Friday, November 11, 2011

Ellen Twitter Blitz


With Thanksgiving around the corner, we find it only fitting that one of our heroes, Ellen, be properly thanked for all that she does to make people’s dreams come true. And although she would undoubtedly appreciate a nice personal note, we are all about utilizing social media to do ridiculously intense things.

Therefore, we will be sending Ellen an awesomely large number of tweets thanking her for supporting the dreams of fans.

This Thursday, Nov. 17 we encourage anyone and everyone to help us by:

-tweeting thx to Ellen

-mentioning @roadtotheshire in your tweet

-hash tagging #HostTheHobbits to see if Ellen wont help us out too!

Friday, October 28, 2011

One Dish to Rule Them All - Recipes

(Big thanks to http://www.cooksillustrated.com/ for hooking us up with these winning dishes)

BILBO'S BREAKFAST BAKED APPLES

INGREDIENTS
4 large apples , large, (about 2 pounds), one strip of peel from stem end removed, rinsed, dried, and cored (see illustration below)
1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or more to taste
1 cup apple cider (preferably unfiltered) or enough to come 1/2 inch up side of pan 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place apples in 9-inch Pyrex pie pan or 8-inch-square baking pan. Mix cinnamon and sugar, adding more cinnamon if desired, then sprinkle over and inside apple cavities. Mix cider and vanilla extract, and pour in pan.
2. Bake apples, basting every 15 minutes, until tender when pierced with thin, sharp knife or cake tester, 45 to 55 minutes. Be careful not to overbake, or skins will split, causing apples to lose their shape. Serve warm. (Can be cooled to room temperature, covered, and refrigerated for 2 days. Reheat before serving.)

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH BACON, ONION, AND PEPPER JACK CHEESE

INGREDIENTS 
12 large eggs 
3/4 teaspoon table salt 
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 
6 tablespoons half-and-half 
4 slices bacon (about 4 ounces), halved lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces 
1 medium onion , chopped medium (about 1 cup) 
1 tablespoon unsalted butter 
1.5 ounces Pepper Jack cheese or Monterey Jack, shredded (about 1/2 cup) 
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley leaves (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Crack eggs into medium bowl; add salt, pepper, and half-and-half. Beat with dinner fork until thoroughly combined.
2. Cook bacon in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate; discard all but 2 teaspoons bacon fat. Add onion to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 2 to 4 minutes; transfer onion to second plate.
3. Thoroughly wipe out skillet with paper towels, add butter, and set over medium heat. When butter foams, swirl to coat bottom and sides of skillet, then pour in eggs. With heatproof rubber spatula, stir eggs constantly, slowly pushing them from side to side, scraping along bottom of skillet and then around sides, and lifting and folding eggs as they form curds. Do not over-scramble, as curds formed will be too small. Cook eggs until large curds form but eggs are still very moist, 2 to 3 minutes. Off heat, gently fold in onion, cheese, and half of bacon until evenly distributed; if eggs are still underdone, return skillet to medium heat for no longer than 30 seconds. Divide eggs among individual plates, sprinkle with remaining bacon and parsley, and serve immediately

MELON SMOOTHIES
Makes 4 1/2 cups, enough for 4 servings. Published May 1, 2002.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium banana (ripe, about 4 ounces), peeled and cut crosswise into eight pieces 
3.5 cups watermelon , cantaloupe, or honeydew 1- to 2-inch cubes 
1/3 cup whole milk 
1/3 cup white cranberry juice or apple juice
pinch table salt 
3-6 teaspoons granulated sugar 
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice 
3 ice cubes (about 1 1/2 ounces total)
INSTRUCTIONS
Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; arrange banana and melon in single layer on baking sheet. Freeze fruit until very cold, but not frozen, about 10 minutes. In blender, puree cold fruit, milk, juice, salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and ice until uniformly smooth, 10 to 15 seconds. Taste for sugar and lemon; if desired, add more sugar or lemon and blend until combined, about 2 seconds longer. Serve immediately.


