The Hobbit: An Unexpected... Dilemma?

I am a HUGE fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" novels, and that of course includes the book that preceded it, "The Hobbit". I don't know exactly why, but I feel more attached to the "Hobbit" book than I did with LOTR. Maybe it was the fact that my mom read "Hobbit" to me when I was younger, and then when she read LOTR to me, the movies were just about to come out, so I guess I've just had more time to get attached to my vision of the book.

While I am very excited for this upcoming film adaptation of "The Hobbit", and I a big fan of Peter Jackson and the way he did LOTR, I am facing a bit of apprehension about it, too. The biggest reason I am uncertain about it is the fact that they are splitting the book into THREE movies. Seriously, I think the book is shorter than half the size of one of the LOTR books (don't quote me on that, I don't know for a fact). Harry Potter created a trend of splitting books into multiple movies, because Twilight copied it and now The Hobbit. I do think that they were justified in doing the split for Harry Potter, but I just don't get why Peter Jackson would do this to The Hobbit. The only way they could fit Hobbit into three movies is if they are adding stuff to it, and that's just not right. I also bet New Line Cinema's in it for the money since the LOTR movies were so popular.

The other thing I'm really somewhat unsure about are the thirteen dwarves. That had to be a daunting task going into the filming process, trying to make them all look different and distinguishable... but I'm not exactly digging the looks for some of the dwarves in this film. I've gotten used to some of them, but some just don't look dwarfish enough for me. I'm going to list them below and rate them 1-13.

GLOIN - #1
As the father of Gimli, the dwarf we all know and love from LOTR, Gloin is probably the best looking dwarf out of all of them in my own opinion. I also like the way they have Gloin carrying the same axe as Gimli did in LOTR.

DWALIN - #2
It's a different look, but I kinda like it.I can see him being a dwarf. A tough dwarf. I don't really remember if Dwalin was written as being a tough guy, but whatever. Still looks cool.

OIN - #3
Again, different, but still pretty dwarfish.

BALIN - #4
A bit cartoonish maybe, but I'm digging that coat. That's some nice threads.

DORI - #5
Decent. B-.

THORIN - #6
As the leader of the company of dwarves, Thorin has to look very distinctive from the rest. They went the Aragorn route for him, making him more handsome than you'd think a dwarf would be or the book described him.

BOMBUR - #7
I don't really like the braided beard (?), but they did make him fat, and that was his big character trait.

BIFUR - #8
A little wild, but still, what's with the hatchet wound?

BOFUR - #9
I don't know whether to compare his look to a hunter or a pirate. Does not scream "dwarf" though.

NORI - #10
Do I even need to comment?

FILI - #11
NOT. DWARFISH. ENOUGH.

KILI - #12
NOT. DWARFISH. AT ALL.

ORI - #13
Uh.................................... ?

I've been ranting on the things I don't like about what I think could be bad. However, to be fair, I don't know that it will be bad. In fact, since the movie has already premiered in New Zealand, there are already reviews for the movie up on IMDB.com. I didn't really read all of them, but five out of eight reviews gave the film 10/10 stars. That's not a common occurrence, by any means. Apart from that, there are several things I'm excitedly looking forward to about this movie. At the top of the list is seeing Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.

I've really only seen Martin Freeman in the British television series "Sherlock", and I watched one episode of the British "The Office", where he plays the Jim Halpert character equivalent. From what I have seen of him, I think he is going to be a brilliant Bilbo. There are other cast members I'm excited for, such as the returning cast of Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Andy Serkis as Gollum, and even Elijah Wood as Frodo (for nostalgic reasons). The other thing that I'm looking forward to is... yep. The soundtrack.

Howard Shore's music scores for "Lord of the Rings" are what I think to be the all-time greatest soundtracks in existence. He really sells the history and the legends and the magic that were the backbone of the films, and I was overjoyed when I learned that Shore would be returning to score The Hobbit. I have listened to samples of the soundtrack and it's just like going back into the original films. It made me very happy.

Another thing I'm looking forward to (although maybe not necessarily excited for) is this new "48-frames-per-second" deal. I'm told it's pretty close to how the human eye perceives normal movement, making the film appear more realistic. I've also heard of people becoming sick while watching the movie. I guess that's the risk of doing new technology. I'll reserve my own judgement until after I've seen it.

Well, this is where I will leave off for this blog post. I will come back and write another review after I've seen the movie. Until then, we are going there and back again to Middle Earth in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".

