![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulthe weather today was very non-motivational. Just dreary out. I have gotten nothing done, not that I really had anything to do. Still. I watched disc 1 of FotR with writer commentary (Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Bowen). They are a lively bunch, and it sucked away 2 hours...but I really don't want to watch the other half now cuz then I will have spent my entire day watching LotR. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but...
Since I never read the books, I wanted to listen to the commentary to see what they said about parts they changed/cut from the film. Sounds like they made all the right decisions. Everything that made me shy away from the books (the insane amount of names/places/history) was what they knew they had to cut back on. That and what Bowen refered to as the "leisurely pace" of the travels in the beginning. Gandalf leaves for 17 years, comes back, tells Frodo about the ring and what he must do, Frodo ponders that for 6 months then actually starts the journey. Perhaps it's because I was a movie junkie before I was a book junkie, but I like action, and I'm happy that they sped things up and created a bit of tension. It's quite interesting to hear them talk about adapting the story, and how many re-writes it took, and how many of the scenes were sort of inspired by the actors. It's such a grand production, you forget what a small production team they really were when this all started. They were talking about filming pick-up scenes with Ian McKellen at Rivendell and the studio was literally next to Wellington Airport, and they had a lookout who would radio down any time a 747 was coming in for a landing. It's obvious they loved the books, because they do discuss a lot of things they left out or wished they could have put in. But a lot of it would never work on film.
Since I never read the books, I wanted to listen to the commentary to see what they said about parts they changed/cut from the film. Sounds like they made all the right decisions. Everything that made me shy away from the books (the insane amount of names/places/history) was what they knew they had to cut back on. That and what Bowen refered to as the "leisurely pace" of the travels in the beginning. Gandalf leaves for 17 years, comes back, tells Frodo about the ring and what he must do, Frodo ponders that for 6 months then actually starts the journey. Perhaps it's because I was a movie junkie before I was a book junkie, but I like action, and I'm happy that they sped things up and created a bit of tension. It's quite interesting to hear them talk about adapting the story, and how many re-writes it took, and how many of the scenes were sort of inspired by the actors. It's such a grand production, you forget what a small production team they really were when this all started. They were talking about filming pick-up scenes with Ian McKellen at Rivendell and the studio was literally next to Wellington Airport, and they had a lookout who would radio down any time a 747 was coming in for a landing. It's obvious they loved the books, because they do discuss a lot of things they left out or wished they could have put in. But a lot of it would never work on film.
