Smoothing ruffled feathers

[Tabouli]

O dear, I seem to have got a bit strident in my last post - ruffled feathers flying everywhere.  Hang on, let me try to smooth a few.

Alex:
> Does this line really bother you that much? It certainly 
didn't seem self-important to me. Just a friend showing a friend the 
most encouraging thing she can, especially considering the fact that 
Harry's parents are such a mystery to him.<

Er, I don't think I can have been quite clear enough here.  What I meant was that the "it's in your blood" line was, in fact, quite fitting in the context.  I was defending it, not savaging it: I thought that Emma's Hermione would quite likely have said such a thing, being a shade young to be cliche-conscious.  It was the following comments I was savaging.

More Alex:
> The kids have received what I would consider some scathing criticisms 
from several people on this group, and I really don't understand why. 
Sure, they're smart, talented kids, and we can expect great things from 
them ("Terrible, yes, but great..." ;-) ), but they're still *kids*. 
They're relatively inexperienced at doing *anything*, especially acting 
as masterfully as many seem to demand.<

Hang on a minute, let me clarify.  I know perfectly well they're kids, and I myself have in fact been nothing but complimentary about the performances of Dan *and* Rupert.  My only gripes have been with Hermione, and a couple of posts back I made it clear that I think the sort of "school stage production" overacting she's doing is more CC's fault than hers.  Her style would be quite appropriate on a stage, where voice projection, clear enunciation and to some extent more strenuous "acting" is necessary to ensure her lines are heard and understood.  Her problem is not so much that she can't act, it's that she hasn't taught her how to tone things down for the movie cameras, making the change in mood she has to do near the end look very clunky.  She's a kid, but she's a bright, 10-11-year-old kid who's acted a little before, not a five year old.  Surely that's old enough to understand a quick rundown a la "now that you're acting in front of cameras, instead of on stage, there are a few new things you need to keep in mind - you don't need to pronounce your syllables and project your voice as much, because we have mikes everywhere" etc., and try to apply them, with guidance and fine-tuning from the director.

Perhaps the real problem here is the problem which could be said to apply to practically all our whinges on this list - the tastes of the film-makers are different from ours, and we don't like it.  Obviously there isn't much we can do about this, but isn't complaining about it one of the main functions of this list?

Tabouli.




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