that, anyway.

Obviously the shooting schedule is not made public. An enthusiastic fan coming from abroad would have to spend a lot of time in the Wellington area doing little but hanging around the studios hoping to trail after caravans of buses, trucks, and other vehicles heading to locations.

But one thing that fans considering doing so may not take into account is the fact that many of the film’s locations will be on private land. The production pays for the privilege of using the land, and there are numerous security guards ensuring that spies do not trespass. Similarly, when filming on public land, such as parks, the production obtains an official permit which allows them to take over a certain area and keep people away from it. (After all, the film is pumping tens of millions of dollars into the local economy.) In still other cases, the locations are in remote areas so inaccessible that the cast and crew will be taken in by helicopter or small plane.

What about the studios? The fan on the German site asks, “Can’t I walk in the open area in front of the Weta studios?”

In a sense, yes, but let me clarify. There are no studios at the Weta Ltd. building. One part of that building is taken up by Weta Digital, and there the various computer-related processes go on. The other part consists of workshops and areas where Weta Workshop creates the miniatures, armor, and other items. These are then taken elsewhere for filming.

For Rings, the interiors, miniatures, and green- or blue-screen filming went on at the Stone Street Studios or in various rented warehouses in the Miramar area. The Stone Street Studios are in the middle of the Wellington suburb of Miramar. One can walk past them, but there’s really not much open space in front of them. There’s a small street lined with modest houses. I took this photo in 2003 from across the street.

An enthusiast trying to watch what was happening in the studio obviously couldn’t stand in the street for any length of time. Sitting for hours on the sidewalk in front of someone’s house isn’t very polite, and an annoyed resident might shoo the person away. There wouldn’t necessarily be anything to see, either. Much of the time, as the photo suggests, the open area inside the guarded gate is used as a parking lot for the employees’ cars.

Again, my book discusses the filmmaking facilities that Peter Jackson and his partners have built up in Wellington (Chapter 10). I don’t give away the locations of all of them—only the ones that are common knowledge to the public and that the Rings-related tours drive past.

Ultimately a few fans may decide that even a tiny chance of seeing something relating to the Hobbit filming is worth the considerable expense, time, and struggle involved in traveling to and staying in New Zealand. I offer this information in the hopes that it may be useful in judging the practicality of such an endeavor and the risk of disappointment.