OFFICIAL MOVIE BLOG LOVE

Well if you haven't been visiting the official blog for the Hobbit movies you should, and by the way Road to the Shire is on the front page today! Pretty cool. Thanks to all the people working hard on An Unexpected Journey and There and Back Again. You all are amazing! Visit the blog and follow! Check out the episode of Dining with the Dean too!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

For All the Doubters...and Those Who Don't Pay Attention, or Perhaps are Inclined to Snap Judgements


Dear friends

We have greatly appreciated all the wonderful support from all of you LOTR fans out there. The Road to the Shire is thriving and its all because of the awesomeness of all of you. It's really amazing to see the kindness, generosity, and passion of fellow fans. Occasionally we get some nay-Sayers or people that seem to have a negative reaction to what we are doing. We have tried to address the concerns presented below by highlighting a recent question on our guestbook. 

(Question submitted by Adam see guestbook for details)
@Adam
You've mentioned that you have looked at our site. Perhaps we can point out some information that is easily found.

1. Road to the Shire is a social experiment meant to bring Tolkien fans together to see if it is possible to interact with one of the greatest stories/films of all time.

2. We have made quite public from the very beginning that we are making a documentary about the whole process and effort.

3. Is it possible? Absolutely.

4. What about our height? Do you know the height of Martin Freeman? Elijah Wood? 5'7" and 5'6". Most anyone that has paid any attention to the films know that Hobbits are shot with two actors (one average size, and one little person). They are not really 3ft tall. Using forced depth of field and doubles the hobbit effect is created. They also use compositing. I would recommend the DVD extra features on any of the trilogy films as a reference. Any scene you see Bilbo or Frodo with other Hobbits there are average size people playing the hobbits around them. This is why they have two sets for each scene (one scale, and one large than life)

5. Have we ever specified what "extra" means? Well we've tried about a million times to say that we just want to be involved--as extras (in any fashion: men, elves, tree stumps, orcs, anything...OR we've said we'd be willing to be water boys, elvish squires, pages in the shops of Weta, or interns, anything for Peter.

6. Will we feel guilty about creating this once in a lifetime event and trying to bring fans together and promote one of the coolest films of all time wilst making a documentary about the whole thing? No. Absolutely not.

7. Work visas? Have we ever suggested that we would require payment for our role as "extras?" No. If you are not "working" you do not require a visa. Also it is not impossible to get a work visa. People's imaginations are so limited in this one. Other extras have been selected who are not New Zealanders (see internet). The goals of Road to the Shire are very clear: Bring Fans together, see if they could really have an influence, document the experience, try to do something that's never been done before with fans interacting with a movie, promote the film and generate excitement for its release. Are we working? Yes. Very hard. We have jobs and second full-time jobs in trying to promote road to the shire. Is there any kind of  sneaky motive? Not at all. If we succeed, everyone who has supported us will have claim on our success and bragging rights to any success we achieve. It's not about us Hobbitses. It's about fans. We're not sure how we can make this more clear, but we will try our hardest.

8. Why money? Well simply put, as we are working our hardest to pull together funds to a. get Peter's attention, b. fly to New Zealand, and c. to make a documentary it will cost money. We are contributing as much as we can ourselves. Can we do it alone? No. Is it wrong to try to raise additional funds with help from those who share our interest and dream? Not at all. Again it's not about money, it's about the power and capacity of fandom. Hope this helps to clarify. I mean we thought we said this but apparently no matter how hard you try some people just make up their mind before really taking the time to find out. If you have any questions we'd be happy to talk with you--literally. You can reach us at roadtotheshire@gmail.com

To all you fans and supporters, thank you for being willing to dream with us.

Toad, Beri, and Olo
The Hobbits of Road to the Shire

We love you. Really.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Errand Boy Shout Out to Road to the Shire

We were just alerted to this superhero vlog Errandboy and wanted to give him some love on our blog for shouting out to us on his youtube channel. Check him out, subscribe, and leave a comment.



