Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Rings

Story/Plot

The king died then the queen died. After the death of the king, the queen died from grief.

The first sentence refers to the story while the second sentence is the plot. A plot basically refers to a story being told by a third party. It may be inaccurate and biased, but certainly more interesting. Most of the works of fiction are based on the actual events or the same basic stories (Krane, 2007).

The Objective of the Research

This research aims at describing aesthetic aspects found in the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the rings by J.R.R. To help him fulfil the information required, the researcher employs numerous tactics, including spending time in the library reading bibliographies. The collected data is then analysed using phenomenological approaches to help discover the aesthetic aspects of the novel.

Story Summary

One of the ancient rings believed to have been lost for many years has been found. Fate has allowed the ring to be given to Frodo. Gandalf discovers that the ring is the same one that belongs to Darl Lord Sauron. Frodo must dash to the Cracks of Doom so as to have the ring destroyed. He is joined by Samwise. Pippin, Merry (the 3 friends of Hobbit), Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli the Dwarf, legolas the elf, and Gandalf. They fellowship moves through all the dangers, plains, rivers, forests, darkness, snow and even mountains with their quest to destroy the ring so as to end the reign of Dark Lord (Twomey, 2001).

Aesthetic Choices

i. Mise-en-scene

It includes the design of hair, makeup, costumes, lighting, and props. Included also is the composition of films' spatial relationship of characters and objects, their distribution as well as their organization.

In this movie, the fellowship of the rings is critically discussed and the Eleven City of Rivendell analysed.

The Eleven City of Rivendell

In the cast, the characters are surrounded by waterfalls, mountains and trees. This makes up the natural elements of the surroundings. The setting is idealistic and gives an impression of a sanctuary from danger or a Shangri-la.

The architecture in the surrounding reveals more about the people who inhabit the area. The buildings are made of archways, intricate lattice work and precise lines. In fact, this is what gives it the complexity and sense of grace and details of personality of the culture of the area (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2011).

Apparently, there are no medium sized or small props that are being used in the shot. Among the elements that are considered props in the cast are natural elements and building. The elements of makeup, hair, costume are simple in the shot. Fodo is dressed in a simple way, just as he always does throughout the entire movie. The hair looks the same, but the distance between us and them makes it difficult for us to see the makeup adorned. The light in the shot is too bright and natural. Lack of shadows makes the place look surreal and those living in the area are thought to be otherworldly by nature.

No highlights are used but the white tint gives the impression of highlight (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2011).

ii. Editing

In Lee's illustrations and Tolkien's text, structural interlace is obvious and play an important role in fortune telling, which are intertwined in the past, the present and events that are stylistic interlace and which appears in the restating themes, loyalty, love, kingship and stewardship. Pictorial interlace is apparent in the restating of themes such as stewardship, kingship, loyalty, and love themes. The pictorial interlace is continuous and is present in the physical aspect of the environment. It is a manifestation of motivation and varies depending on characters in question.

The film recreates different types of interlace, but does not incorporate Tolkien's characters and cross-cutting, which has increased the effect of editing in the modern film audience. Interlace is one of the most unique aspect of the film, it is a kind of structural interlace that represents certain motifs, lines of dialogue with variations. In the appendix of this paper, it is clear that the principal method of the interlace, which is unique to this film, involves a visual representation of a given event and a voice over from characters who are dissociated in space and time from the images that accompanies it. In this case, just a few of the films make reference to the text. Examples are those applied in the development of the story of Elrond's ''Council" and Gollum's torture. It is not just restricted to the council at which the fellowship is established, but the entire council as covered in the film and involves private conversations between Gandalf Aragorn, Galadriel, Arwen and Elrond's (Emily, 2011).

iii. Technology a. Special Effects that Portray Dwarves

In the Middle-earth, Hobbits are 110 cm 3 ft 6 in tall. Dwarves are a little bit taller, 140 cm, 4 ft and 6 in. Elves and Men are average in height (152- 182 cm). Note that the film uses 2 sets instead of 3 by casting average actors that play as Dwarves. It then combines Hobbits and Dwarves into one scale size. For instance, John Rhys-Davies, who acts as Gimli, is taller than Elijah Wood, who played Frodo. The reason of not creating a third scale for all the dwarfs in the scene where Hobbits and Dwarves interact and no scale doubles is needed. For instance, when you enter Lothlorien with Frodo and Gimli claps of the shoulder and you utter the words "stay close, young hobbits'', the scene does not employ size doubles because Rhys Davies is taller in height compared to Hobbits and Dwarves (Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series, 2014).

b. Miniatures

The sets are constructed so as to allow compositing the mate painting & the models. The best examples include the Caverns of Isengard and Argonath, Minas Tirith, Black Gate and Fangom Forest, the trees of lothlorien and Barad-dur.

