The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – First Official Trailer

Having only heard yesterday that the trailer was scheduled to be released that same day, I was so hyped to see it. Unfortunately, staying up until 2am was out of the question to get my first glimpse at the first trailer ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ and so I had to wait until this morning. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is my favourite set of films to date and so when I first heard that ‘The Hobbit’ was being made I couldn’t wait. So how is the trailer?

The production of ‘The Hobbit’ has been very turbulent to say the least, with it taking years to attain the rights to make the film (which seems odd as The Lord of the Rings was made) and multiple directors deciding to helm the project. Originally, director Guillermo del Toro was set to direct both parts of ‘The Hobbit’ but dropped out shortly before production began. Whilst I think that Guillermo del Toro is a very visual director, I think it would have been a shame for him to direct it when Peter Jackson and his team created in my opinion the greatest film trilogy to date. Thankfully, Peter Jackson decided to return, with all the original team to make both parts of the film.

So the trailer began and I was excited to see the first piece of official footage that wasn’t merely behind the scenes or production blogs. The trailer began with the classic Concerning Hobbits theme composed by the brilliant Howard Shore (glad to here he’s back to do the music once again) and I was immediately took back to seeing The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time way back in 2001. This opening scene narrated by Ian Holm, the actor who played Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, serves as a way to set up how to the film will play out and it looks as if it may be narrated by Ian Holm all the way through, thus serving as his memoirs. This seems to me like a good way to go about the story as it ties in well with the already established series of The Lord of the Rings and shows that this is still relevant and part of the story.

It is from here we get out first footage of Martin Freeman playing a younger Bilbo Baggins. I have only really seen Martin Freeman in the BBC series ‘Sherlock’ and whilst he is okay, I wouldn’t rave over him as an actor. He seems to be fine as the role of Bilbo, and I may be pleasantly surprised when I come to see the film but as of now, I’m not a fan. We also get a look at the party of Dwarves and whilst I can’t be bothered to say all of their names (there are a lot, trust me, watch the trailer) they look pretty unique and different to the Dwarves established in The Lord of the Rings, such as Gimli. Initially, when I saw the first released picture of the Dwarves, I didn’t think they looked all that good, precisely for the reason that they looked too different from the appearances in The Lord of the Rings. I have not read the book of the Hobbit, so I don’t know whether this is meant to be another race of Dwarf and therefore explains why they look so different, but each new Dwarf looks different from the last, which will help when it comes to remembering them in the film when there are so many. Each Dwarf seems different with some appearing old, wise and stoic, whereas some seem wild, drunkenly and played more for comic-relief. That is until the arrival of Thorin Oakenshield…

The Company of Dwarves from left to right: Nori, Fili, Dori, Bofur, Gloin, Dwalin, Thorin, Balin, Oin, Bombur, Bifur, Ori and Kili.

Unlike all of the other Dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield, for want of a better phrase, looks like an absolute badass. Whilst we don’t seem him close up during fighting, he has this way about him that reminds me of a Dwarf version of Aragorn, and that is pretty cool. From this point in the trailer, Thorin begins singing an eerie and seemingly foreboding Dwarven song which completely changes the tone of the trailer, making it seem a lot darker than the book that it is based off and from the earlier parts of the trailer itself.

From here, the trailer begins to pick up pace as the Dwarven song is picked up by the rest of the Dwarves and we get a look at Gandalf, reprised once again by the ever excellent Ian McKellen, Galadriel, reprised by Cate Blanchett, and some of the beautiful set pieces and effects of the world of Middle Earth, including the home of the shards of Narsil shown in The Fellowship of the Ring. We also see some new locations, shot on location in New Zealand as the past films were, which I’m sure will be impressive on an IMAX screen. The film is unfortunately in 3-D which personally I don’t think is necessary in any film, especially one as part of The Lord of the Rings series, but I will just check out a 2-D showing. That being said, the 3-D does look more like it will be depth based rather than having things fly out at the screen, but I could be wrong.

In the quick montage of shots towards the end of the trailer, we hear a new Howard Shore track which is an instrumental of the previous Dwarven song which sounds immense and we also get a glimpse of the hinted at scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Bilbo is confronted by three Trolls. This looks like it will be an action beat in the film, and from the sound of it in the trailer, the Trolls will not have speaking voices and continue to used the typical Cave Troll roar from the other films, which I am glad of.

