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Ethel Duath
Half-elven
Dec 7 2021, 12:26am
Post #3 of 7
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it gave me a much clearer picture of exactly how the whole thing worked at the time, and of how difficult the process was.
I can't imagine anyone better for the job than Serkis, and it's somewhat understandable why he wanted to "upgrade" what his role actually was, in the face of the dismissiveness by some.
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 7 2021, 3:17am
Post #4 of 7
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I love this reading of Gollum's place in the story:
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"(Gollum's) whole arc only works if the audience understands and sympathizes with multiple characters’ refusal to kill Gollum when they have the chance. Gollum is untrustworthy, vicious, cruel, violent, manipulative, and weak. In a George R.R. Martin novel, he’d have a life expectancy of a dependent clause. In Lord of the Rings, his survival evokes our struggle to cling to our better natures in the darkest and most urgent of times..."
I haven't read an interpretation of Gollum quite like that before. It's thought-provoking.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Fantasy novel - The Arcanist's Tattoo
My LOTR fan-fiction
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Hamfast Gamgee
Grey Havens
Dec 7 2021, 7:04am
Post #5 of 7
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Gollum is a bit unique in the respect of mercy
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Other similar characters such as Wormtongue don't really get the same treatment. They are simply bad guys to be wiped. Mind I do sometimes wonder if Gandalf's mercy towards Gollum wasn't entirely out of good nature. Gollum for a start did have some very useful unique information. Getting into Mordor for starters. Gandalf might well have thought it useful to have a loose cannon like Gollum about given the situation in ME at the time. Gollum might well go off in Sauron's face!
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Chen G.
Gondor
Dec 7 2021, 7:34am
Post #6 of 7
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But the piece notes that the craft has developed so that the motion-capture actors are now doing much more than they used to do in creating their screen-image roles; and the final paragraphs, about how screen acting has always been more of a collaboration between the actor and the technicians than Hollywood's publicists have ever liked to admit.
Gollum was certainly a collaborative work: there was no facial motion-capture on Gollum, but they did have close-up footage of Serkis' face for reference and the final result is usually not too far off of what he did. But its unquestionable that the original Gollum was a collaborative work.
As we get into more contemporary motion-capture (what's often called performance-capture) it varies. I'm told Gollum from An Unexpected Journey is very, very close to Serkis' "digital makeup" concept, but I've yet to ascertain it, whereas other characters are not: The Great Goblin and the Trolls aren't. Even Thanos, who's very humanoid, has "zero" raw motion capture in the final performance.
Smaug is a curiosity where I really think they motion-captured him just to satiate Cumberbatch. They did use some of his stuff as inspiration, but ultimately its not Cumberbatch performing Smaug's physically 99% of the time, and even the final vocal performance you see was done in a booth with a microphone, not on a mo-cap stage.
(This post was edited by Chen G. on Dec 7 2021, 7:36am)
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SirDennisC
Half-elven
Dec 7 2021, 6:32pm
Post #7 of 7
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There is an idea from the text, that responding with pity—or mercy perhaps—was a way of resisting the Ring’s influence over its possessor. Gandalf talks about it in his long dialogue with Frodo before Frodo determines to take the quest of destroying the Ring.
Their propensity to extend mercy was key to the Fellowship to not be overwhelmed utterly by Sauron’s will, through ownership or proximity to the Ring. So this idea is entwined in the DNA of the tale, even though it’s not explicitly stated (well, not so fully explained) in the movies. Yet it is there, and is evident in the slightly gross scene where Aragorn extends a hand to Wormtongue as well.
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(This post was edited by SirDennisC on Dec 7 2021, 6:34pm)
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