LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring - Screencap Thingie

Forest Shepherd wrote:
D. I have no other questions, but I must comment on the presence of a certain pair of artists in this lineup...

Well I'll be damned. You'd never notice unless you knew, though.

A- yes but only because I know the book so well. Not sure I would have made the connection if I had not however- but it wouldn't matter as PJ totally ruins the mystery of the Riders when they do turn up by telling you all about them and showing where they come from before Frodo has even left Bag End. Way to piss all over their mystery PJ!

B- Negative- but then that is sort of fitting even though we don't know who they were in life. The have definitely gone for a mood of grim and quite dark here. But I do like there is also an element of pride which is good.

C- I think having them in a phalanx is mainly a shot choice to get them all in frame without having them in a line- I don't think there is too much significance to it save that presumably the one in front and most prominent is the eventual Witch-king.

can somebody else do the next one?

I'll do one when we get to the Shire- so we can address the all important grass issue!

I started looking to move us through the prologue quicker. But can't think of good questions. I think it may be best to pick one you want to comment on and do so - the rest will follow.

i think no more than 3 or so a week would be a good idea. No need to rush through things. Or is this meant to be daily?!

A stroll thru isnt so bad an idea ? There must be plenty of screencaps to get thru

How about we do what Figg has been doing- putting up some stills from a section of the film, in order- so first prologue- but then letting that lie a few days and we discuss the prologue/scene in general- and folks post screencaps to illustrate the bit they are talking about?
Then when the conversation about that bit as died off, we move onto the next scene.

that's fine by me to just go with the flow, if its roughly at the beginning of Fellowship it doesn't matter what or when we post it. If you see an image that brings questions to your mind post it, because the more interesting question the better it is. Don't worry about getting the images to follow perfectly in sequence, it doesn't matter, but don't jump forward too much.

Apart from grass length of course.

A. What do you think of the physical appearance of Sauron in the prologue? 

B. Why is Sauron reaching toward Isildur? Did this question occur to you while watching?

C. Would you have preferred to be able to see beneath the armour? To see the form that Sauron takes before he is defeated?

Bonus: What was your reaction to the way that Sauron seems to literally explode after having the ring cut off of his fingers?

Relevant quote from the Silmarillion: 
"But at the last the siege was so strait that Sauron himself came forth; and he wrestled with Gil-galad and Elendil, and they both were slain, and the sword of Elendil broke under him as he fell. But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many years."

I have to say the ring doesn't look like it really belongs on his hand. It sits there rather uneasily which bothered me at times.

I liked Sauron's armour, it looked sufficiently evil. No real opinions about how the events were portrayed to have unfolded in detail - there were no meaningful deviations from the book. The explosion and thump as the ring fell seemed dramatically right to me. We shouldn't of course have seen how Sauron looked beneath the armour. Tolkien opted not to and it's safer to follow his lead.

Mrs Figg wrote:

A. What were your thoughts as you sat there for the first time watching this image?

Can't really say. Don't think I focused on it much.

B. Do you think its effective in the way it portrays Elves.

Not particularly. That dude in the middle looks a bit too long in the tooth for an elf. And Galadriel doesn't particularly look like the most beautiful being on Middle-earth.

C. Did you like the mood, colours, visuals etc?

Not really. Seems a bit desaturated to me.

D. Any other comments.

The two nondescript elves are looking at their rings rather nonchalantly, while Galadriel looks like she just spotted a wart.

Mrs Figg wrote:got bored waiting, so heres the next.  



A. Did you connect these men with the Ringwraiths at the time or afterwards?

Not sure. I think so.

B. Do you think it portrays men in a positive or negative light? literally and figuratively.

A neutral light, I think.

C. Do you think the composition of the shot has any meaning beyond the aesthetics?

No.

Forest Shepherd wrote:

A. What do you think of the physical appearance of Sauron in the prologue? 

Looks rather Power-Rangery

B. Why is Sauron reaching toward Isildur? Did this question occur to you while watching?

Yeah, it's pretty stupid but, no, the thought didn't occur to me at the time.

C. Would you have preferred to be able to see beneath the armour? To see the form that Sauron takes before he is defeated?

Not really. Wouldn't have minded seeing it in the movie (since they already decided to to a big reveal here, at the beginning of the freaking movie!!!   ). Probably would have made more sense than a giant eyeball stuck on a tower, anyway.

Bonus: What was your reaction to the way that Sauron seems to literally explode after having the ring cut off of his fingers?

Thought it was an interesting visual at the time.

Relevant quote from the Silmarillion: 
"But at the last the siege was so strait that Sauron himself came forth; and he wrestled with Gil-galad and Elendil, and they both were slain, and the sword of Elendil broke under him as he fell. But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many years."