However, the best part for me is at the very end of the trailer after the title screen has appeared and we get a few seconds of Gollum, played once again by Andy Serkis who also serves as the 2nd Unit Director for the films. This will no doubt be the crucial moment where Bilbo finds the Ring, but it was awesome to see the character, albeit in the shadows, once again.

So overall thoughts of the trailer are highly positive and I now cannot wait until December 2012 to see this film. I hope, like the others it is about 4 hours + long and that an extended cut of both parts are released. After which, a LONG Hobbit and Lord of the Rings marathon awaits…

‘Other’ post for 160MC – Movie Review

*Spoilers*

‘The Lion King’ was Walt Disney’s 32nd animated feature released in 1994 and has since gone on to become one of the greatest, well-known and most successful animated films of all time. But does ‘The Lion King’ still hold up to modern audiences, regardless of its 3-D makeover, and is the circle of life still with it?

‘The Lion King’ has always been one of my favourite films since I first saw it when I was a kid, and when I heard that it was going to get another theatrical release I was very excited, as it would give me a chance to see it for the first time on the big screen. However, I hate the recent move of films into 3-D and find it a useless, pointless and extra money making excuse, so when I heard ‘The Lion King’ was being re-released in a 3-D format, I was a little annoyed. Nevertheless, I put aside my hate for 3-D just for this film as I really wanted to see it at the cinema.

Waiting for the film to start was a great experience as there were a mix of people who had watched it when they were younger (like myself) and had come for the nostalgia if nothing else, people who had never seen it before and a new generation of fans. Finally the lights went down and the film began with the audience in complete silence…and then…

That opening scene took everyone’s breath away as it is one of the most iconic film openings and hearing ‘Circle of Life’ blare out was a phenomenal experience I think the whole audience shared. It was at this point that I was eagle-eyeing the 3-D to draw comparison to the 2-D film I had been so used to for all these years. And quite honestly, the 3-D wasn’t actually that bad. Would I watch it every time in that format? No. But it was interesting to see it in this new format, even if after a while I didn’t really notice it any more, which I’m not sure is a good or bad thing.

As the film went on, the level of nostalgia was at sometimes overpowering, and I won’t be ashamed to admit that it was very emotional at times. Hearing all those old songs that I grew up on and to see all of my favourite characters again was an event that I don’t think had been captured since Toy Story 3. A lot of the audience were singing along to the songs and I think everyone was watching the film with a smile on their face as they recalled all the iconic scenes….well…up until the infamous death of Mufasa scene.

For those of you who have seen The Lion King, the scene that I was most looking forward to seeing on the big screen was the Wildebeast Stampede segment, which I always remembered to be a very powerful and intense scene, and it has stayed exactly that same way even today. This scene was made for the big screen, with its fast paced visuals, its swelling musical score (composed expertly as always by Hans Zimmer) and top notch voice acting and sound. And it didn’t disappoint. And when the time came for arguably one of Disney’s most memerable and heartbreaking scenes, the death of Mufasa, you could tell the whole audience was just embracing the emotion and poignancy of that scene. Watching this scene made me realise just how daring kids’ films used to be and how many risks they took. I for one wish that today’s children’s films would have the same tone and be as audacious as not only ‘The Lion King’ was, but animated films from this era were. ‘The Lion King’ deals with very relevant and mature issues such as death, deception, destiny and regicide (well, it is essentially an animated version of Hamlet). There are even connotations of Nazism, which when I was a kid I didn’t understand, but watching again were very clear and blatant. Such examples of this are with the villain, Scar, yelling to his army of Hyenas “Stick with me and you’ll never go hungry again!” and promising to stop the persecution of his people and lead them to a higher authority.

Such messages would be deamed unfit to contain within a children’s film anymore, and I think it’s a shame to see that Walt Disney pictures has gone from creating challenging and thought provoking films that were also entertaining for adults as well as children, to resorting to bland and forgettable films that offer no moral lessons and lack of interesting characters.

“Join me, Simba, and together we can rule the Pride Lands as father and son!”

