Dear Readers,

Am now in New Zealand on site for filming the Shannara series. This is the start of a daily report on what is happening with the time Judine and I are spending as visitors to the film sets and outdoor sites. Will send along what pictures I can, but as you can probably guess there is some secrecy involved in all this. So some things I might wish to send will have to wait for their proper reveal time.

The trip over was rough, and some of us got no sleep on the airplane. When we arrived, it was around 9 am, but we got our room, got cleaned up and went straight to lunch with two of the executives from MTV who were on site for the network for the filming. Julie and Polly were very open about their excitement for the show, and much was accomplished during our discussions. Everyone at MTV is working very hard on making the show a success, and nothing is being held back.

When I went afterwards to view the sets that have been constructed, I discovered they were not exaggerating. We were able to view five different sets, including one of the Ellcrys, and every single one was incredible. When writing Elfstones, I had a vision of how every thing would look in any given reader’s mind. But what had been created here for the TV show is way beyond what I had expected. The sets are every bit as wondrous and massive as I have imagined, the detailing incredible, the scope astonishing. Viewers are going to be blown away. This is the look I had always hoped for.

So, as I said to Shawn earlier, just WOW.

After that, while still upright despite no sleep for twenty-four hours, we went out to where they were filming to have a look at the process. Met a lot of the film crew first, then found Poppy Drayton and said hello. Watched a forest scene being filmed, met various people involved at the top end of the pecking order for filming, ate dinner with the actors and staff, and spent a little time visiting with director Jonathan Liebesman.

By then we were too tired to stand, so even though there was an important scene being filmed around 10 pm, we had to give it up. Must tell you these people work long, tough hours well into the night. Hope to experience that first of the week when filming resumes. Will report on what I discover then, but will cover other stuff over the weekend. It is now Friday here, so next report will be sometime tomorrow. What a cool adventure so far!

Be well, Terry.