No Quidditch?? - Subplots

[Steve]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "derannimer" <susannahlm at y...> wrote:
> Jen wrote:
> 
> > ... I think I read that Fudge won't be in this movie. Tell me 
> >I am wrong.

> Derannimer
> 
> You're wrong. Richard went to London and saw the team filming at the 
> Leaky Cauldron. 
> 
> Here: 
> 
> http://plum.cream.org/HP/misc/poafilming.htm
> 
> Enjoy. 
> 
> 
> Derannimer 

bboy_mn:

You're not quite wrong. It's been a while since I read Richard's
observations on the filming of Harry arriving at the Leaky Cauldron,
but I'm pretty sure Fudge wasn't there. That is, in the filming
Richard saw, Fudge didn't come out to greet Harry; Harry went straight
from the bus into the Leaky Cauldron. 

However, that doesn't mean Fudge isn't there, he could appoach Harry
inside the Leaky Cauldron. Or, I speculate, it could be Mr. Weasley
who meets Harry inside the Leaky Cauldron in Fudge's place. That would
save them a week of Harry milling around Diagon Alley, and let them
get right to the Weasley's and Hermione all being there. 

The next question is, given all that they are cutting from the story,
are they going to skip Hermione buying Crookshanks? She could just
have a cat and resolve it with a couple lines of dialog, or they could
skip the cat all together. If they do, does that mean the whole
Crookshanks/Scabber subplot would be lost?

Personally, I don't see how they could. The whole Crookshanks/Scabbers
subplot establishes sympathy for Scabbers that is shattered when we
find out who he really is. Without some extended subplot related to
Scabbers the emotional impact of what happens is lost. True, we are
still going to be suprised, but it will be surprise with very little
emotion and sympathy. 

I realize that the real story is Sirius Black, but some back ground,
some subplots around which the Sirius Black story will unfold, have to
exist. And, from the limited window we have, they seem to be cutting
the many of those subplots. Of course, they have to cut some, but at
what point have they cut so much that the story is lost?

The failing in the first movies is that they struggle so hard to keep
every key scene that there was very little time to develop the story,
or to develop any characters, drama, emotion, suspense, or mystery. It
just jumped rapidly from scene to scene with very little setup for
those scenes. 

This movie (PoA) could go the opposite direction. They could spend so
much time setting up the main plot that the overal story itself gets lost.

I can't believe it's possible to cut Quidditch. Quidditch plays a
bigger part in setting up the story in PoA than any other book. True,
it isn't the primary story, but the purposes of subplots are to build
the foundation that the primary plot rests on.

Quidditch is really the foundation that establishes the need for Harry
to learn to fight the Dementors. Without his need to win at Quidditch,
what reason does he even have to care about the Dementors? He can't
leave the castle grounds, so he doesn't have to deal with them. So
where is the problem; where is the conflict in the story? 

Beyond the incident on the train, what is there to delvelop the
Dementors and to show their horrible effects on people? Other than the
fact that they are ugly, what establishes them as horrible and
dangerous creatures? Also, where is the foundation for Harry to
establish his relationship with Lupin? If the Dementors aren't
developed, then Harry's need to fight them isn't developed, and if he
has no need to fight them, he has no need to ask Lupin for help. 

The Dementor/Quidditch/Lupin subplot establishes the foundation upon
which Harry developes his misplaced hate for Sirius, and helps
establish what a horrible thing it is that Sirius appears to have
done. It also is the foundation for our dislike of Pettigrew once we
find out he was the betrayer of Harry's parents. It allow the
emotional tension that would be created by those subplots to be
transferred over to Pettigrew very quickly.

I can see how they could modify Quidditch to trim the plot down. For
example, a lot of Oliver Woods parts could be transferred over to Ron.
It could be Ron who pesters Harry to buy a new broom, and constantly
reminds him not to catch the Snitch until the team is 50 points ahead.
 During much of the Quidditch we have seen so far, most of the players
are so far in the background during game that you can't really make
out who they are or what they are doing, so the whole Quidditch team
could be close ups of Harry, Fred, and George while the rest of the
team are computer generated in the background. They wouldn't even have
to be computer generated that well, since you can barely see them anyway.

The game where Harry falls off his broom, establishes Harry's
motivation for the anti-dementor lessons, and shows the beginning of
an increasing depth to the memories he relives. That first defeat and
the destruction of his broom establish his fierce resolve to win the
Quidditch Cup. The game where Draco and friends are fake Dementors,
establishes that under the right circumstances, Harry really can cast
a full powered petronus. Although, that could easily be combined with
the Quidditch final since that game involves some pretty rough and
dirty tactics and the fake Dementors would fit right in.

I just don't see how it's possible to eliminate Quidditch from the
story. Not only does it establish key plot elements but it establishes
part of the foundation of daily life at the school, upon which the
greater plots rest.

Having said that, I don't envy the director's position at all. There
are a lot of intertwined subplots in this book, and sorting them out
into something usable has to be a monumental task.

Subplots-
-Harry/Aunt Marge
-Harry/the Grim
-Harry/Dementors
-Harry/Lupin/boggart/anti-dementor lessons
-Harry/Sirius Black/Black's entering the castle
-Harry/Quidditch Cup
-Harry/the Firebolt
-The Maurader's Map
-Crookshanks/Scabbers 
-Hermione/Ron conflict
-H/R/H/Draco/Hippogriff
-Hermione's schedule/Time Turner
-School life
-The Shrieking Shack
-The Dementor Defeat
-The Time Turner rescue

Like I said, I'm glad I'm not the one who has to sort it all out.

Just some thoughts.

bboy_mn