The Lord of the Rings review

In all ages, there are lots of artworks like books, animations and movies states friendship, antiwar and obligation. For example, The Lord of the Rings(2001-2003) is comprised of three live action fantasy films and directed by Peter Jackson. This trilogy includes The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). Recently I came to see these serious of films because this trilogy are released again in Chinese cinemas. After spending my two weekends watching them, I was so obsessed with this fantasy world and each of characters have the strong have their own personality. This review will first indicated how the film show the three main themes of Pacifism, friendship and obligation.

Pacifism is one of the main elements because it permeated from beginning to end in this trilogy. The background of this film is the Dark Lord Sauron created a master ring to control all people. Some of people find the ring can become a weapon to control the war, but the protagonist Frodo and his teams want to destroy the ring because people has no ability to use the ring, otherwise the world will become worse. In the film, mountains of dead bodies, the destroyed villages and the conditions are full of smokes shown completely to the audiences. The horrors of war are explored through in the screen. Although some of characters are highly militant, the author does not glamorize war. Because the characters in the film were fighting for their lands and people and does not for revenge or gain the interests(Spencer, 2015) As a result, the theory of this film is justice and the purpose of the wars is to against the enemies and get peaceful world. In my point of view, the film help people to understand the essence of war and it is corrupt and horrible and they feel indebted as if it were received in person. The Lord of the Rings wants to tell us “only justified can over the violence”.

Moreover, one of elements can be an important theme in the film is friendship. The relationship of Sam and Frodo helps develop further progresses of story. Sam is willing to devote his life to Frodo in order to help him to destroy the ring. They help each other to travelled dangerous landscapes and avoid enemies. Every time when Frodo lost his mind because of the ring, Sam helps to get him back and took him walk on the right way. Not only Sam and Frodo, there are also many friendships between each of characters. Although some of them has some unpleasantnesses before, they renewed their friendship after experiencing different kinds of wars. The director Peter Jackson said (2004), “ I really hope that those four(the actors) would bond because one it would make with15 months go a lot quicker if everybody was friendly and got it got along would also for the film I knew having the hobbits sort of feeling like they really were connecting was something that was important for the movie.” As a result, the friendship in the film will be more real and true. The audiences feel the characters have lived together for a long time and can easily to feel the characters’ feelings for the further story.

Responsibility is also an elements in these trilogy because there are lots of character can prove this personality. For example, when powerful people realized one of them need to destroy the ring and it will full of risk, they caused a quarrel because nobody wants to carry this mission. But Frodo used his little body and said he wants to go. And in the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, he wanted to carry the ring by himself because the power of the ring is too easy to entice his team. These actions show him brave enough and respectable because he depends his willpower to finish tasks. In addition, Boromir is the son of prince regent in Gondor. He does not have strong mind to against the temptation of the ring and made mistakes. But he still choose to save others and devoted himself and in the last he was still thinking about his people and land. According to Beebout(2018), “His failure is no different from our own, and he proves that even the greatest treacheries can be redeemed and forgiven.” I like this character not only because he struggled between good and evil to show the value of human nature, but also he still have his responsibilities to take actions. 

In fact, there are also many characters can be explored in more details. This trilogy inspires me a lot and I really like the whole processes in the films. I also found some videos about behind the scenes of the film. I am respect for each of staffs and they tried their best to use the technology in that time. I can see their efforts and hard-working into this film. Also, the soundtrack really touched me that it’s worth listening again and again. If I have the chance to join the work in the film, I want to learn from them and create a nice artwork.

Citation:

Spencer, Kayla, “The Anti-War Adoption of Lord of the Rings” (2015). 4610 English: Individual Authors: J.R.R. Tolkien. 9. https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_4610jrrt/9

Szeredi, A(2019) The Fellowship of The Cast. 3 November 2019. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvW3N0mXV24

Beebout, Kayla (2018) “”Few Have Gained Such a Victory:” A Defense of Boromir in The Lord of the Rings,” Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol. 6 : Iss. 2 , Article 7.