12 Days of Christmas - Chronicler's Company Pictures Style

A new compilation video is here: Twelve Days of Xmas: CCP Style!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hML_9hR-qY&feature=g-all

Every year for around Christmas, I make a holiday-themed video for my YouTube channel. I'm not quite sure this really qualifies for that, since I did not actually shoot any new footage for it. It is inspired by an awesome video called "Napoleon Dynamite 12 Days of Christmas". It's been a favorite of mine for years and I was really excited to do a "parody" of it. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU81JeA4oH8

I'm still hoping to get a completely new video for the Holiday season out by Christmas, but just in case I can't, then I did get this. It's better than nothing and heck, it's better than the video I did in 2010!

Here's a list of the videos I used clips from:
Day 1. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 2. Takua and Jaller: Thanksgiving
Day 3. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 4. Chronicles of the Chronicler: The Fallen Order
Day 5. Sam's Comics (BTS Documentary)
Day 6. Sam's Comics: The Movie
Day 7. Home Run Inn Pizza (courtesy of MCC Film Club)
Day 8. Hollywood Grail (failed project)
Day 9. Sunday Night Activities
Day 10. Don't Look or it Takes You
Day 11. Sam's Comics (Filming Vlog)
Day 12. Hollywood Grail (failed project)

Star Wars Episode VII?

George Lucas, famous for creating the beloved movie series "Star Wars" as well as "Indiana Jones" (aka my favorite movies ever) has sold LucasArts to Disney. Promptly, Disney has announced Star Wars Episode 7 to be in production for 2015.

I love Star Wars. It was my favorite movie series growing up, and I still love them as much as I did way back when, but as much of a fan as I am, I can see that there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. I'm not exactly looking forward to there being an Episode 7, because the story of the series was about Anakin Skywalker's journey becoming Darth Vader (the argument can be made that the Original Trilogy is about Luke, but big picture is about Vader) and the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire. Both Darth Vader and the Empire were defeated, so is there really any further story to tag onto this movie series? The established story arc was brought to a close.

another thing that bugs me is that the visual difference between the Original and Prequel trilogies are like night and day. The prequel trilogy is probably like 80% computer-generated (a good deal of Episode 1 was shot practically) as opposed to the Original Trilogy, which was probably 25% or less computer-generated. Adding another 80% or more computer-generated trilogy could potentially decrease the magic of the Original Trilogy. This pains me greatly.

All this being said, I'm still a fan of Star Wars. All I'm really trying to say is that while I will be interested to see the movie, I'm not jumping up in down in my seat for it.

New Video - Don't Look or it Takes You

I've been trying to put together a Halloween video for a while now, and while the "Hotel of Horror" video I shot in my hotel in LeClaire Iowa does qualify as Halloween, it just wasn't doing it for me. That video was just something I put together on the spurs of the moment, and while shooting it I had no clue what it would end up being. This new video I shot last night takes the cake, and it deals with a computer game that's currently popular, "Slender: The Eight Pages". While I've never played the game myself, I've seen countless YouTube videos about it recently. "Don't Look or it Takes You" was an idea I was toying around with since the beginning of this month, possibly before then as well.

Don't Look or it Takes You

There are some subtle things in this video that refer to horror: In the tight shot of the flashlight being picked up and turned on, on the desk there is a "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack box set (I highly recommend these scores, they're amazing) with the Skull and Crossbones on an angle, but still facing the camera. Also there is an "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" collector's glass that the light first shines on. Although it's barely visible, the top of a CD case for the soundtrack of "Titanic" is right below the flashlight. While "Titanic" is not a horror film, it still deals with the horrendous disaster of the Titanic.

Also, I did a Behind-The-Scenes video to compliment it. I don't normally spend the time to do BTS vids (most of the time, the making of process is quite boring), but since this one I had to do some more technique-related things, I figured it'd be worth my while. Little did I know that doing this BTS video would lead to me going to war against my old computer... but I won the battle.

On The Road

Yesterday, my family and I took a one-day trip over to Leclaire, Iowa to do some antiquing (a family favorite). This town has been made famous by the television show, American Pickers. For those of you who haven't seen this show, it's about these two guys who "travel the back roads of America looking for rusty gold". They search all over for antiques they can buy and sell, with the help of Danielle, who keeps their shop (Antique Archaeology) and sends them leads.