Mary Maclahlan and John Baster led the building of Miniature while Alexfunke controls the camera rig. The miniature unit does a better job than the special effect crew and works for over 1000 days (Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series, 2014).

c. Animation

The creatures spend months creating variation in sketches before the designs were sculpted into a computer in a five foot masquettes. The animators rig skeletons & the muscles before the final details are scanned from masquetters that are painted.

The Tree beard had a composited upon original animatronics. It is scanned for digital model of longshots. A highly realistic digital doubles was created for miniature longshots as well as numerous stunts and notably Legolas.

The doubles are scanned from the actors which perform movements in the captured suit with details captured using ZBrush. Morphs exist between the actors and the doubles.

The Gollum's CG model was redesigned in 2001 using subdivision surface model instead of NURBS model for fellowship. The digital double and the lead actors were also rebuilt. Serkis was cast as Smeagol before he was cursed by one Ring. This gives an impression that Smeagol and Andy Serkis are transformed into a CG Gollum. The original model can be understood as one watches the first film (Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series, 2014).

Socio-economic Impact

According to the New Zealand-based general manager of the Western Long haul market for Tourism, Gregg Anderson, there has been a 50% increase in rivals ever since the Lord of rings was cast. The first film, 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' was released in the year 2001. This has made tourism the second largest industry in New Zealand.

Also, it has been noted that other sectors have benefited from Jacksons movies. Jobs have been created in studios co-owned by Jackson. They include the Weta workshop, Park Road Post, Stone Street studio. In a way, this means that Peter Jackson has increased New Zealand's GDP even though it is difficult to enumerate it, it is apparent that the film industry has passively impacted on New Zealand economy (Pinchefsky, 2012).

It has been noted that the most significant change to the middle Earth cultural fabric is the absence of song and poetry. Tolkien makes use of song and poetry as indices to cultural identity of the society in most of the books, including 'The Lord of the Rings'. The important role can best be understood when we think of the culture in terms of the social definition of a particular way of life that expresses certain meanings values both in learning and art as well in ordinary behaviour and institutions.

Songs and poetry are not just the province of high cultural forms in the Middle earth, but also extend to the day-to-day practice. Even at the time, domestic ritual was getting infused in poetry, including drinking beer, having a bath, and washing dishes. These are catalysers that add phatic dimension to the narrative's nuclei whose omission affects the complexity of the film (Ball, 2003).

Conclusion

The movie has been analysed in details and the important features such as technology aspects, editing and mis-en-scene discussed. Technological topics such as the effect of animation were also discussed.

The Economic, social and cultural impact of the movie were also discussed as seen in the literary sources.

The research is referred to as the J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The researcher chooses this novel because of a number of reasons, including the novel being related to the folklore. Second, the novel has enough aesthetic dominants as can be figured out in the literary works. Third, the book is a famous literary work that has been converted into a film. Fourth, this novel represents part of the culture. It is important that we look at the Jackson's trilogy, the Fellowship of the Ring and the relationship that exists between the book and J.R.R Tolkien's book (Ball, 2003).

References

Ball, M. (2003). Cultural Values and Cultural Death in The Lord of the Rings. Australian Humanities Review.

Emily, A. (2011). The Lord of the Rings' Interlace: The Adaptation to Film. Academic journal Article.

Krane, L. (2007, January 26). The Difference Between Plot and Story. Retrieved from Learningnerd: http://learningnerd.com/the-difference-between-plot-and-story/

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. (2011, October 6). Retrieved from Popcorn Worthy Movies: https://popcornworthymovies.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/lord-of-the-rings-the-fellowship-of-the-ring/

Pinchefsky, C. (2012, December 14). The Impact (Economic and Otherwise) of Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit on New Zealand. Forbes.

Special effects of The Lord of the Rings film series. (2014). Retrieved from OMICS International: http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Special_effects_of_The_Lord_of_the_Rings_film_series

Twomey, P. (2001, December 19). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Retrieved from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt