Some excellent ideas, but you need to concentrate on Return of the King. The problem of how to make the Hobbits appear smaller than the human characters, the appropriateness of the music and the staging of the battle scenes do not address the question I asked you. Please read the general comments on the rough drafts that I posted on the “(Almost) Daily Bulletin from the Professor” page of the website this morning. Lydia Fish September 22, 2008, at 02:57 PM

You definitely seem like you are on the right track, just keep focusing on Return of the King. The extended edition of the film with Jackson’s commentary will without a doubt help out a lot. Eligh Hanning ?

The topics you want to go over more thouroghly at the end of your draft don’t really apply to the difficulties involved in the transfer from book to film. They seem irrelevant to RotK in particular and apply more to the trilogy as a whole. Brian Nacov September 18, 2008, at 04:41 PM

You seem to be going in the right direction, but make sure that you only talk about the third movie and book. You seem to be drifting to talking about the Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers. Make sure to also bring up the Shippey article Lydia Fish September 22, 2008, at 02:57 PM Donald Turner September 18, 2008, at 03:35 PM

Good ideas, but I think the paper is supposed to be more focused on what Jackson did/didn’t do with certain scenes that are in the book as he was making the film. If you watch the director’s/writers’ cut, it will definitely give you more ideas and compares things from the book and movie. It definitely helped me, although I still need to choose what I’m going to focus on in my paper. Sarah Chudyk ?

I like the idea of you focusing on how Jackson portrayed the characters, particularly the ones that don’t exist compared to the book. It’s a great idea and I’d love to see how you develop it. Brittany Thrun ? September 17, 2008, at 11:04 PM

Good start. Just detail and develop and everything should be smooth sailing. Jenelle Jones

You have some good ideas but you might want to develop them a little more and talk more about the difficulties presented to Jackson while trying to make the Return of the King. Steven Wilser ? September 17, 2008, at 11:32 AM

I’m not sure I entirely agree that Jackson felt he had to make each battle grander and more intense than the last. Battles have a tendency to speak for themselves, especially when Jackson’s task is simply showing what the book says happened. I’m not sure it was Jackson’s decision to say how each battle occurred— Tolkien was the final word on that. Devon Cozad ? September 17, 2008, at 10:36 AM

Yielding to the audiences attention spans is one of those problems Jackson faced definitely, as well as how to outdo himself in the theatrics department of following each movie. These are interesting topics and I really hope to see developed examples of them in your paper. Sarah McNutt September 16, 2008, at 11:43 PM

I was also interested in the visualization of King of the dead and his dead friends. To tie it in a little more to the focus of the paper you could discuss why they needed to have a visual representation and why jackson did not use flashback tell of their victory against the Corsairs of Umbar. Good luck! Annika Laughlin ? September 16, 2008, at 09:17 PM

You have come up with great starting ideas. Try to expand on them some more. Definitely talk about Shippey’s ideas as he is a big subject of our class! But your battle ideas and the smoothness of the movie are both wonderful topics to start with! Keilah Bradley September 16, 2008, at 05:21 PM]]

You have some very basic ideas to start off your paper, and I think some of them could evolve into something worth while. However, make sure that you are focusing on the THIRD FILM/BOOK and not so much as the Trilogy as a whole. Whether it’s proportions, music, visual effects, or characters, try to make it Return of the King specific. Use examples! You mentioned fluency being needed within a film to be successful. Maybe you should focus on some aspects of Jackson needing to focus on the audience’s reactions. What did Jackson do differently to try and keep the viewer entertained? I also think the idea you had about making each battle scene more elaborate and entertaining than the previous as something you can really work with. What specific things did Jackson do during battle scenes in the third movie, that made them just as enthralling as all of the others? Lauren Brych ? September 15, 2008, at 12:23 PM

I like your thoughts about how Jackson took Tolkien’s story and rearranged it on screen so people wouldn’t be left for an hour without seeing Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas…or Frodo and Sam. If you focused on this, you could probably write a significant portion of your paper on it. Joseph Bella ? September 14, 2008, at 10:31 PM

I think after watching the extras last class, you will be able to write much more about the specific challenges with the third movie.Emily Marvin ? September 13, 2008, at 10:28 PM

I thought that it was a great idea to include the point that these movies had to be short enough to hold the attention of younger viewers, and also the fact that the third movie was expected to top the first two. I think that you should direct your focus on the third book. For example, the idea about how the fictional characters are portrayed is a little too broad, I think. Good job! Kelsey Till September 13, 2008, at 04:20 PM

I think after you watch the extended editions you will be able to make more RotK specific points. Also, some of the points that you make here are more difficulties that Jackson had in filming the movies in general not specific enough to RotK. However, you can easily make your points specific enough (for example, the points you made on the plot like that the books take compared to the movies). Elizabeth Delano ? September 14, 2008, at 07:07 PM

You would have done a great job of the main focus of the paper was critical analysis of the movie. In your rought draft, there is no mention of the focus of the paper which is Shippey’s predictions for the movie and how they are resolved by Jackson in the third movie. Remember to mainly focus on the third movie not unless developing a point which includes all the movies and books. Trudy Antwi September 15, 2008, at 08:43 PM

These are just some of the ideas I plan on discussing in the final paper. I still have more research to do and I am currently trying find a copy of the extended version to hear what Jackson has to say about his films and the challenges that he overcame. Let me know if I am headed in the right direction and if there are any major aspects that I left out in my rough draft/outline. I will be adding more topics once I watch the interviews in the extended addition.

Jackson had the difficulty of taking over 1000 pages of information and creating three different movies. It was a complex task to create movies that were short enough to keep the viewers attention without eliminating valuable information found in the books. In this aspect I think Peter Jackson did a magnificent job. It was inevitable to eliminate certain scenes from the book but overall his choices led to the creation of an amazing trilogy that won him numerous academy awards and is globally the second largest grossing film.

When the fellowship dissolved at the end of the first movie, Tolkien began alternating his chapters and following the different branches of the broken fellowship. At times Tolkien went at least 100 pages without talking about certain characters or events. When creating the second two movies, especially the final one, Jackson had to combine Tolkien’s stories to create fluency appropriate for the movie screen. With the use of film the alternations were less harsh and easier to follow then reading the book. While I was reading the book this past summer I would often find myself trying to remember parts of the book that occurred hundreds of pages before. I think Jackson did an amazing job with the creating a smoothnes s in the film allowing it to be enjoyable for people of all ages. One of my younger cousins is a huge fan of the movies but at his age I do not believe he would have the attention span to read the books.

Peter Jackson had the task over outdoing his own masterpieces especially with the battle scenes in Return of the King. It was important for each scene to be more impressive and intense than the previous. The main fight scene in the final movie, when Aragorn arises the army of the dead and defends Gondor included a combination of intricate computer animation and a creative mind. Jackson did not want to dissapoint his viewers and thus needed to make one of the most important fight scenes in the trilogy insurmountable. This scene was important because it was a turning point in the film and raised the hopes of Aragorn and his faithful companions.

Carlys Rough Draft