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The first chapter opens with some small dialogue from a few minor characters,
maybe a bar scene. They reveal some exposition about Bilbo and his cousin Frodo,
his 111st birthday party and a few rumors and stories about the enigmatic hobbit
Bilbo.
I think that starting the film at the party would be a better idea. The opening
titles could be short just 'New Line Cinema/Wingnut Films Proudly Presents, A Peter
Jackson Film, JRR Tolkien's The fellowship Of The Ring'. They could be long exacerbated
titles, with all the major cast, the producers, casting, blah blah blah.The only good
thing about long titles is that you can have some nice imagery behind it for plot
advancement or not (something like Batman) perhaps some Ringmakers at a forge hammering
some rings into making? With sparks flying about?
Then a crane shot of Hobbiton perhaps (called an establishing shot) with Bag End all
covered with tents and people milling about. Then a close up of some hobbit children
running through the gate as the camera follows them through, down past the entertainers,
past the regular tables and the camera stops as the children pass a certain tent wrapped
around a great tree...
...CU (close up) someone tapping on a glass with a knife (hobbit hand) 'My Dear
People...' we see the speechmaker, Bilbo Baggins, stands oh his chair and addresses
everyone in the tent all 144, camera turns on them 'Hear! Hear! Hear!' They shout!
Bilbo begins his speech as they all listen in quiet politeness; (except for a few
Sackville-Bagginses) Bilbo makes his great goodbye speech and steps down vanishes!
Now you all know the story so I am not going to go into great detail like that for
the whole thing. I think that you can get the general idea from the scenes I go more
into detail. The next major character we see is Gandalf (we do see Frodo at the table,
but he is not formerly introduced to the audience yet). He makes his way into Bilbo's
room as Bilbo is getting ready to depart, this is a pivotal scene in may ways; It shows
the power of the Ring (Bilbo's reluctance to give it up, Gandalf anger at Bilbo's reluctance)
and it shows Gandalfs power. He seemed to grow in size the book says this is a great
opportunity to foreshadow the power of Gandalf.
We are then introduced to Frodo, and in a small way Merry. This also must be maintained
(in my opinion) the same as the book; all characters and their introductions are important,
and well placed by Tolkien.
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