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#1 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
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I spent a lot of time last year listening to the minor works dramatizations, and my favourite was definitely the Farmer Giles story - I thought the voices were absolutely perfect, enjoyed the accents very much, and still like to hear it, even after so many times. My least favourite was the Smith version - for some reason, I wasn't enthused about Smith's monologues, nor of the voice that spoke the part. I think they made the whole story seem too mundane to me.
I have heard (twice) a version of the BBC LotR dramatization that I enjoyed greatly - the Cambridge Society did parts of it (they had done the whole thing, with permission) in Birmingham at "Tolkien 2005" and at Oxonmoot last year. Both times, I was greatly moved by the performance, which used sound effects from the radio recording; the counter-tenor sang the Eagle's song live, quite effectively to my mind. Not all of the Cambridge voices were as good as the original, but quality can take an adaptation without significant loss.
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
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#2 | |
Alive without breath
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: On A Cold Wind To Valhalla
Posts: 5,912
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The episode in discussion at the moment is in a good place. You have a lot of character who can discuss the surroundings. Good Tolkien phrases can be interspursed between the appropriate characters. Sometimes when you have a good piece of description or whatever, it's tempting to give it all to one character, but I think it works better distributed. Sounds more natural.
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I think that if you want facts, then The Downer Newspaper is probably the place to go. I know! I read it once. THE PHANTOM AND ALIEN: The Legend of the Golden Bus Ticket... |
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#3 | |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
Posts: 54
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The biggest problem came later in the series when (as in the second half of the third volume, Tolkien recounts things rather than writing them in dialogue. Very difficult. Glad you liked 'Giles' (know what you mean about 'Smith' it really only works in that little book with Pauline Baynes' wonderful little pictures) and trust you enjoyed the performance of the actor playing the giant!! ![]() |
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#4 |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
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Brian Sibley, are you really THE Brian Sibley, the famous author and writer of the 1980's BBC Adaptation of LOTR as well as recent books on the making of the film trilogy?
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#5 | |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
Posts: 54
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If you don't believe me, check out my web-site, www.briansibley.com and blog-spot, www.briansibleysblog.blogspot.com. That (and this) is me! ![]() |
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#6 | |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
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![]() I have a question; would you be writing books on the making of the Hobbit film as well? If sopleasr include details on the varous lawsuits that had to be resolved before it finally got made. |
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#7 | |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
Posts: 54
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#8 | |
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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Just a quick one - the transcripts I'm linking to for the series - are they entirely legal? If not I can remove the links to them too. I'm now ever so slightly paranioid about this stuff.... ![]() |
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#9 | ||
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
Posts: 54
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#10 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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This one started with more of a fright than episode 2 with the Eagles that sounded a bit like the echo of a Tardis. The Nazgul really are scary in the radio version, I'd forgotten about that! That matches up with Tolkien's way of describing horror in very sparse tones, leaving plenty of gaps around the edges for the imagination to fill in the rest of the details...hearing a horror is so much more effective than seeing a horror in all it's detail.
They scared the cat too. ![]() I was very pleased to hear one of my favourite little details included in Episode 3 - Bilbo chunnering about how the Council has been going on for ages and it's getting dangerously close to his dinnertime - it reminds me of being in boring meetings (although the Council of Elrond wouldn't be boring...surely?) and clock-watching for the tea trolley and plates of sandwiches to appear ![]() Now following the films and the splendid Boromir it's very odd indeed to hear someone different portraying him when I've grown so used to the idea of Sean Bean in the role. In contrast to that, Elrond sounded better (sorry Mithalwen) on the radio. And as the lone person who didn't much care for the portrayal of Rivendell in the films (too girly) I enjoyed being able to imagine it for myself and the crackling fireplaces and Bilbo's words conjour up an idea of a quiet, scholarly place, unchanged for many centuries. After hearing that, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe Tolkien intended Rivendell to be like an alpine Oxford college? Hmmm... I was also free to imagine Weathertop as a version of Silbury Hill. Listening to this every Sunday has taken me back to the 80s, as that's when I first heard this, on Radio 4, Sunday afternoons after my dinner. You notice different things too, as you are having to concentrate all your thoughts just on listening rather than being distracted by pictures in a film or jumping ahead in the text when reading. That makes me remember again about how my old boss who was (is!) blind and would read by means of voiced texts had an amazing recall of tiny details - I'm sure a psychologist would be able to say what this phenomena is.
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Gordon's alive!
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#11 | |
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: London
Posts: 54
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I had hoped that the BBC and the Tolkien Estate might one day find a way of publishing the scripts - suitably corrected, of course! There was interest at the BBC when the films came out, but none now... Meanwhile they are, of course, on the net as transcripts - though I haven't checked their accuracy. Curiously, I know that the Cambridge folk did their OWN transcription which was, as far as I know, pretty accurate. Maybe I should try and persuade the BBC to put up a full, accurate transcription, scanned from the scripts... ![]() Trouble is, they wouldn't be prepared to pay anyone involved for the use of the material either! Despite the fact that it was for many years their best-selling audio book... It's hard to even get them concerned about the fact that the series is being uploaded in various forms all over the www... One such site currently reports 5000 downloads, which for working writers and actors represents a lot of potentially lost income. Of course, not everyone who downloads would otherwise have BOUGHT the work, but I've read many postings on forums saying thank you for saving them the cost of purchasing it... Which is a bit hard to swallow... ![]() You see, I'd love to OWN a Van Gogh but can't AFFORD one - so would that justify my stealing one? Probably not... End of rant! ![]() |
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