Yeah, much more logical...and awesome.

You guys are going too fast, slow down!

Holy crabbit! That was quite the dose of moderately-moistened blanket!

A. What do you think of the physical appearance of Sauron in the prologue?

It was impressive.


B. Why is Sauron reaching toward Isildur? Did this question occur to you while watching?

Not really, I think it was just to put focus on the creeping evil of the Ring.

C. Would you have preferred to be able to see beneath the armour? To see the form that Sauron takes before he is defeated?

yes I would, but Sauron I don't think he was really described in detail so I have a hard time trying to imagine him from the books as well. To be honest Sauron has never scared me in either book or film which took away a lot of my sense of danger for the Fellowship. I found the Mouth of Sauron far far more scary and if he had looked like that in the prologue I would have peed my pants and the Ringwraiths would suddenly have become far more scary. The only time I felt actual sense of danger creepiness is when one of them crawls towards Frodo on the Road.

Bonus: What was your reaction to the way that Sauron seems to literally explode after having the ring cut off of his fingers?

Don't remember that bit. I have to say I was awed by the whole prologue, I had never seen visuals like that before, specially the colours of the battle landscape, the way they got blown over by a wave of power like a nuclear explosion, the Elves, OMG the ELVES, Elrond! it blew my mind, my eyes felt like sponges as I tried to soak it all in.

A. What do you think of the physical appearance of Sauron in the prologue?

Laugh out loud funny. My initial thought was how spiky can they make him?!

B. Why is Sauron reaching toward Isildur? Did this question occur to you while watching?

I just thought it looked silly, as he does after all have a giant mace in the other hand and could just have splatted Isildur, and when Isildur cut the Ring off the extended hand reach I just felt it was all a bit cheesy.

C. Would you have preferred to be able to see beneath the armour? To see the form that Sauron takes before he is defeated?

I don't think we should have seen under the armour, it just didn't need to be so extreme and over the top looking, he didnt have to loom over everyone like a giant, and he didn't have to whack everyone with a mace like he was the Hulk. I mean realistically the only way anyone could defeat him in battle was if he was fucking stupid enough to stop hitting folk, and reaches out with his other unprotected hand with all his fingers extended ready for the chop, especially the one with the Ring on it. But come on, no ones that stupid....

If it were me doing it I would have front lit Sauron and had a lot of smoke behind him so that his shadow was huge behind him and he was within it and get the looming effect that way- and I'd then call back to that image at Minas Tirith when the Witch-King rides in through the Gate and Tolkien describes just such an optical effect for his shadow.


Bonus: What was your reaction to the way that Sauron seems to literally explode after having the ring cut off of his fingers?

I actually thought it was a very cool effect- completely pointless,out of place and Eru alone knows what its meant to convey- nothing I expect, I reckon as with a lot of things PJ;s thought process stopped at 'cool effect'.

If it were me doing it I would have front lit Sauron and had a lot of smoke behind him so that his shadow was huge behind him and he was within it and get the looming effect that way- and I'd then call back to that image at Minas Tirith when the Witch-King rides in through the Gate and Tolkien describes just such an optical effect for his shadow. Petty

you mean like Sauron in Dol Guldur.

Sauron in Dol Guldur? The giant fiery vagina of Doom?- no Figg, nothing like that at all- I suggest nipping off and reading the passage where the Witch-King enters the city- Tolkiens expressly the imagery perfectly and incredibly suitably for the visual arts, of course.

I suggest you nip off.

are you actually going to give credit where its due as regards the artistry involved in these films, or are you going to use it as an excuse to be sarcastic about Jackson every 5 minutes? just curious.

I am going to give my honest opinion Figg as I have always done regards the films- and where I think some praise is due I will give it- this far into the film I don't think much praise is to be given beyond the usual suspects in these films of WETA and the costume department- stupid Sauron spiky armour aside.

fair enough.

I've got limited internet access at the moment so won't comment on everything, but my first impression of the intro image and narration was  it conveyed that we were about to enter a world with it's own mythology, a world where to forget or ignore the Old Stories was perilous.  I liked that. A lot.  (Spiky Sauron aside.)

Personally I've often wished the prophecies and lore had been emphasized more than the action in the movies that followed.  I could have seen starting each of the three films with a mythic intro to set the tone and remind the audience that all the action has a context in a greater history.  But since PJ chose not to go that route, the into to FotR feels more like an unfulfilled promise to me now.

Radaghast wrote:That dude in the middle looks a bit too long in the tooth for an elf.

"As they came to the gates Círdan the Shipwright came forth to greet them. Very tall he was, and his beard was long, and he was grey and old, save that his eyes were keen as stars; and he looked at them and bowed, and said 'All is now ready.'"

http://thainsbook.net/cirdan.html