Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Hunt for Gollum - independent short

J

jbeale

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Messages
1,688
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
60
Website
www.bealecorner.com
Nothing to do with Red cameras, as far as I know. But the visual quality of this independent short is impressive, just judging by the stills, I haven't downloaded the actual movie yet. (edit: judging from the BTS clips, shot on HDV, maybe Sony FX1. I think they did pretty well with it)

http://thehuntforgollum.com

Created by fan's of J.R.R. Tolkien, this is an unofficial short film set in Middle Earth which depicts events leading up to the Fellowship of the Ring. Synopsis: The Ring of Power has been taken from Gollum by Bilbo of the Shire. The heir of Isildur sets out to find him before he falls into the hands of the enemy and reveals the location of the Ring...
 
Heard the budget was $4,500? Great mini fan movie.
 
Hey, there's nothing wrong with fan films.
Sure the regular argument is that if people want to become filmmakers this isn't a good way to get attention; that people should just concentrate on making original material.

I agree with that for the most part, however that statement is based on the assumption that everyone who makes a fan film wants to get into the industry. Besides, there is a large guaranteed audience and the really well made or original films like Troops, Batman: Dead End or Hunt for Gollum do get alot of attention. Kevin Rubio regularly writes Star Wars comics and novels, Sandy Collora was already in the industry and now he's directed his debut feature (shot on the RED ONE). I wouldn't be too surprised if this lot werent some featured extras/got to meet PJ/Guillermo if the film's popularity continues.

I haven't made a fan film myself but I made a documentary about a group of people who did. They were the sweetest people on Earth and the comaradarie was unlike that on any "legitimate" shoot I have worked on.
 
I'm gonna check this out.

What is the highest-resolution copy available, and where is the best place to download it?
 
Yannick Hagman said:
Original... (sarcasm)
Click to expand...

If you look at the site, it's stated intention was to enjoy making a fan film as best they could about a subject they all loved, and also get pro-level experience with their various areas of expertise. They deliberately wanted to achieve the look of the three Jackson films as that is the yardstick by which it would be judged. At the same time the story is not a simple duplication of the LOTR trilogy. It's too easy to snipe.
 
is there a direct HD download available? i checked bit torrents, but they seem to only have SD quality.
 
I don't know. These "fan films" like this just depress me. I watch them and, no matter how cool they are, I instantly write them off because they aren't going to go anywhere. Yeah, there have been some fan films that have been brought into commercial release but that was because they had a really good original spin or parody on the subject that transcended the fan film genre.

This film in particular was an example of a fan film that won't go anywhere. For one thing, the story wasn't very good. Was it supposed to be before or after the LOTR trilogy? Either way it is flawed because the LOTR trilogy already told us what happened before and what would happen later in Gollum's life. It's cool that they got the look of the films for some of the shots but so did "Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God". It's cool that they could do all of this stuff but, again, I too feel that they should have focused on an original fantasy story instead, it's not that hard.
 
ahh common guys - thats a nice film. cant remember when i last saw a 40min short film i enjoyed.

I thought these guys did a really good job.

shot on HDV (by judging from the behjind the scenes pictures- it looks really good. and very nicely edited.

Im impressed!
 
OK... I watched it... It's a fan film and a very good one too. I can say that on such a low budget, an original fantasy film isn't going to turn out anywhere near as good in most cases because it's hard to rally the right people and resources behind a completely new concept. Whereas with fan films based on franchises like Star Wars, LOTR, etc.. there are large groups of fans willing to devote themselves to such projects.

The concept here for this film actually wasn't a bad spin-off. It does tie into the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf did indeed look for and locate Gollum, and none of the details of how were ever divulged in Tolkien's writings. Thus he returns to the Shire and instructs Frodo to leave immediately with the ring after he casts it into the fire to verify it is in fact the One Ring.

I thought the story had some hiccups and was flawed in a few aspects. All things considered, the story could have and should have been a lot better. But overall a very impressive work for a fan film and even more impressive for something of that level done on a < $5K budget.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top