Film Analysis: Transmedia Storytelling and Film Funding: Lord of Rings

This film analysis examines the transmedia storytelling approach employed in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, focusing on how the owner structure and funding influenced the film's content. The essay discusses transmedia storytelling as a method of dispersing narrative elements across various media channels, such as film, stage, and video games, to create a unified entertainment experience. The paper highlights the economic aspects of media consolidation and its impact on film production, particularly in the context of The Lord of the Rings franchise. It explores the use of narrative devices like world-building, language, magic, and races, and how they are adapted across different media. The analysis also delves into the role of stakeholders, including investors and the New Zealand government, and how their interests and funding decisions affected the film's creative choices and content, including compromises made due to budget constraints. The essay concludes by emphasizing the film's immense popularity and its deviations from the original novel due to the nature of film production and the limitations imposed by financial considerations.

Running head: FILM ANALYSIS
FILM ANALYSIS
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The aim of this paper is to discuss the process of transmedia storytelling the Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and how the owner structure and funding had manipulated the
content of this film. Transmedia storytelling represents the process where all the integral
elements of the functions get dispersed across the multiple delivery channels for creating a
coordinated and unified entertainment experience (Freeman, 2016). Each of the medium makes
their own unique contribution for unfolding the story. in this respect the example of The Lord of
the Rings franchise can be mentioned where every bit of information are conveyed through the
channels like film, stage, radio, games and the fan made or unauthorised adaptations (Goh,
2014). Transmedia storytelling actually reflects the Economics of media consolidation and this
energy among the modern media companies which are horizontally integrated. in this current
situation the modern media companies hold interests across a variety of media industries
(Durham & Kellner, 2012). this in one hand increases popularity of the films and convince the
production house to disperse their investment to different channels (Ryan, 2017). In most of the
cases transmedia stories are not based on the individual characters for a specific plot but rather
than complicated fictional world just like the Lord of the Rings which can sustain multiple
connected characters as well as their own stories. this method of building world can encourage
the Encyclopaedia impulses among both the writers and the readers. Here through films or video
games a story can be known about the world that always keeps on expanding beyond the grasp of
the audience (Herman & Chomsky, 2012).
The story telling method in transmedia has been popularised because this provide insight
into the characters along with their motivations which connect the audience more gracefully than
having only one channel to inspire them. In the case of The Lord of the Rings it is not existed
only in the form of books but has been adopted in several media formats like movies, relation,

2FILM ANALYSIS
stage, radio, video games. among these the cinematic adaptation of this book ok is the most
popular one. this movie trilogy by Peter Jackson has attempted to bring the audience in search of
moral which they could have never experienced in books only. the first part was released in 2001
followed by the other two in 2002 and 2003. This film had won 17 Oscars and grossed more than
$3 billion that made it the highest earning Motion Picture in history (Young, 2016). Along with
the film version there are animated series published that could not attend same popularity as that
of the films (Stanton, 2015). Over the years this particular movie has been adapted in the musical
theatre and stage that where produced in in numerous big cities of the world like Illinois, Los
Angeles, Ohio, Chicago and Toronto.
Along with film and stage versions The Lord of the Rings was incredibly popular due to
its video game versions. transmedia story telling has gained immense popularity in this particular
channel because there were different formats of these games among which the most well-known
games were produced by Electronic Arts depending upon the actual film version of Peter
Jackson. on the other hand the video games published by Sierra Entertainments was completely
based on the book version. In addition to this there are other production houses who have
effectively adopted an amalgamated version of the book and the film (Sweeney, 2015). The first
segment of this trilogy The Fellowship of the Ring' gained popularity in the video games channel
making the story more diversifying and opening various facets of the characters that the writer
had actually intended to have in the minds of the readers.
In the case of The Lord of the Rings part 1 the director has used 5 narrative devices that
include world, language, magic, races, poetry and songs. all of these 5 narrative devices cannot
be adapted into one particular channel but are deciphered differently in different channels. for
example, the thoughts of the characters can be more elaborately seen in the book but the

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incidents would be more applicable for the movie version. the language and the world along with
race can be found implicitly in the film version but the sound, magic and actions enable the video
gamers enter the world of The Lord of the Rings and manipulate the characters. this is a feeling
of empowerment which increases popularity among the people and they feel more interested
about knowing the story through the book or through the films. However, they are examples of
contradictions seen in in the different channels of distribution where the stories become different
all the time due to improvisation but this transmedia storytelling has taken this film to pioneer for
the other upcoming.
In any business the stakeholders are the main manipulate force who invest the project to
be developed but tend to get profitability every time in anyway. in the case of film production
investors for the governing body play a vital role in in in making the film successful by investing
as much as possible but their interest often contradicts with the direction or the content of the
films. the content of the film initially remains the view of the author but later it becomes the
property of the production house. In the case of The Lord of the Rings picture Jackson the
director had begun story boarding this series with Christian rivers, Fran Walsh and Philippa
Boyens (Sebayang, 2019). His crew started to design Middle Earth of this film at the same time.
after this the author had hired long time collaborators Richard Taylor and Jim Rubel to lead the
workshop on the five major elements of the design which include armour, prosthetic makeup,
weapons, creatures and the miniature. this team was also supervising of visual effects. the
imagery of the film is based on the elastration by Alan Lee had joined this structure later in 1997.
Grant Major was the production designer who was charged to convert the illustrations by Alan
Lee into architecture and created models of the sets. the art director Dan Hennah scouted the
locations and organised the process of building sets. Another important aspect was principal

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photography that was conducted in many locations within the conservation areas and the Natural
Parks of New Zealand. in this regard the Government of New Zealand played a vital role in
making the film successful. this particular movie along with the other two who in the Trilogy
was shot over 150 different locations with different units shooting at the same time.
The director Peter Jackson was not the only director in this film but he was guided by his
assistant directors shooting simultaneously in different locations on different scenes. in this
structure there were producers, assistant directors and the writers available on set so that the
changes can be made on the spot (Sebayang, 2019). The film version of this particular novel had
undergone different changes in the content. this is due to the fact that what it is written in the
book actually may not be e shown in the film as the platforms are different. on the other hand the
audience who are watching the film may not have prior idea of what is written in the book.
therefore, there is no chance for imagination or contemplating but jump directly into the action
which must be very very attractive. The film allows the audience to spectate incredible actions
with unmatched sound engineering and visual effects.
The funding process has a complicated role to play in the successful story telling of the
films. the budget of this trilogy was $281 million which was profited into $3 billion. For the 1st
part The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring the budget was only 9.3 million which
grossed $887.8 million worldwide. As this is the first of the Trilogy the popularity or
Expectations of the audience was not much understood. therefore the investors were not very
confident to Tu to provide Full support to this particular film. Now the director opines that this in
availability of fund had made him compromise in many sections of this film. he could have
added more animation and more detail in this movie but due to lack of fund and support the film
has lagged to achieve his own goals otherwise it would have been more spectacular. The content

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of the film therefore has been omitted in many places and takes diverse path from Tolkien
version. The director and the writer of this particular film had to compromise with the content
because the lack of fund could not support exclusive visual effects to be adopted. this is the
reason why there is a huge gap between the actual story of the novel and the film. however the
film has gained immense popularity worldwide making get the second highest grossing film of
all time.

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