Vlog #4

Power to the Points

Recently, we watched many PowerPoint presentations over epic comparisons of different movies to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many of the presentations were interesting, and all of them were well-done. Out of the many that we watched, I had three favorites. The first one was the presentation Chris gave over Avatar. He made many parallels between the two movies, especially great parallels between Jake and Frodo. Jake showed many signs of bravery and compassion throughout Avatar, and Frodo did the same in the Lord of the Rings. This was a great parallel between the two major characters. The main thing I liked about Chris's presentation was the great pictures and the good parallels between creatures and setting, like with how he compared the horses and creatures they rode to the Nazgul and the hyenas. He chose a great movie to compare to the Lord of the Rings, and he did a good job making the parallels stand out.


The second presentation that I really liked was Brant's. He compared the Star Wars Episodes I-III to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and did a great job with details. He talked about how the main characters in each movie were being pulled on by an evil force, and had to resist it with their purity. He made great parallels between sub-heroes, and explained just how vast the setting really was. He also discussed the use of supernatural forces within both movies, talking about the Force and lightsabers, while also mentioning the powers in the Lord of the Rings. Brant made great parallels between the good and evil of both movies, talking about how both Anakin and Frodo are pulled to the evil (dark) side at the end. He also used a few good images, but he could have had more character and setting images to show detail about setting or characters.


The last presentation I really liked was Shane's over The Princess Bride. This movie is such a great and comical movie, but it still holds a ton of qualities of an epic. The main character Westley is similar to Frodo in his bravery, determination, and compassion. Westley had to infiltrate a castle to save the one he loved, while Frodo had to infiltrate Mordor to destroy the evil that could destroy everything he loved. Shane had a great presentation, with really good pictures, great parallels, and good designs. He used a ton of good pictures of characters, and a few scene pictures. He made parallels between the plots and characters, like Gimly and Fezzik both being strong yet unintelligent. He made good parallels with the vast settings, and the guides. Such as Gandalf compared to Miracle Max. He also explained really well about the in medias res of both movies. Such as when Westley tells the story of how he became who he was. Overall, Shane had a good presentation, explaining really well about both movies.

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Iron Man vs. LOTR

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Second Vlog

First Vlog

Lord of the Rings Final

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King) is an intense epic adventure, directed by Peter Jackson. Watching these movies in Media Communications, and watching the commentary of Fellowship of the Ring has sharpened my concepts of movie editing, and filming as well. Learning about the characteristics of an epic, you can easily see them within The Lord of the Rings. The qualities are Hero, Guides, Courage, Vast Landscape, Supernatural Forces, and in media res. All of these epic qualities are shown in the three movies of The Lord of the Rings. It clearly has a hero, Frodo, and many other sub-heroes (Aragorn, Gandalf, Sam). Frodo has a certain task, to carry the one ring to the Mountain of Doom to destroy it. He is tested in many ways to see if he is worthy to carry the ring, going through many perilous things. This hero has guides that lead him. In an epic, a hero usually always has a guide or guides to lead them on their quest. Frodo is guided by the Fellowship, mainly by Gandalf the Grey. When the Fellowship splits, he takes on a new guide, Gollum. However, it's not so easy to see that Samwise Gamjee is Frodo's main guide the whole way. This hero is also especially courageous, or has special qualities in which no one else does. In Frodo's case, it is his purity of the heart. He is selfless, and caring, and not greedy and evil. Another quality of an epic is the vast landscape in which they will cover on their journey. Frodo travels all the way from the peaceful, serene Shire, to the evil, barren, blackened landscape of Mordor. Meanwhile, the other members of the Fellowship travel to Rohan, then Helms Deep, and more places. Epics also have supernatural forces that act upon the hero/heroes in either good or bad ways. The good supernatural forces that help Frodo are Gandalf, the elves, the Ents, and at the end, the Army of the Dead helps Aragorn fight the war. Frodo, however, has many evil supernatural forces acting against him. The Uruk-hai, Orcs, Saruman, Sauron, and the ringwraiths fight against the good. A big characteristic of an epic is the courage and bravery that each hero or guide possesses. In my opinion, Aragorn has the most bravery.He fights a war for his friends, knowing he has other duties to be done. He is fearless going up against ten thousand with only five hundred. Nonetheless, Frodo has the most courage. He carries the ring, the ring in which no one else can possess without risk of harm. He travels almost alone to the one place that no one wants to go, Mordor. Even though he is fearful, he strides on through the danger and overcomes the burden of the ring to achieve his goal. That, in my eyes, is courage. The last quality of an epic is in media res. This means that all of the action, and the story, take place in the middle of the bigger story. In The Lord of the Rings, it starts 2500 years after the making of the rings. In the beginning, a war was fought over the one ring, and the ring was lost for thousands of years until a hobbit found it. The ring corrupted this hobbit, until a new hobbit found it, knowing this person as Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo brought the ring back to the Shire, in which the first movie starts.
The Lord of the Rings is a great epic trilogy that should be taught in many media classes everywhere. One can really learn about the characteristics of an epic, as well as filming techniques, editing techniques, and themes or morals. This trilogy really shows the theme of courage, and good vs. evil. As the good battles evil, and courage prevails, it shows the world that all you need is a pur

Epic Swords

Yay for Commentary!

Watching the commentary of Lord of the Rings has its advantages and disadvantages. There is much more background information and a bunch of interesting knowledge that they talk about. Although we don't get to actually WATCH the movie with full audio, they still show the movie scenes, and talk about what they were going for and what happened during the scene, as well as how they shot it, and what is special effects and what isn't. To produce the small image of the hobbits to normal people, they mostly filmed two background images together, making the hobbits look smaller than normal, and the normal people looking larger than they actually are. They also filmed a few fight scenes using CG and stuntmen, and they told us all about how it happened. Watching the commentary really makes me want to watch the real movie. :]

Rocky Paper Scissors

This short film was one of the cheesiest and dorky films I have ever seen. They play a parody of Rocky, where the main character is a washed-up RPS (rock, paper, scissors) player, who used to be the best. A guy finds him 'throwing', and tells him he can teach him to be the best. They practice and train, alongside audio of Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. It's a cheesy training, along with some comical scenes. After their long and hard training, the main character is ready to face 'TJ', the best RPS player in the world. The trainer says no, but he goes anyway. Showing up on the gazebo in Lawrence, KS, they stand face to face and 'throw down'. TJ is defeated, and the main character is now the best in the world.