Monday, September 26, 2011

Hobbit Day Video Compilation

Dear Friends

We thought you would like to know that we have compiled our submissions from Hobbit day 2011. Thanks for all the participation. You guys are great! Check out the video on the youtube channel later today and the rest of the pics on our facebook page. We hope you like our little highlight reel of all the fun. Keep livin' the hobbit life.



Your besties

The Hobbits
Beri, Toad, and Olo

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Prelude @Lilymilos Highlight Road to the Shire

Well yet another Tolkien blogger has been so kind to give us some love on their blog. Lily Milos (follow her on twitter @lilymilos), interviewed us and has written quite a nice article about her experience with our quest to get back to the shire. We really appreciate her kind words and great support. She has definitely made a huge contribution to our cause. Recently one of our other believers has offered to donate plane tickets to New Zealand. We just can't believe the amazing support we have received. We love you guys. Check out her blog and the article.

In other news we have a big announcement to make on Oct 6. Stay tuned for details!

Monday, August 8, 2011

If You Didn't Notice.. New Videos are in the Video Page..and the Channel.

Hey check out our most recent video reaching out to the Bieb on twitter. You can help us out over on twitter and ask @justinbieber to give us a RT http://bit.ly/qLo2ex ( <-- cut and paste this) Here's what the video is. Hope you love it.
Hey btw, if you scroll down to the bottom of the website you can click on the youtube button to go to our channel. You should subscribe to us and follow our blog--just sayin. There will be something new on the channel every other Tuesday (at least sometimes more!) Help us share it! You should follow us on Twitter and Facebook too.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

5 Minutes of Fame... Literally.


TheOneRing.net has given me the ever so coveted 5 minutes of fame that so many Tolkien fans seek. On their latest episode of Hobbit in 5, they featured one of our Road to the Shire background images, and made may day. We are not just speaking of any ordinary image either. It is beautifully framed with me looking slightly to the left, as if something glorious is happening over there. Plus, sharing the screen with Rebekah Platt and her Pac Man shirt was stellar. Thank you Hobbit in 5!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Land of M.E.N. (Middle Earth News)

"Meet the Hobbits Behind 'Road to the Shire' in our Exclusive Interview," their words, not mine. Although it would have been hilarious to record our own interview and pass it off as legitimate, this actually did happen. The producers at Middle Earth News, Tracking All Things Middle Earth, asked us for am exclusive interview. We didn't want the attention so we declined the generously placed offer... PSYCHE! We were thrilled and jumped at the opportunity. So read up on it, mate. Follow the link, Exclusive MEN Interview, and enjoy. 

No girls, it's not a 100 hottest Men interview, no Gyllenhaal, Pitt or Reynolds. And guys, don't let your buddy see you clicking on a link with such a title, eh?


Hobbits on Wheels


Watch for the Hobbits on Wheels around Provo and neighboring cities!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Provo Outsource

Road to the Shire is designed to succeed if the fans want it to. Olo, Toad, and myself, of course are not going to rest until we get back to the Shire, but the promptness with which our journey takes place is in your hands not ours.
We recognized early on in this process that we needed as much help as we could get. Thus far, we have been graced by the presence of professional actors, dancers, singer/song writers, rappers, voice recorders, and several more. This post goes out to one of these talented individuals who played Polando the Blue Wizard in our trailer video. Thanks again Critter.


Christopher Sherwood Davis, from Pepperell, MA, received his BFA in Acting from Brigham Young University and studied with the Moscow Art Theatre School: Stanislavski Summer School in Cambridge, MA. Christopher can currently be seen in All's Well That Ends Well with Utah Shakespeare in the Park, and soon in The Three Musketeers at the Covey Center and in the feature film WWJD. Recent stage work includes Astrov in Uncle Vanya (USP), Reginald in Getting Married (BYU), James in Selfless (BYU, also billed as They Shoot Horses Don't They), Colin in Absent Friends (BYU), and Rosse in Macbeth (BYU). Christopher can also be seen as Simon in the critically acclaimed web-series The Book of Jer3miah. Christopher has twice been nominated to compete for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship through KC-ACTF and in 2010 was recognized as a regional finalist. Christopher is also an accomplished acting trainer and recently directed A Midsummer Night's Dream (USP).

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Sneak Peek- Bieber Video


Hello and good day.
To all our fans and supporters out there, we appreciate all of the help, donations and buzz thus far. Our trailer video got 1,000 hits in the first week. So it is with great pleasure that we give you a little preview of the next video to land on our page. This one is dedicated to Justin Bieber and his fans as well as to all of you Roadtotheshire fans. So help us get JB on our side to persuade Peter Jackson to invite us back to the Shire!
1st verse- Lyric sneak peek:

We know you love us,
we know you care.
Just tweet about us,
hit like or share.
Cause we are furry,
our need is dire.
And we must get back, get back, get back to the shire!

*Once the video is up, you will also be able to download the original track we cut for $1.

Cheers!
Olo, Toad, and Beri

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Dream is Happening


When I was in elementary school, a friend of mine introduced me to the J.R.R. Tolkien series, The Lord of the Rings. I wasn't much of a reader back then, and the series was definitely above my reading level. I had no idea what fantasy books were and I had certainly never heard of Middle Earth or even Tolkien. The only thing I knew about hobbits was the small, creepy culdesac in the avenues next to Salt Lake called Hobbitville. But I went for it anyway. Little did I know it would turn out to be the greatest series I would ever read. Peter Jackson and crew had just come out with the Fellowship of the Ring movie. Thus, fantasy books gained an aspect of "cool" without which, would have led to me to hide my new passion in it's entirety. All of the sudden, I found myself shopping for Tolkien based trinkets and memorabilia online and at book fairs. I poured over those books and watched the movies repeatedly. I longed to visit the Shire and live the life of a halfling.
Ironically enough, my physical appearance resembled that of a hobbit in a few ways. I was short for my age, had long, curly, brown hair, was in-shape(round is a shape), and I smoked a lot of Pipeweed... ok, I never smoked. But the rest was true. I belonged in the Shire.
After I finished The Hobbit for the first time, I began wondering when Peter Jackson would announce the production of said book into a feature film. It was inevitable that it would happen, just a question of when. I decided to write a letter to Jackson. Not only would I ask him about his timetable, but it seemed only fair that I offer my services as a hobbit look-alike as well. I could think of no better way to feed my Tolkien hunger. I am sorry to admit that fear got the best of me, however. Jackson didn't need more hobbits, and he certainly didn't need amateur actors. I had played Hamlet in the 6th grade school play, but that hardly compared. Besides, I didn't even know the address to send the letter to. So I destroyed it. My friends and family would have just laughed anyway.
My passion began to dwindle. I stopped wearing the replica ring-on-the-chain I had purchased and set it neatly in its miniature Mt. Doom stand on the back of my shelf. My dreams of the shire were over.
Fast forward to 2011. I am studying advertising at BYU. My friend Jon Wright approaches me to continue a conversation we had a few weeks earlier concerning a summer project. "What if the theme based itself on The Hobbit. They just started production in March."
Fast forward about one half of one millisecond. The passion and dreams were back. We are going to make it to the shire. But we can not do this alone.
Hopefully most of you have found that soft spot in your heart for making dreams come true. This blog is dedicated to Aimee Fresh, for donating the first dollar to our dream. Thank you Aimee!

