[HPFGU-Movie] The second task/Deciding what to cut

[Amanda Pressnell]

On 14 Aug 2003 at 19:56, Molly (mmouse322) wrote:
> 
>     --Wow, I'm surprised that you think GoF is the weakest book, I've 
> always thought it was the strongest. I never thought of it 
> as "unnecessarily long". Can I ask which parts you think weren't 
> needed? 

All right. In brief (and thinking just of what could/should be cut for the movie; what I'd cut from the book would be entirely different, not to mention off-topic here):

-Everything up until they arrive at the campground. Harry's arrival at the Burrow and the portkey can be covered in a few minutes. The first chapter may or may not need 
cutting, depending on how they do it. Done wrong, it could quickly lose audience members who are new to the story.

-The actual World Cup game. We've seen enough of Quidditch, and Harry's only a spectator here. Keep only what is necessary to set up Winky, Crouch and Krum.

-The House-Elf Liberation Front. Might still be saved, or at least a ghost of it.

-The Unexpected Task and the Yule Ball. Call me a curmudgeon if you must but I'd be happy if they gradually made these movies more grown-up and cut much of this 
cutesy teen romance stuff. Focus instead on the important stuff: the growing threat of Voldemort and the Death Eaters (and the occasional funny classroom antics). The 
only useful thing that happens at the ball is what Harry and Ron overhear outside (Snape/Karkaroff, Hagrid/Maxime). Move it to another time.

And the Second Task...
 
> As for cutting out the second task: What?! I agree 
> that it will be extremely hard to make it look believable (yet 
> another reason why I think WB is mad for trying to make this a 
> movie). There are several reasons to keep the 2nd Task, the first 
> being that, without it, what's the point of the TWT? What kind of 
> compition has only two tasks? 

One that has to take place within 2 and 1/2 hours. :-) An article at Newsround this week said that they're aiming to match the 150 minute runtime of the previous movies. To 
make it fit, some major things have to be cut. You can't be sentimental. You have to think of what episodes best tell the story. What purpose really does the second task 
have? Many of those (Crouch's helping, etc) are echoed in the other tasks and don't need to be repeated.

> That seems a bit silly to just fight a 
> dragon and then go through the maze. 

"Just fight a dragon"?! That's quite a big task on its own! And the maze is no slouch either. Plus, mazes can be pretty creepy things on film (think "The Shining"). I think 
those two will be enough to satisfy film viewers.

> Harry's "moral fiber" or weakness at being a hero (whichever way you 
> want to look at it) which is a huge, huge point in OotP (if they 
> choose to make that). Plus (and this is the reason I love the 2nd 
> Task), it shows that even though Harry and Ron had that huge fight, 
> Ron is still the most important person to Harry, the person he'd miss 
> the most. 

But those things can be shown in other ways. The boys are becoming better and better actors. A lot can be said in just a glance. We don't need a huge action piece just to 
see how much Harry cares about Ron.

If anything, the only problem I see with cutting the second task is what then would happen to The Egg And The Eye. The prefects' bathroom scene I wouldn't mind missing 
(although it would be nice to see Myrtle again), but the scene on the stairs is one of my favorites from GoF.

Manda
--
http://www.mandamia.com