SCOD: Frodo and Sam face the Emyn Muil

zarabia

zarabia

Tol Eressea
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Full size image here: http://www.framecaplib.com/lotrlib/html/episodes/images/fotr/fotr1581.htm

Welcome to the *sniff* last SCOD for LOTR as Frodo and Sam face the tough road ahead.


1) I, unfortunately, have never been to New Zealand, but I’m fairly sure this must be a composite of actual mountains and CG or matte paintings – does it look convincing?

2) If you’re a book firster, is this the way you pictured the Emyn Muil and the Ephel Duath? For both book and movie firsters, what did you think (or how did you feel) when you saw this vast and daunting expanse before our heroes?

3) What elements in this scene – lighting, composition, placement of Frodo and Sam within the frame, etc. – contribute/contributed to your thoughts and feelings about what Frodo and Sam had to face?

Extra) On a different note – how did you feel about this being our final image of the film with a year’s wait for ROTK? If you hadn’t read the book first, were you surprised that this was how FOTR ended?

Any other thoughts welcome!

Thanks everyone [:)]
 
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1) I, unfortunately, have never been to New Zealand, but I’m fairly sure this must be a composite of actual mountains and CG or matte paintings – does it look convincing?

Indeed! But that's just the way of Weta. The environments always look top notch, even if a few of the failings come from model design. The landscape is just too perfect, and why there is nowhere else this movie could be properly made!

2) If you’re a book firster, is this the way you pictured the Emyn Muil and the Ephel Duath? For both book and movie firsters, what did you think (or how did you feel) when you saw this vast and daunting expanse before our heroes?

In the books, it's a bunch of mountains. That's all it is to me. Emyn Muil never stuck out in my mind as something so direly important of an area. Do they even name it right away? What they did with the area was great. I especially loved the foggy bits in Film 2, along with the area they meet Gollum. Certainly it's a greatly foreboding journey, but for those few seconds, it looks passable. Only in the next film do the visuals and both their acting really bring out the distance which never grows closer!

3) What elements in this scene – lighting, composition, placement of Frodo and Sam within the frame, etc. – contribute/contributed to your thoughts and feelings about what Frodo and Sam had to face?

Mainly it's how jagged all the rocky mountains are, and how you can clearly see Mordor without anything blocking it. It looks so dauntingly far as a shadow against the slightly settling light. You realize then that there is so much to this world, and even only a fourth of the way to go, there is no ease for the journey!
 
1) I, unfortunately, have never been to New Zealand, but I’m fairly sure this must be a composite of actual mountains and CG or matte paintings – does it look convincing?

Yeah i think it looks convincing in terms of they dont look like CG mountains - i think this is where CGi is at its best - as backdrops.


2) If you’re a book firster, is this the way you pictured the Emyn Muil and the Ephel Duath? For both book and movie firsters, what did you think (or how did you feel) when you saw this vast and daunting expanse before our heroes?

Book firster here. I dont really feel there is a vast expanse before them. To me Mordor looks way too close. On the maps from the book it looks to be around 100 miles. To me the distance in the movie makes it seem like its not that far - i wish they could have created a bit more space between Frodo and Sam where they are and Mordor, making it seem truly distant. As for the actual look of the mountains i think they look very good and very much similar to how i imagined them.

3) What elements in this scene – lighting, composition, placement of Frodo and Sam within the frame, etc. – contribute/contributed to your thoughts and feelings about what Frodo and Sam had to face?
I guess them being on the left of the frame draws ones eye over the scene taking it all in and leads the eyes from where they are over the mountains and across the marshes giving a greater sense of distance which makes me feel sorry for Frodo and Sam. The dark clouds (could be thunderous) over the Ephel Duath just emphasizes how menacing they are, makes them look like they are brooding and almost defending themselves from the on coming hobbits.

Overall i really like this frame i just wish Mordor was a little bit further back.
 
1) I, unfortunately, have never been to New Zealand, but I’m fairly sure this must be a composite of actual mountains and CG or matte paintings – does it look convincing?
Yes, I thought it was convincing - such utter bleakness.

2) If you’re a book firster, is this the way you pictured the Emyn Muil and the Ephel Duath? For both book and movie firsters, what did you think (or how did you feel) when you saw this vast and daunting expanse before our heroes?
Movie firster here :).

3) What elements in this scene – lighting, composition, placement of Frodo and Sam within the frame, etc. – contribute/contributed to your thoughts and feelings about what Frodo and Sam had to face?
The two of them so small atop what appears to be a precipice, facing the absolute enormity (literally and symbolically) of the journey and the task ahead of them.
And in the lack of colors and the lack of any familiarity or comfort or anything 'out there', out in the landscape before them, I get the sense that there is nothing to help them but what's inside them.

(or, maybe, a little help from what's on Sam's back :))

I am also struck by the comparison between where they are from and what is facing them here - between the Shire and this. It's as if all the color has gone from this world. And it brings back to mind the scene where Sam was hesitant to step farther away from home than he'd 'ever been', and that was back when he was still amidst cornfields and growing things and blue skies!


Great SCODs, thanks very much zarabia :)!


 
1) I, unfortunately, have never been to New Zealand, but I’m fairly sure this must be a composite of actual mountains and CG or matte paintings – does it look convincing?

In this still, no. On the big screen, yes.

2) If you’re a book firster, is this the way you pictured the Emyn Muil and the Ephel Duath?

Hmmm I don't remember... hardly cared about such things by this point in the film.

For both book and movie firsters, what did you think (or how did you feel) when you saw this vast and daunting expanse before our heroes?

"Ah man it's going to be a long wait for TTT... they should be about halfway through that by then."

3) What elements in this scene – lighting, composition, placement of Frodo and Sam within the frame, etc. – contribute/contributed to your thoughts and feelings about what Frodo and Sam had to face?

It seems such a long way to walk with bare feet. But looking at the juxtaposition of them over the landscape in this particular cap, they actually seem equal to or bigger than the task.

Extra) On a different note – how did you feel about this being our final image of the film with a year’s wait for ROTK?

I'n guessing you meant TTT... and if so, see above.

If you hadn’t read the book first, were you surprised that this was how FOTR ended?

I did read the book first and was still surprised... in any event, again, I did not relish the wait ahead.

Any other thoughts welcome!

I miss Darkstone.



Thanks Zarabia!
 
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when I was driving up Vancouver Island how I'm always enticed by, in terms of travel, being able to see a destination from afar, though it's a great distance and task to get there. I get this sense a lot walking across campus and being able to see the building I'm making for beyond several others. There's a lot of that in LotR with the natural backdrops, and especially so here. Personally, I think it's a perfect send off for both this part of the story, and as a standalone film. It leaves you with that feeling of facing the endless road to an end that you may or may not see coming.
 
Like those moments where you round a corner and suddenly you're in a spot where you can see the horizon ahead of you.
And what's ahead of them is so different, there's that sense that they're suddenly completely separated from the world behind them now.
 
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