Tuesday, May 12, 2009

"The Hunt For Gollum"

My friend recently showed me "The Hunt for Gollum," a fan-created movie response to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

While the story was really pretty lame, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the acting and graphics. Not only did they seamlessly copy the style and mood of the trilogy, but they succeeded in creating beautifully rendered computer-graphic scenes. Overall I was quite impressed!

This reminded me of a discussion we had in class at some point related to music mixing vs. video mixing. Because the movie was so well done, from what I understand the 'copyright' infringements were excused as long as the fan-movie didn't make money (which then allows other fans to see it for free online). After exploring the site a little more, it looks like the group of people who made "The Hunt for Gollum" are now trying to make a feature-length film (possibly for profit). While it is unfortunate that the movie was not allowed to make profit, I feel the 'corporate' response was pretty understanding. It makes sense to let fans create quality 'remixes'! Also, by allowing fans to carry-out such intense projects, the film industry can see what their audiences are craving. It's brilliant, really!

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