Lord of the Rings is EPIC

It's sort of the same feeling as looking up at a huge skyscraper, or standing in the middle of a huge arena and wondering, how did people make this? Watching the sheer concentration that goes into making a movie like Lord of the Rings is awesome. The knowledge necessary to creating a prodction like that is just as unique and complex as that needed to be a doctor. I've seen each Lord of the Rings at least four or five times now and I love them. It was just such a BIG movie. Lots of compelling wide shots and large sets with artistic design. The behind the scenes piece of Lord of the Rings that we watched was so cool, especially the sound making part. It's amazing how real and captivating a moment can be portrayed out of such artificial resources. Who knew that the sound of scattering skulls could be like walnuts?



When we watch movie's like this being made, I try to catch on to the techniqes used to make the film appealing. When we watched Citizen Kane we discussed transitions and clarified so many techniques that I've never analyzed before. One was that the sound of the woman from the next scene began playing in the transition before the next scene started. I realized that I see this all of the time in movies and how smoothly it allows scenes to change. My favorite part of the piece we watched from Citizen Kane was how the table got longer between the husband and wife as several scenes went rapidly by. That along with the newspaper represented problems coming between them.

When it comes to the short film that we will make in this class I get worried. I don't know how I'm going to avoid turning in a piece of crap. It's interesting to study all of these techniques and processes that go into making film, but I don't know how I'm going to use them. I've never done any kind of edited film making before. I know I sound super worried, but I am excited that I don't know how this is going to turn out. It might be crappy, or I might wind up impressing myself, either way it's going to be something I've never done before and something tells me I'm going to have fun with it. It won't be the next Lord of the Rings, but maybe I can find a way to utilize some of the things we've discussed in this class.