[HPFGU-Movie] Re: Prisoner's hopes and dreams

[GulPlum]

Melissa wrote:

(regarding my previous quote from
http://www.wga.org/WrittenBy/1101/Kloves/Kloves.html )

>Here is the COS DVD quote from the Leaky Cauldron (finally opened after about
>a dozen tries):
>
>Steve Kloves: Well from the beginning she gave me tremendous elbow room but
>when you're in the middle of a series like this it's important that I talk to
>Jo along the way and she will tell me if I'm going down the wrong path.
>
>J. K. Rowling: I've given him more than I've ever given anyone else, which I
>probably shouldn't say on screen or they'll kidnap and torture him, and we
>need him.

That doesn't actually contradict the Kloves quote I gave before. JKR guards 
the overall plot with something approaching paranoia and admitting that 
she's given Kloves "more than anyone else" doesn't actually mean a great deal.

Neither does it contradict what Kloves said about her correcting the 
scripts after he'd written them. Kloves says nothing more than that she's 
telling him when he's going down the wrong path. He is NOT saying that 
she's ever told him what the right path is, or where it's going. That whole 
exchange can mean that her contributions go no further than "you shouldn't 
have cut out this scene" or "what you're implying in that scene is incorrect".

>This is why I'm not to terribly worried about the cuts that have to be made.
>I trust that when all is said and done (at the end 7 movies) that they will
>come together to make sense.

The first two movies have shown that several characters have been turned 
into something they are not in the books as a result of simplifying them. 
That JKR has not made a huge noise about the fact that Ron in CoS is an 
utter wimp and more than a little stupid is her affair. That doesn't mean 
that we should accept it. JKR said from the beginning of the movie-making 
process that she was most interested in seeing her world become a reality, 
and in particular Quidditch. I'm not saying that the whole cycle of seven 
movies won't make sense. All I'm saying is that some elements have been 
subverted.

In other words, JKR is accepting too many compromises in the portrayal of 
her characters at the price of no compromises in the minutiae of the plot. 
If she felt able to open up a lot more to Kloves (or preferably a better 
screenwriter) about where the road is going rather than simply telling him 
what roads not to follow, he would have a much better idea of the 
relationship between the various plot elements and how to portray them 
cinematically instead of having to keep to her sometimes plotting which is 
designed for a *literary* whodunnit simply because he has no other option.

>I've always been a glass-is-half-full type of
>person. Of course I also think that Dan is doing a fine job.  And I think
>that Cuaron is the perfect director to help him help Harry grow up.  (I
>really, really hope that Cuaron is still around for GoF.)

I like to think of myself as an optimist as well, but based on the two 
movies to date and some of the character assassination they've included in 
them, I have absolutely no grounds on which to be optimistic for the 
future. My problem is, perhaps, that I want them to be good movies, and not 
just fairly decent portrayals of some of the action in the books whilst 
taking liberties with the characters. I agree that Cuaron is likely to do a 
better job than Columbus, but the basis of the film is the screenplay, and 
if PoA is the same kind of hatchet job that the first two films were, his 
input is going to be of limited value.

<snip>
I have a great difficulty in correlating these statements you made:

(re. need for Snape in Shrieking Shack):
>Hearing and seeing are too vastly different things.  I really think that we
>need see it for ourselves (afterall Lupin could be exaggerating).  Mainly
>because I feel that this is just going to get more and more important as we
>go through the rest of the series.

(re: need for Hufflepuff Quidditch match):
>The train sequence could be used to show that Harry has a weakness where
>dementors are concerned. They could then have the Quidditch match against
>Hufflepuff take place off screen (hopefully we can see the final against
>Slytherin though). All they need to do is have the scene cut to after the
>fact with Harry in the hospital wing and Hermione, Ron ect., telling him what
>happened.
>
>Hermione gives him the demolished Nimbus and the twins relate Cedric's offer
>to play the match over. Throw in a nightmare about the dementors (perhaps
>while unconscious in the hospital wing) and you give him the personal need to
>find away to fight them.

Errr.... Why is it important to you to see Snape's and Sirius's mutual 
hatred, yet the effect the Dementors have on Harry in public, the 
destruction of his beloved broomstick, Harry missing the Snitch for once 
and introducing Cedric on screen (the only shot we're likely to get of him 
in this film) are not?

As it happens, in purely cinematic terms, the Shrieking Shack scene works a 
lot better *without* Snape there. It's snappier and there's less talking. 
Lupin starts talking, we go into a flashback of MWPP's schooldays and 
Snape's discovery of the passage under the Willow and cut back to their 
revealing Pettigrew. Flashback to the night after the attack on the Potters 
and then the grovelling etc.

Snape's interruption with his own PoV just complicates things, and if these 
movies have done anything, they've replaced the characters with simplified 
cardboard cut-outs. MWPP's relationship to Snape has been established, and 
leaving it as a reference to a 20 year-old grudge rather than displaying 
the adults playing it out leaves the whole thing in the air. Snape's and 
Sirius's mutual loathing will be displayed *much* more effectively in a 
20-second sequence at the end of GoF when they're forced to acknowledge 
each other.

The elements we need from the Hufflepuff match, on the other hand, will be 
*boring* if we're just told about them rather than shown them. The 
necessary exposition will lose momentum and lose all power.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating losing either scene. I've just got a 
clear idea of which one is more likely to go, and which one *need* to work 
visually and which one doesn't. Especially the absolute requirement to show 
Harry missing the Snitch unless we really want to perpetuate the movies' 
image of Harry as utterly invincible.

>I just think that they might feel that Scabbers/Wormtail/Sirius plot
>development stuff is more crucial to the overall (series) story than
>Dementors and Quidditch.

Of course they are. If you read back to what I said, it's not about the 
Quidditch match itself. It's what happens around it. The interesting thing 
is that you seem to admit that what's important is 
"Scabbers/Wormtail/Sirius", not "Scabbers/Wormtail/Sirius/Snape", which is 
absolutely my whole point.