During studying at LCC I did many kinds of work with several students from different countries like Britain, Thailand and Korea. The most impressive one for me is asked to corporate with a student to create an artwork for Transform Project. We were divided into pairs and worked together. After introducing to each other with my group member, I knew she is from Taiwan in China that has the same language as me but we still used English to communicate. First, I could’t explain my idea clearly because I was nervous to speck English. But she encouraged me and tried to communicated with me that provides me with confidence to go on. Sometimes I could’t get her idea, but she shared her opinions with actions and I successful understand. I really respected her imagination because it’s hard for me to finish this on my own. We finally completed the task and created a wonderful collage that I am very satisfied with it. After this group work, I learned how to combine my ideas with people and get inspirations from them. It’s fun to discuss many plans and realize them with others. As a result, I enjoyed this experience with her and I plan to be more actively participate in the discussion with others in the future. 

One-to-one tutorials with different teachers is also an indispensable thing at LCC. In fact, I was quite nervous to communicate with teacher because my English listening skill is very poor. At first, I could’t get teacher’s opinions and discuss my project successful because of languages problems. Both of us were very confuse with each other. I was very disappointed in myself after tutoring. But I think I have to be stronger and make some changes. So I tried to make some notes before tutorial and when I can’t understand some points, I will ask teacher to repeat it again. In this way, I am happy that I improve myself during the tutorial and also got some useful ideas from teachers. I felt more confident in myself and not afraid talking with teacher at all. 

In my courses, I finished three outcomes and get some feedbacks. One of my outcome is Location project. I particularly enjoyed learning the details information about my own town. It is a wonderful thing when I was researching and drawing the area where I live. And I first experienced each steps of making the final outcome. Also, in the Demonstration project, I learnt how to show my own topic that animal rights to audiences. I consider audiences’ perspective and the purpose of the book is to let people be aware of the important of animal rights. It was difficult to make sure the final outcome but after doing 1 to 1 tutorial with teacher, I had the clear idea and also tried many new things that I never did. For example, I found using Adobe Illustrator software difficult at first, but I am now more confident in using it. Moreover, I am interested in collection and I would like to learn more about this in this project because it is fun to observe and draw the things around myself. I did more thing about first and secondary researches in this collection project and I realized that more research I did, more ideas I came up.

To me, Transform means change anything. In this project I will explore the idea of mixing colors and create how different colors can become another and how create color. I would like to produce some illustrations about mixing color like the palette. The audience for my final outcome will be someone who needs information about color and understand how to mix colors. To transform project, I did some researches and these really help me to understand some knowledge about mixing color. I plan to look at Mixing Colors – A Detailed Guide on Mixing Paint Colors regularly as a source of inspiration for my project (Artincontext, 2021) From this website, I learnt color wheel that can help me to understand the different color relationships. So I plan to use these knowledge to draw for my primary research. Moreover, I will see the artworks of Helen Frankenthaler because her colors using are very interesting. The media of my most project is Adobe photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. But I also use some art tool like watercolor and marker pen to help me practice drawing skills. Using different art tools can show different styles of art and the choose of them are important. So in this Transform project, I plan to add more art tools to show mixing color because and choose one of them to draw a series of illustrations.

For the blog, I will put all my works include first and secondary researches, daily sketches, outcome ideas and add some reflections on it. When I record these things I can save my ideas and that not easy to forget. 

But I changed this idea that mixing color because I found it is hard for me learn colors deeply. I can not enjoy it and have no confident. So I plan to get another idea that how life has changed. It explores how lifestyles have become different to what they used to be. For example, the difference in the clothing styles and the way of transportations. It has enabled me to find out how people’s lifestyle from the ancient time and combines elements from the present and the past. In this way, I can have more interests on it and takes more time to finish the project successful. I also find a lot of secondary researches like the illustrations by Ines Hasdenteufel. The illustrations of him show many beautiful scenes and they help me to practice and get some inspirations. Also, I took a lot of photograph in the city that can help me to draw some scenes.