On the subject of characters, The Lion King’s voice acting is perfect; boasting the talents of Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, Woopi Goldberg and Darth Vader’s very own James Earl Jones. Nathan Lane still makes me laugh to this day playing the loud-mouthed meerkat Timon and James Earl Jones is unequalled as his stoic and powerful performance as Mufasa. Although the characters are obviously cartoons, the voice talent works so well that they almost feel like real characters, which is a sign of good film making if you care about and connect with its characters, even more so if they are just drawings on a page. Writing characters that connect with the audience is a very important aspect of a film, and it is important for the audience to invest in them to care enough of the narrative as well.

The animation is one of the finest examples from the Disney Renaissance, and the use of colour, impressive landscapes and character design help the characters and world seem to leap of the page and dazzle the viewer. The 3-D re-release has remastered the animation and the bright and vivid colours created a whole new layer to the film I had never really noticed before. That being said, the 3-D glasses did make the film appear quite dark, so I can’t wait to pick this film up on Blu-Ray and compare it to my original VHS copy.

Overall, ‘The Lion King’ is still to this day a shining example of animation and one of Walt Disney’s greatest masterpieces. Although revenue isn’t everything, the figures for the re-release show that audiences still hold ‘The Lion King’ dear to their hearts as it made $71.9 million within the end of the month of September, and became September’s highest grossing film (probably due to the increase in ticket prices of 3-D showings). So what does this mean for the future? Well, since the re-release in 3-D of ‘The Lion King’, Walt Disney has comissioned a new wave of Walt Disney Classics to be re-released in the format, including Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid to be released between 2012 – 2013, as well as converting PIXAR’s Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. Is this a sign of hope that an interest is being shown once again to these good, character driven classics, or does it show executives that all audiences want is more quick 3-D re-releases to make money. Only you can decide that for yourselves but one thing is for certain, 3-D isn’t going away any time soon. Would I recommend the 3-D for ‘The Lion King’, no, but ‘The Lion King’ is a must see for children and adults alike and is to me, and will always be, one of my all time favourite films ever made.

Analysis post for 160MC

Throughout the project and the creation of our character, we had to analyse the concept of what makes a developed character and one that the audience could invest in. From the original creation we had in place a factor of the character’s (Jackson Matthews) past that would pain him. This was that he was in a one-hit-wonder band that eventually failed soon after they formed and he longs to reform his band. This was really just the bare bones of the character’s past and so this had to be developed in order to create any emotional connection or sympathy towards him. Watching other group presentations, we realised that a lot of people’s character had sad, tortured or regrettable pasts and this made the audience care about the character and question whether they would overcome this on the journey they take through their creation through the rest of the project.

Many main characters from films and TV shows and even popular culture have some kind of character flaw or past event that has changed them or gives them great pain. The TV series LOST is a great example of this, with each of its characters (even including minor ones) having a very sad or bleak origin. These plots were developed for many seasons which continually added to the backstories of the characters, creating fully-rounded characters and histories for them all. Even in graphic novel format, characters such as Batman have past grievances (Batman’s parents were shot and killed in front of him at a young age) which therefore makes us care about the character more than if they didn’t have such a compelling backstory. I use the words ‘believable character’ loosely as artistic licensing and exaggeration can be placed upon a character thus making the events of a backstory quite unrealistic in that they are unlikely to happen to regular people. Certainly, some characters’ origins can be very far-fetched and outlandish, whether they originate from space from a distant alien planet or obtain powers from huge cosmic explosions. This is tending more towards the comic book / graphic novel angle where these kind of things can happen, yet they also create vastly developed characters and character arcs. The writers achieve this through still raising relevant human emotions, dilemmas and traumas despite setting their character against a greatly different world.

These were elements we wanted to bring to our own character, Jackson Matthews. Whilst not traumatic or shocking as many other backstories were, we wished to pursue the feeling of yearning, regret and desperation. We applied this to the character through his failed band and his life of depression following his inactive music career. This would seem relevant in the modern world as it can be seen that the genre of rock and heavy metal are not as popular as they once were; with a move more towards hip-hop or pop. This would link with the character being unable to get back into a heavy metal band with modern music focussing on other genres. However, we also wished to give Jackson a dilemma to deal with.