If you don't feel like donating, help us with our social media endeavors. Blog, tweet, comment, like, retweet, text (or anything else) about us so as to get Peter Jackson's attention. Ideally, he will invite us to be extras in one of the greatest epics ever told, The Hobbit. So spread the word, The Road to the Shire is here. Stay tuned for more of our blog posts, videos, photos, etc.
Cheers, and God bless.
http://roadtotheshire.com/
Check us out!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Filming: Day 1

What a day! I never thought I would spend 22 consecutive hours with make up on my face. But in order to get the shots we wanted, with the lighting we needed, that's what it took.

4:30 am: My alarm rang and I dragged myself out of bed to enjoy my first breakfast.

5:00 am: Toad and Galadriel knocked on my door about 30 minutes later. When Kelli agreed to the part of Galadriel, I don't think she anticipated being as tired as she was. But huge props to her for being such a good sport and looking absolutely gorgeous.

5:30 am: Olo showed up and we made our way to Michelle's for make up and costume finalization. Big shout outs to Michelle and Vanessa for their help. They were awesome, even if the eye liner did make me look girly.

6:30 am: We started our trek up Rock Canyon trail carrying tons of equipment. The hike seemed about twice as long with that big ladder in my hand.

7:15 am: The first shot went well. It was exciting to finally be rolling on this portion of The Road to the Shire. Look for the bridge shot in the trailer video.

8:00 am: Now, it was a race against the clock. We needed the morning shade for proper lighting but the sun was coming up in a hurry. Not to mention the heat. I have never had a worse wedgie. Stretchy pants are not my favorite.

9:00 am: We wanted a shot by the river, but the only way we could set it up properly was by crossing it. I don't care how warm it was getting, run-off water is COLD. By this point, we were all acting a bit strange. I wonder if the couple passing by that I spoke to with an accent really thought I was from Australia? Then again, I think they were distracted by the previously mentioned stretchy pants.

10:15 am: Again, mad props to Kelli... for her work as Galadriel and letting us keep her longer than planned. I don't think her Brigham City-bound caravan was happy with us.

6:00 pm: Let's fast forward through clean up, lunch, getting lost driving to Eden, UT, and Olo bailing hay like his life depended on it. The Storey family had planned a great meal for us upon arrival of 100% Storey angus beef hamburgers, strawberry salad, and corn on the cob. I had never chucked corn before, but got that opportunity. I was also later informed that it was called shucking. So technically I still have never chucked corn.

9:45 pm: Filming in Eden went great. Even though I did get six mosquito bites on my right wrist alone. We got the shots we needed and headed back to Provo. But I must mention Jon passing out in the front seat. His limp head was swinging around like a rag doll. It was actually quite creepy the few times a hard, right turn would leave his lifeless face pointing in my direction.

11:something pm: We picked up Critter, aka best wizard ever, and headed to the foothills behind Jon's house to film the fireside shots. I hope we didn't wake anyone up that lived close by. Then again, if we had, I am sure they would have reported the strange looking seance to the police.

2:00 am: Yeah. We are back to the a.m.'s. I dropped Critter off and made my way home. I have never been so happy that all my roommates were out of town. This could have been an embarrassing entrance. Is there some sort of process to removing make up? If so, I didn't know the procedure. Finally, I just climbed in the shower and melted it off with scolding water.

2:30 am: Bedtime. It felt so good to climb into that bed, 22 hours after I had climbed out of it. All in a day's work.

I Hope this trailer video gets the point across. We want so badly to be extras in the Hobbit and only with the help of our fellow Tolkien fans will we get there.

Thanks everybody,
Beri

Thursday, June 9, 2011

WELCOME

Photobucket
Welcome to the Road to the Shire blog. We're so glad you're here. If you haven't checked out our website at roadtotheshire.com you should. This is a place where we hope to interact with you and share the progress of our journey. Along the way we will post updates about our adventures in the land of men and updates on our efforts to get back to the shire. We hope you will leave us comments and suggestions on how you think we might achieve our goal to raise the necessary funds and or persuade Mr. Jackson to invite us back to the shire for our great big family reunion: The Hobbit. Until next time Elen sila lumenn omentilmo.

Namaarie
Toad, Beri, and Olo