In many areas of the world, the status of females are always lower than males and have became a topic to discuss. Females have no rights to get education, health services, economic opportunities and participation in politics. This inequality has been a serious problem which hinders the society and obsesses social development. (Srivastava, 2019) Many authors use this problem to create many kinds of works like literature, illustrations or films. For example, Advait Chandan made a movie Secret Superstar (2017) which brings elements of feminism, dreams and motherhood to audiences. This review will first indicate how this film shows these three themes and how it makes some influences to the world.

One of the main key elements of this film is to deal with domestic violence and show the status of female. This movie indicates the realistic story of female who are the victims of domestic violence and makes the audience sensitive to this problem. In the film, women abuse, child marriage and female foeticide are shown completely to the people. But Insia who is the main character in the film takes many actions to avoid many violences from her father and protects her mother. And she successfully has a new life with her mother. However, Aamir Khan states that “ But unfortunately, this is a normal thing. Not only in India, but all over the world.” This shows Advait Chandan uses the film as a media to discuss the real phenomenon of woman’s life and it is a more serious problem than the film. Also, he gives a new image of woman who can against their suffering and encourages them to make actions to change their lives.

Secret Superstar is also a film that shows how a girl realized her dream. She has a dream of being a popular singer and hopes her voice and talent can spread around the world. In the beginning, she used YouTube channel to show her songs and got many appreciations from Internet but nobody knows the true face of her because she covered herself. The main problem is her capricious father. He beat Insia’s mother and never think about their feelings. From the movie, her father broke her guitar and asked her to threw the computer away. That makes she realizes the important of a family in the process of get her dream. “Insia realizes that the contributions of those who believe in your dreams and help you attain them are just as important, is brilliant.” (Gupta, 2018) In the film, Insia got many helps from different kinds people and she also caught many chances and finally got the awards. In other words, this brave girl encourages audiences to get an important step for dreams. Although there are lots of challenges to realize the dream, she uses actions to prove that anyone can get dreams with efforts.

Another main key elements of Secret Superstar is motherhood that is shown many plots in the film. Insia’s mom always supports her dream and gives her many ideas, but she wasn’t brave enough to against Insia’s father and can’t change her mind to freed from him. When she saw the growth of her daughter, she made a big change and took action to sign on the divorce certificate because she wants to support Insia but not destroy her dream because of her father. “ While the word ‘secret’ on the surface level refers to Insia who becomes a superstar hiding her identity but implicitly the word also refers to all women’s pitiable condition in a patriarchal society that is mostly conservative and not openly known as is the case with Insia in the movie.”(Maurya, 2018) That shows the word secret has a very strong meaning that the status of Insia’s mom was hard to change, but she did it and she becomes a real secret superstar in Insia’s heart. 

This film has argue that woman’s rights, dreams and motherhood. Secret Superstar changes the most audiences’ mind and make more artists to create works about these three elements. I really like the final scene that Insia’s mother opened her arms wide to embrace Insia. During lots of long and painful process for them, they get their own lives. Their strong minds encourage me and set an example to audiences.

Bibliography:

Srivastava, A (2019). Status of Women: From the Past into the Future. Available at:https://medium.com/@apeksha.0503/status-of-women-from-the-past-into-the-future-e9154f7429c1 [Accessed 04 Nov. 2019].

Maurya, P (2018). ‘Analyzing the secrecy of the Hindi Movie Secret Superstar: A Feminist Approach’ Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee. pp.2-7

Gupta, R (2018). Movie Review: Secret Superstar. Available at: https://www.filmfare.com/reviews/secret-superstar-movie-review-perfect-family-drama-24569.html [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].

First Research and Classwork

I enjoyed a lot when I collected different kinds of objects because they have different functions, colors and sizes.

Secondary Research

Idea Development And Process

I made the 3 plan for my final outcome and I choose to do the texture catalogue because this theme is the most interesting and challenging for me. Also, when I did some sketch of texture, I learn more some details of each of them. Although there are lots of difficulties for me to find show different textures of them, I try my best to combine them with art and make the final outcome.