While we were there, we got to go to the store where the show is filmed. While we didn't meet Mike, Frank, or Dannie, we did get to see several items that we saw them buy on the show. It was really cool, and for me, it was just about as cool as seeing the Harry Potter exhibition a few years ago, or when the Star Wars costumes and props were on display in Toledo when I was a kid. We also think we saw Mike's car downtown!

Also while I was in Iowa, I shot a short film in our hotel room. Busted out my new Antique Archaeology tee for it. :)

Questions and Answers: Chronicles of the Chronicler (series)

WARNING: This Q&A contains plot spoilers!

Q: What is "The Fallen Order"?

A: The title of the first season is somewhat unexplained, but "The Fallen Order" refers to the Toa. At the start of the film, the Toa have all disappeared. It is revealed in Episode 2 that the most of them have died. Takua, Pohatu, and Onua are still alive, but Takua has shirked his responsibilities as Toa, Pohatu has been possessed by the dark side, and Onua is in hiding. The order of the Toa has apparently fallen and has been fallen for quite some time. In the end of the film, both Onua and Pohatu die, but Takua returns as Toa, restoring this Order to a fraction of its former glory.


Q: How closely do these stories tie in to the original Bionicle story lines?

A: There are varying degrees of faithfulness to the source material. The first one starts off utterly defying the real story lines by saying the Toa and some of the Turaga have died. The series also overlook the fact that it is very possible to bring a Bionicle back to life (this being most obvious in the first and third seasons, where all characters react as though it is impossible). The original 2003 Bionicle plot line killed Jaller, Takua, and Makuta all off, but brought them back. Also in the 2003 plot, the island of Mata-Nui was destroyed, and the Matoran were moved to the island of Metru-Nui. There are also several more Great Kanohi masks than the limited number mentioned in the second season (which were limited to just the Toa Nuva masks, the Toa Metru Masks, the Mask of Time, and the masks of Takua and Makuta).
However, every single character in the series came from the original stories (with the only exception of Altair in "The Lost World") with their original personalities in tact (the only exceptions are Brander, Boras, and Aft; none of whom had personalities in the original stories). The Toa characters have more flaws than in the original stories, but the core characteristics are grounded in the source material. All of the original terms (such as Rahi, Widgets, and Kanohi) were used too.
It can also be noted that in the third season, the Mask of Time creates an "alternate reality" scenario, so it's a little permissible to excuse these differences.
 

Q: Why does Vakama sound like Professor Snape from Harry Potter?

A: I did all of the voices in the first two seasons and most of them in the third season. When you have that many characters to do, you sometimes need to do some imitating of other voices to add some variety. For Vakama, I did an imitation of Alan Rickman's performance as Professor Severus Snape from the beloved film series based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Some viewers of this series seem to dislike this choice, but I really thought the voice suited the character.
Some other voices that were based on celebrities' voices are: Kongu - Billy Boyd, Whenua - Ray Winstone, Matau - George Harrison, Ehrye - Christan Bale (as Batman), Nuparu - Gordon Ramsey (only in "Masks of Power"), Matoro - Paul Lieberstein (only "Masks of Power"), Brander - Christopher Lee, Aft - Andy Serkis (as Gollum), Norik - Ian McKellen, Altair - Christopher Lloyd.
It can also be noted that Makuta's voice in the series is based heavily on Lee Tockar's performance of the character in the Bionicle motion pictures.


Q: Will there be any future installments of the COTC series?

A: No. The series is over. It had a definite ending that tied up the lose ends.
I'm not going to say that there won't be any spin-offs. I've got some ideas I'm considering (ONLY considering, nothing is definite).


Q: Why did several characters' voices change in the final season?

A: Hahli and Pohatu were voiced by Shannon Asprooth and Carl Mohr in this film. I didn't think the audience would get up in arms if an actual woman voiced Hahli instead of me, and all of Pohatu's lines in Season 1 were distorted given his condition and to sound more menacing. As for some of the other characters, the voices were changed for other reasons. I had a hard time recreating Matoro's, Onua's, and Hewkii's voices from the first two seasons. When I tried to do Matoro's, my voice kept squeaking and it sounded really bad. Onua's original voice I never really liked, but two years had passed between "Fallen Order" and "The Lost World", and I was having a hard time getting it to sound the same. Hewkii always presented a problem because in Season 1, I did his voice while recovering from a cold, so I had a hard time recreating it in Season 2 as well.

MST3K Puppet rough sketches

I've been working on figuring out what the MST3K robots were A) made of and B) operated. It'd be fun to make my own replicas of them someday...