Harry has watched the FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING dvd + TWO TOWERS Info from all over!

Hey folks, Harry here... Early this morning the Fed Ex man arrived with no idea of the treasure he carried. If he had, he might have most certainly taken my precioussss... It is too bad that Middle Earth didn't have a Fed Ex man. They could've just kept it in that envelope that Gandalf put it in early on, dropped that in a Next Day Delivery bound for 'The Fiery Pit of Mt Doom' and Walla Walla, Washington... One Ring destroyed... Of course that'd pretty much be a suckass narrative, but efficient. Alas... You didn't click here to read rambling should haves and could haves, you want to know what I think of the FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING dvd that is due out in August.

What my eyes found when I opened the package from New Line was a clear jewel case with a disc labeled: "CHANGING SEASONS", DISC 1 (WIDESCREEN), VER 6 DUAL LAYER, REGION 1, WAMO. Plus someone with a black Sharpie pen wrote: #1 in a big scrawl. Well, given I had been expecting the delivery of my precioussss, I knew this to be the one true disc.

After about 2.4 seconds of contemplation the DVD drive of my new fangled Apple IMAC stuck its tongue out and I put this bit of Leary joy upon its savory appendage as it recoiled in joy. Soon my screen went black and I found the flaming letters of THE LORD OF THE RINGS on my page, soon replaced by the menu screen. The menu screen features art that looks right out of the world of Middle Earth with a non-hard edged window showing a soft focused version of the forging of the ring. Same shots you know... the molten metal being poured into the mold... HOWEVER, there is a new shot here of the mold being cracked open and the sprues of whatever evil metal still being attached to the one ring. Unfortunately they do not illuminate the rest of the grand LOST WAX PROCESS that went into making of the one true ring... What Sauron used to grind this near invincible excess metal away will be a thing of mystery I suppose. Anyway, given I spent quite a bit of my life doing casting work, I thought this one additional shot of the process of the ring's creation was cool. Maybe it is just me.

Now, if you happen to be in the possession of the ACADEMY DVD of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, there are significant changes between that dvd mastering and this one. First there are, of course, no pesky burn ins over the prologue or most annoying, the Bridge of Khazad Dum sequence... UGH... That's to be expected, however what delighted me even further was the actual transfer itself. That ACADEMY DVD had been a dark transfer, obscuring and hiding much of the production design in impenetrable shadows so dark that much of Weta's amazing production work was left unseen... Even on the Film Transfer of FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING this was an issue. As wonderful as the Mines of Moria looked on the big screen, so much was lost in the alchemy of film creation. This direct digital transfer, however is an open eye as to every nuance in the film. Not only can you see all them pesky orcs in Moria now, but you can see what they are wearing, how their faces are reacting... The carvings and latice work in Moria that them industrious wee little dwarfs spent a millenia or two chipping out of solid mountain... Well now you can see it all.

Another thing that you might be interested in knowing is that some of the gaffes are now missing. Remember that long shot of Frodo and Sam, where Sam is saying one more step and he'll be the farthest from home he has ever been before? Right around the time that Frodo is about to tell him what Bilbo told him about his feet? Remember that car in the far off distance and the trail of dirt it kicked up in the air that you annoyingly eagle eyed bastards always end up pointing out, thus distracting me to look for the damn thing... Well, it isn't there anymore. Message received. Problem fixed.

I'm sure some other slight changes have been made here, but I was spending more time marveling at clearly googling over all the details that I had previously assumed were lost. When you first see Frodo reading under that tree at the beginning and those greens kick in... My god it is beautiful on this disc, or those beautiful yellow sunflower fields as Gandalf's cart goes by... Sumptious. Andrew Lesnie... You Kick Ass!

Now they haven't sent the second disc of the DVD set yet, because frankly... They don't want THE TWO TOWERS footage that is going to be contained on that disc to get out before they show it all at some big ol event they're planning in New York on August 5th. Not sure exactly what they'll be doing in New York on August 5th, but I do know the... 'at least 10 minutes' of TWO TOWERS footage that will be included on the August EXTRAS DVD will be there. NOW... it seems that some of this footage was shown yesterday at CONVERGENCE - that amazing fantasy - science fiction convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul region every July 4th Weekend! Let's give a look at what our spy there had to say...

Harry! you too could have a minor geekgasam as I did.

This was clearly still under construction, with interview clips of the various hobbit actors. The presentation was mainly a teaser for Two Towers. It began and ended with Peter Jackson driving a car while explaining they're working hard on Two Towers and you should come to the theaters in December. It included some wonderful shots of Edoras, home of the Riders of Rohan (huge wooden buildings on a hill, backed by a snowcapped mountain range), and Theoden speaking a line to Aragorn. They included a brief look at Wormtounge and a few words from the actress who'll play Eowyn and her take on the character. They also showed Andy (Gollum) Serkis in a sensor suit, computers tracking his every move as he plays out a scene as Gollum. While Gollum is computer generated, his movements and manerisms are very much decided by a live actor - Serkis.

They also talked about a fascinating piece of CGI software that gives all those computer generated Orcs a mind of their own. They just line up the troops and start the program, and each soldier acts independently, deciding on it's own who to match up and fight with. It gives those Orc hoardes very uncomputer-like and much more realistic behavior.

there has been so much behind the scenes shooting on this project, it may well be potentially the best documented film of all time.

Now I need to get a nap and get my ass back by 2:30am -- they're having a special screening of The Fellowship of the Ring. Neener, Neener!

Lang

Then - over at TheOneRing.Net they have some reports from Game Day - where they were spilling HEAVY SPOILERS - Yes, the type of stuff that even those that have read the books might not want to know! In their First Report they talk about how the battle of Helm's Deep will be 45 minutes long - with no cuts away to 'meanwhile in Mordor' style stuff the diffuse the tension. This will literally be a 45 minute no hold's barred siege battle sequence that we've seen... about 5 seconds of thus far... UGH!!! THE WAIT!!! THE PAIN!!!! AGONYYYY!!!! GIVESSSS USSSS OURRRR PRECIOUSSSSS!!!! Ahem, also, it seems that the fate of the Ents battle on Isengard is not certain. HOWEVER, if you don't want to know who lives or dies in the Battle of Helm's Deep... DO NOT CLICK ON THAT LINK ABOVE!!!!