[AVTrends de Masaichi Honda]A magnificent visual beauty! ‘Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power’ is a must-have for AV fans – AV Watch

The soap opera “The Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power” has been distributed on Prime Video since the 2nd. The other day, in addition to executive producer JD Payne, I published a column on the worldview that this new drama series attempts to shoot interviews with the main actors.・This is an answer for people who have some understanding of the world of “Ring”, and they may have found it a little difficult to understand.

Delivered at 10 a.m. on 2 “The Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power”. I asked the production manager

However, in the work itself, in addition to themes such as joy, love, anger, conflict, the courage to stand up, and the importance of dialogue, which are common to all eras, a social message strong emerges from the story. It is also a social drama.

And at the same time, what I want readers to pay attention to is the magnificent visual beauty.

A splendid hybrid image of the latest technology and “cinematic expression through the lens”

Twenty years have passed since the blockbuster movie “The Lord of the Rings”, directed by Peter Jackson, produced by New Line Cinema and which grossed over $6 billion at the box office and related merchandise sales, and at that time there was no longer The range of expressions in the picture that was designed has also expanded significantly.

“Ring of Power” was released in 4K/HDR, but the version I saw at the world premiere in Mumbai, India is the Cinemaco-sized DCP (Digital Cinema Package) version. The room where the film was shown was compatible with digital IMAX, but far from being inferior in screen size and sound equipment, the very high picture quality and high sound quality gave me want to see him again in the last environment in several years.

Of the total 50 episodes, the production cost of season 1, which is 8 episodes, would be around 64 billion yen, so it’s natural to expect that the computer-created fantasy scenes be wonderful.

The scene where Galadriel, played by Morphid Clarke in Rivendell, grants the crown to the king of the elves is as beautiful as a religious painting. It was a fantastical scene with a sense of reality, wrapped in HDR light and filled with a sense of happiness.

However, the fact that it does not solely rely on computer graphics for special effects is a point worth noting when viewing this work as a “video work fan”.

At the beginning of the drama, there is a scene in which Galadriel, when he was young, throws a characteristic word at his older brother which suggests future development. Combining a large format sensor with tasteful optical rendering, this scene beautifully expresses the memories of Galadriel as a child.

Costumes and tools are also often “authentic”.

Charles Edwards, who plays the ingenious elven smith Celebrimbor, who will forge the ring, and Robert Aramayo, who plays Elrond, a young political leader of elven society, said: “The costume Cat Hall designed is the Legendarium (Tolkien’s It’s as if the giant mythology, legend system and worldview we’ve built over the years has been incorporated into the costume design, bringing out the perfect image for the story.”

On the other hand, he said, “The capes we wore were very heavy and had a solid design, so when we played, we removed the surrounding props. As a fan of video work, I can’t help but sympathize with the part that attempts to express the worldview with the costumes themselves, rather than relying on texture representation.

In other words, the splendor of old large-format films shot with an emphasis on authenticity in the good old days, the world of graphics that fully exploit the latest technologies and computers, and techniques such as special make-up, combine the best hybrid You can enjoy in Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power.

If you are an AV fan and have an environment where you can watch Prime Video, there is no option to not see this work. I would like to affirm it.

What is the remarkable “Numenor” video?

By the way, when I watched the pilot version of this work, what caught my attention the most was the image of the island nation of Numenor, which was the first to be made into a film, and the image of the island nation of Numenor, which expresses the high point of human civilization. Menorian expression).

In fact, no scenes featuring Numenor will appear until the second episode, which will be released on September 2.

The same goes for the images broadcast during the premiere: first, the situations in which the key characters are placed in the unfolding of the story are expressed in an omnibus way. Of course, there is action and drama, but in any case, it depicts the situation just before Numenor is “discovered”.

However, despite sharing the same ancestry as the Hobbits, the Hafut tribe continue to survive by wandering the world without having a permanent home. You can see the young days of the elves, whose name is familiar in the third era, and the development makes you feel the fleeting peace and the premonition of the rising darkness before the ring is forged.

Of course, watch out for Bronwyn and Theo’s mother and child, who don’t appear in the novel. Both set in Southland, a town where people from disadvantaged backgrounds gather, aim to connect the eyes of us viewers who live in the real world with Tolkien’s world.

There is a scene depicting the city of Numenor as the official video, so please refer to it. The scene where the sailboat enters the harbor is presumed to be the scene where the elves discover this island and enter the harbor.

As I mentioned in an interview with the cast, Numenoreans are extremely tall, reaching 2.4 meters. In contrast, dwarfs and half-huts are about 1 meter tall.

It seems that he paid a lot of attention to standing and how he acted so that he could naturally film and act out the races of different scales in live action. For example, you can climb a ladder and have a big co-star, then take a close-up shot of the conversation.

Here too, you can get a glimpse of the concern of the production team, which insists on valuing the quality of “playing in real action”. Charles Edwards, who plays Celebrimball, said: “There were a lot of tricks to improve the quality of the scene. It was good that I didn’t have to go to the tennis ball and say: ‘Hey, how are you??'”

An all-ages fantasy blockbuster that combines ‘a depth that adults can enjoy’ and ‘doesn’t rely on violence or sexual depictions’

By the way, some readers want to compare it to HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” which is considered the best hit fantasy drama of all time, and its prequel, “House of the Dragon.” Dragon is distributed exclusively on U-NEXT).

As an author, I would like you to appreciate both, but since “House of the Dragon” is also a very rich work, it can be a little hesitant to appreciate both deeply.

However, even though these two are the same fantasy blockbuster, their tastes are quite different.

“Game of Thrones” and “The House of the Dragon” are intertwined with conspiracies and schemes no one believes in, and characters once thought to be heroes are torn apart by betrayal, murdered, and turned into corners. down. And there is an extreme sexual portrayal that children cannot show at all.

Such empowering expressions are one of the draws of Game of Thrones, but Lord of the Rings: The Ring of Power doesn’t rely on such extreme expressions, but rather has a message that goes deep into the human heart. feel has social appeal.

The more I listen to it over and over, the more I feel its depth. I would like to look forward to the start of distribution and the future development of such a fantastic blockbuster for all ages.