If YOU were writing and directing

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "etonbuffy" <buffyeton at y...> wrote:
> If you had written and directed SS and CoS, what would you have done 
> differently?

bboy_mn:

I'm cutting a quote from another thread; 'Concerns about PoA and
future films'.

Glory Wrote:
"Part of me argues that this film, and the others in the series, are
being made for the fans of the books, that those groups of people are
the ones who will appreciate the film more, therefore, making sense
that the books should be depicted in their entirety. Then the logical
part of me responds with the certain financial, time and marketing
constraints of producing such films."


I think Glory has hit the nail right on the head. These films are
being made for fans of the book. 

That's not true of very many books adapted to film. With most adapted
books, the movie makers take a seed of an idea from a book, and write
a new story based on that seed. Little or no attempt is made to
compare the movie to the book it was adapted from, and few people who
enjoy the movie ever read the book. That is certainly not true of the
Harry Potter books.

Unfortunately, Warner Brothers still thinks it is making an action
movie for 10 year olds; basically the 'Spy Kids' crowd. Nothing could
be futher from the truth, and they keep making mistakes in their story
and editing decisions that reflect this misconception. 

I looked at a lot of the deleted scenes from the CoS DVD, and many of
them would have gone a long way toward explaining things, and helping
build emotion, drama, mystery, and a sense of suspense. As it was, the
story jumped for scene to scene so fast that there was no time for the
story to develop.

My niece, who is a Harry Potter fan, couldn't understand the
connection between Harry stabbing the diary and what was happening to
Tom Riddle (referring to the movie) because the purpose and function
of the diary weren't very well established in the movie. Although, I
will admit, she wasn't being very attentive when she was watching the
movie. Her, my other niece, and my brother were busy throwing Easter
eggs are each other while the movie was playing. 

They are doing a tremendous injustice to these movies by not realizing
they have a broad cross section of an audience who's primary
motivation is having read the book. This is definitely not limited to
the Mary Kate and Ashley, or Spy Kids crowd.

Is is also a crime to make any of these movies less than 3 hours long.
Why is it that at 2.6 hours, critics called HP-CoS butt numbing, but
no one made any comment about Lord of the Rings being 3 hours? True 7
and 8 year olds might get a little tired in a three hour movie, but I
think they make up a very small portion of the audience. I certainly
think anyone 10 and over who is a fan, would not have a problem
sitting through 20 minute more movie. 

So the first think I would do, is figure out who my audience was. The
second thing, I would do is make the movies longer, not with an eye on
putting more story into the movie, but on allowing the story that is
already there to be developed, to create a foundation for people's
characters and motives, to allow enough time to set the mood of the
story, to allow enough time for some transitions between scenes.
Third, this extra time would allow me to actually write an ending for
 CoS instead of that pointless hand-clapping hug-fest at the end.

In closing I will say again that I don't envy the people who have to
adapt PoA. There are so many simultaneous plots with each one having
so many twists and turns, that I don't know how I would begin to
reconcile them all. That has to be a really tough job.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn