The Role Of The Writer

What changes had to be made from the original book to the screen play?

In the book, Tolkien had dominated battle scenes with only male characters to be able to have the knowledge to add more detail into the scenes such as blood and gore. This meant that the book had to be rewritten for the screen play to involve more female characters to save controversy between genders.

Characters within the book had to be cut out due to parts of the book being rewritten or even completely taken out as they did not move the story along.

Exposition scenes were difficult to do, they were used to move the story along. The reason they were so difficult was because they had to write a whole scene that never happened in the book to carry the story on, due to the earlier removal of specific scenes they had to add more exposition scenes to explain the story, totalling up to 4 pages of exposition before the film even starts. (In the film, the exposition scenes at the start were where the ring bearer looses his finger and the ring to an earlier king).

A lot of the creation of this film was made in a hotel room, writers and actors were surrounded by notes, locked in hotel rooms, 15 months of shooting was written. The script was rewritten constantly for the whole period of the making of Lord of The Rings. Actors were asked to input ideas about what made them laugh, what they thought the character would do (eg. Frodo playing/handling the ring). Liv Tyler brought in the idea of no female characters and the issues with having no main female characters, this made the writers having to rewrite a lot of the script to fit in with the female population. Gender was a massive issue when creating the movie to LOTR as it was originally written with no leading female characters, to fit a modern audience they had to add female characters to have a wider audience and more contemporary for todays viewers.

Lord Of The Rings Screen Play

Unit 24.1 Lord Of The Rings Screen play adaptation worksheet

Roles played within the creation of the movie:

What do they do? Who do they work with?

Commissoning Editors (film and TV): Bit like a talent scout - commissions promising writers - actively seek best new writers - looking at treatments - sorting good stuff/people to bring forward.

Producers: Does all the work - makes sure everything happens on time and on budget. Responsible. (Executive producers - probably well known - used to drum up money and their name gives the film popularity, just like designer clothes, they're expensive because of their name).

Directors: Overall control (creative) of the film.

Script Editors: Edits scripts to ensure dialogue works, throughout production.

Agents (film and TV): Represents artists and actively seek work for those on their books (including technical crew).

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The role of the writer:         2 Options

- 500 word report about the role of the writer.

- video presentation - edit together a selection, add your own voice over. (5 minutes)

[ + interview a script writer ]

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Women Gaps: Men fight in the knowledge that Peter Jackson could add more detail to the battle scenes.

Not A US Project: Money was sourced not only form the US however funded by other countries such as Australasia and Britain.

Exposition Scenes: Difficult to do - scenes that move the story along. Had to introduce scene that didn't happen in the book. Lots of things had to be left out as they didn't move the story along). 4 pages of exposition before the film starts (that shows the ring bearer loosing it by an earlier king).

Script-writing

How do you become a Scriptwriter?

How does the Scriptwriter fit with the rest of the team?

Lord of The Rings video - role of the writer throughout production.

Jackson - 1st thing - broke down 3 books into a 90 page (synopsis) treatment "Cracking The Code" of the book.

Tolkein took 15 years to write the book used Tolkeins language as much as possible.

1st Screenplay - Miramax wanted 1 film so let Jackson go elsewhere to find the money.

New Line saw it was 3 films so 2 film scripts required rewriting.

Method: Surrounded by notes, locked in hotel rooms, 15 month shoot - script being rewritten constantly for the whole period of the making of Lord of The Rings.

Actors asked to input ideas about what made them laugh, what they thought the character would do (eg. frodo playing/handling the ring).

Liv Tyler ideas brought in - no women character in the book.

Script writing

Role/relationship of writer with everyone else in the team:

Writers:

- Fran (?) relationship with director?

- Peter Jackson

- Phillippa

All massive fans of the books - so lifelong ambition to turn these books into films.

Need to write about relationships;

• How do they interrelate?
• What happened to the script? (writing/rewriting as they went along - actors brought their own ideas as to how the characters would talk).
• Script is never finished until the film is finished.

Look at finished screen play.

Setup a new blog - firstnameinitialscript.blogspot.com

500 words about Lord of The Rings = pass, merit, distinction - need to bring in another production.