Questions we *should* have asked about the Scripts for Season 1

MithLuin

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So at the end of today's broadcast, we were asked if we had any questions for Corey, Trish and Dave.

What should we have asked them?


Personally, I am thinking that I should have asked about the 'lighter' episodes where not much happens, and if these should be combined or if more can be added to them. Ossë's rebellion is the obvious candidate for being condensed.
 
I wasn't able to listen to the session live, but I fully intend to fill out some of these episode when I get to them by pulling in the thought/ideas from our other sources like I did with the first three script (although apparently our magnificent EPs had issue with some early episodes, so...)

I also intend to continue ending each outline with all of the questions I have concerning that outline.
 
There's going to be a break now, right? That is probably good, we will need some time to reflect on the first season's process.
 
Haha, yeah, they pretty much retracted ALL of their instructions for the first episode, which led to a rather different structure!

But I think having all of your ideas written out for them really made it clear that their original ideas were lacking, so it was good for that, at least?

Also - no break. They are planning to plow straight on and do the setup/planning work for Season 2 starting in 2 weeks :eek:
 
Also - no break. They are planning to plow straight on and do the setup/planning work for Season 2 starting in 2 weeks :eek:
They're not wasting time, eh? Ok that's probably good, since some of us will be preparing for Mandos by the end of this project...
 
Ok I wrote a question in the old Frame narrative thread. I think the execs should rethink and not move to Sam.
But that's about next season...
I don't know, what is there to ask about season one?
Should we have put more conflict in the Elrond-Gilraen relationship?
 
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We talked about that actually, and the answer was yes. We got around the problem of making Gilraen look less sympathetic by going with Nick's idea of opening The Pilot with the Death of Arathorn. In fact, Gilraen and Arathorn may take up as much as 20 minutes of the first episode, giving us a better understanding of where Gilraen is coming from so we're less critical of her opposition to Elrond's because we'll understand exactly where her objections are coming from.
 
This may be the wrong thread to bring this up, and even worse, may be a stupid comment, due to my not having followed this Script forum in particular and the other fora in general.... but I have listened to all the podcasts...(not that I can recall much of the process or conclusions now!) and I have found (I think) all of your incredible pdfs of script outlines... and I have begun looking them over.
Now, maybe I missed you considering and resolving this already, but I would like to suggest, however, that you all may have assumed quite, quite a good deal on the part of your audience. WE know, because we have the scripts, who these characters (and Valar) are.... but one has to also realize that the average viewer doesn't, er... won't!! Perhaps there needs to be some exposition slipped in... In a word, does the frame need a frame!!?
In first LotR movie FotR this was accomplished with great efficiency and effectiveness by the voice over intro narration of Galadriel (aka Cate Blanchett)... and in the first Hobbit movie AUJ with the intro by Bilbo to Frodo.... Perhaps here, since in effect the Rivendell Frame plunks us down in the middle of things with unfamiliar characters, it might be better to start with a real short similar frame of the frame with familiar characters... I know there was discussion about surprising the audience with the reveal of who Estel is... buuuut, is that really going to work? Think for a moment how JRRT himself planned to link LotR back to TH: (see "The Quest of Erebor")... our familiar hobbits are sitting around with You Know Whodalf (and in our case perhaps with Aragorn/Elessar and Elrond sitting in too!)... So what might work is just a few moments of some hobbit asking these Wise how it all began for them... Aragorn replies: Well, I'll tell you how it began for me... (looking at Elrond... as Gandy looks on amused and somewhat wistful...) And then you launch into your Estel-Gilraen-Elrond frame sequence with a morph fade from Aragorn to Estel....
But I think you will still need to sneak in some pedestrian exposition naming... Very early, Elrond needs to address Gilraen by name and vice versa... and she (or he) a couple of times address by name Estel and Arathorn...
Because I fear that without this linkage, folks are going to quickly feel little or no interest in the frame and its characters which goes on quite extensively... and that, it seems to me, would be unfortunate. What say you all?
 
I think that is a valid point. But creating a second frame seems to me like a solution that might cause some confusion. Well maybe not confusion, but viewers might wonder about the second frame - will it return? I do agree though that we should carefully be giving the viewers all necessary information they need to understand the story.
 
>>>I think that is a valid point. But creating a second frame seems to me like a solution that might cause some confusion. Well maybe not confusion, but viewers might wonder about the second frame - will it return? I do agree though that we should carefully be giving the viewers all necessary information they need to understand the story.<<<

I don't think it did return in AUJ... until the very end of Bo5A... And, yes, I remember being initially a bit baffled by who the voice was at the beginning of FotR.... and of course why Gal, once I knew... but her later sequences were not "returns" of the frame, per se. And the point is not to confuse, but to link up with what the audience will already know. So confusion seems unlikely... although by the time this magna-series gets the green light I am sure all those who played Aragorn, Elrond, Gandalf, and hobbits will have loooooong before proven to be quite mortal!! ;-) So there may have to be some extensive prosthetics!!! But then, all things considered, I doubt if WE will be alive to see it either!!!
 
I understand. But I still think that it would be better to have presentation in the existing frame rather than in another frame.
 
In short, Tim, no.

In long, Noooooooooooooooooo.

Understanding who these people are outside of the show is not necessary to understand and appreciate what they are in the show. If someone doesn't know, (a bit of an absurd notion, but plausible) who Aragorn is, his importance in the grand scheme of the History of the Third age should be quite clear by Episode 13 irrespective of whether the viewer has Read the Lord of the Rings. If we are writing the episodes such that it isn't clear why Estel is important without having read LotR, that is bad TV. And if we do understand why the frame is focused on him, then connecting the boy on screen to the character as he appears at the end of the Third Age is gravy, nothing more.
 
No, no more frames. This show has plenty of Frame already! Nor do I want a voice over intro - I prefer our cold open.

But I agree that we might be assuming too much, and have to work hard on our introductions. That will come out in the rough drafts of the scripts, I think, and is a good thing to keep in mind.
 
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