Reflection

In this project, I collected different kinds thing around me first like pens, toys, tools. I really enjoyed it because each of them have different characteristics and combine them together let me got fun.l After making the plans and doing some researches, I mainly collect some texture in my life, such as the sky, plants and some furniture. I first observed that there are so many textures in the world.

I think I did the texture of leaves page is the best one in my final outcome because I took a lot of time in it. When I drew each of leaves, I find one different texture in the nature that really interesting. And I uses the AI to make the layout that really helps for me to see the whole outcome and I will use this again.

The key moments in my research is some artists used different kinds texture in their works and I want to use these texture to combine the nature and artificial texture.

I think I need to improve my drawing speed because I took so much to draw one page and that let me anxious for the deadline.

My project topic is animal rights.

First and Secondary Researches

Key Conference Missions:
• Exposing animal abuses for food, research,
amusement, fashion, and more
• Training attendees in personal growth and organizing
• Offering opportunities to network and connect
with other activists
• Providing a forum to potential movement leaders

After researching, I learn more about animal rights. At first,
I only think animal rights are only thinking about animals and
caring about them. But the fact is very serious and important.

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I also read a book called animal machine. It was written by
Ruth Harrison. The book talked about although the
technology is developing quickly and the global population
increases nowadays, the animals are cruelly treated. I got a
lot inspirations from this book and let it become one part of
my project.

Drawing/ practice

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My idea is to combine the animals and machines.
Some people does not care about the death of
animals and animals are cruelly treated by them.
In their eyes, animals are like machines. They do
not have feelings and thoughts.
In the above sketches, I tried to make the draft of
bird, elephant and fish. And I choose the fish one
as my final outcome. At first, I want to add the
hands of people, but it was not fit the composition.
So I but some little decorations like lemons,
tomatoes, a knife and a fork to show it is a dish.
And I want to show the serious of animals rights,
so I highlighted the red and make the fish become
black and white.

Task 1 Developing my layout

What visual information do you want to include in my layout content?

• My sketch, illustration, first and secondary researches, photograph and words(title, paragraph, author)

What written information do you want to include in my editorial layout content?

• Why I draw this and what I think of the information I found on the internet 
• my impressions of the secondary research
• What I learn from some sources

What is name/title of my publication?

• Demonstration project——Animal rights

Who is my viewer/ reader/ target audience?

• People who not realizing that animals have their own rights and someone wants to protect them.

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After taking a conversation with Kim in class, I choose the third layout for my project. 

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https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-good-lord-bird/

This title sequence is a short animation. The background music is quickly and rhythmic. But I think the meaning of this film is not joyous. The color of background is dark yellow and most of things use dark. It’s very harmony and balance.

The first frame show a man holding a book. It maybe the main character of this movie. The next shows a bird become a feather and then become a running man. And the color of this man is dark and wore a white clothes. The background changes to red may be talk to us he had some dangerous. We can see the man was shot and become an onion. The onion was rolling throng many feet(die people) and the carriage.We don’t know why, but the author drew this must have some deep meaning with it. In my opinion, when people cut the onions, it make our eyes water. Also onions have many layers, it maybe show that the man have many unknown things inside. Then the onion changes to a woman with white dress. And it looks nice and gorgeous. On my own words, the author want to show that the onion show the man was like a girl. And he don’t hate this feeling.

The animation then shows the onion become a bird again and then the war started. And the bird was shotted. The feather of bird was fall all around screen. Maybe the author want to talk us that the man was found that he was not a girl and it become a blasting fuse of the war. And the man who hold one gun with each hands that I think he was the same man at the beginning of this title sequence.

I really like the style of this title sequence because the author use the simple lines to draw the different kinds of things clearly. And the scene and the change of the scene are all very interesting and natural. Through the title sequence, under the quickly music and the scenes are always moving on. I can even see the characters themselves are dirty and messy and bloody. That’s the main thing appealing me.