We wished to give him a conflict between his music career and his relationship with his girlfriend Katie. Through the Facebook page, we communicated his conflicted emotions and the eventual breakdown of his relationship at the prospect of the reformation of his band. This was shown through continuously polarised statuses from Jackson about his relationship and his depression of the failure of his band MotorForge. This made it a lot more personal and allowed the audience to be invested into what decision Jackson would eventually take. To do this it was important to keep an informal and believable tone to Jackson’s statuses and conversations with Katie to add to the ‘realism’ of the character.

Although our intended story arc for Jackson is somewhat unrealistic to what would happen in real life, like the graphic novels, we tried to give the character very relevant and understandable human dilemmas despite the unrealistic storyline.

Evaluation and Reflection post for 160MC

The creation of the character Jackson Matthews for the Cabinet of Curiosities was a very lengthy process. It was surprising to me just how much work has to go in to create a fully rounded and believable character and just how far our character has involved since his inception.

Although the people I worked with were great in my group, it wasn’t the entire group. It was only in our first ever planning session that we saw the entire eight people group together. Since then, three of the members have never turned up and so we were limited to a five person group (including myself). This did hinder the flow and production of the tasks somewhat as we couldn’t create all of the extra pieces we wanted, such as a full band photo, as no one could step in to play the characters. As well as this, we had to constantly communicate recent developments to the absentees via our Facebook group which we never knew were being taken on board or acknowledged. That aside, the other people I did work with were amazing and we got the tasks done that we could achieve to the best of our ability. Sometimes we had to reschedule meeting days or not do as much as we intended due to people not being able to make it or rooms not being free, but in retrospect, these were only minor issues.

I found the feedback given from the lecturers to be of great help in the continuation and development of our character. Looking back, our first presentation was probably the lowest part of the project as we only planned it at the last minute and it didn’t flow as an effective presentation should. Since that first presentation, we have planned each presentation; allocating certain topics to be talked about by each member of the group so as to not repeat any information. To go back to absent members of the group, it was very difficult to involve them in the presentations as it would have been impossible to fill them in on what we did that week as we were in the presentation. As a result, we had to limit it to the people that were present on that week’s updates to do all the talking.

The group workbook was also something else I think went really well. We began updating it from the first day of the planning session and have kept it up to date since. We passed the book around our group to those who volunteered to write an update in it. This was usually just between three of us (myself included), with a few pictures produced to stick in by another member. Despite this, the book filled up with updates and various production pieces very quickly.

We also created a Facebook page for Jackson Matthews which at the start went mostly unused. As well as this, an email, Youtube and Twitter account. In retrospect, the email and Twitter accounts went completely unused, and the Youtube account only had one video uploaded to it. However, the Facebook account began to get daily updates once we had the story in place and became the main driving force that we focussed on to progress the story of Jackson Matthews. To help the story develop, we also created a Facebook page for his girlfriend Katie Smith, which allowed the two characters to converse and help the story form and provide Jackson with the conflict of his band and his life with his girlfriend.

In the final week of the project, we decided to create a series of production pieces to accompany the character; such as creating the song ‘Flame of the Night’, the three missed calls that link with the items of the character, and a radio interview. When we came to film the radio interview we were allowed to film in the radio studio which made the piece look the part. We filmed the interview with Jackson and it went really well. The interview had a nice, informal flow to it which I think worked well and the lighting was also very good. However, disaster struck when we got to the post-production stage and realised the entire thing had been recorded without sound. After a brief moment of panicking we decided to create a trailer to promote the radio interview, salvaging what footage we could. This has now made me learn from mistakes to always check recordings that audio is in place, as well as to try and be resourceful and salvage any film you can. The piece we created can be viewed below:

http://vimeo.com/32923166

My final words and reflections on this project would be that has become apparent to me just how much work has to go in to creating an original character. The level of analysis that people use to delve into your character’s past is extreme, so we had to constantly find answers and explanations to the questions we were being asked. This led us to adding way more to the character then we ever thought we could and has developed as a character since the initial creation. Another note to add is that working in groups can be a very difficult and unpredictable affair. You have to constantly work around absent members and changes to pieces of work because of this. If you can work well as a team (which I believe we did for the people that were present) then the flow of work is much smoother and collaborative, whereas if the group falls apart you have to try and sometimes take a leadership approach to corral the project together.