Text: Mei Sihan
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. After a brief introduction to the history of the fictional world of Middle-earth, the film begins with an introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. He lived in a cave-like pouch hole in the idyllic village of Hobbiton and wrote an autobiography in his study. Meanwhile, Bilbo's nephew, Frodo Baggins, meets Bilbo's old friend, the powerful wizard Gandalf, in the forest. They talked for a while as they drove the carriage to Hobbiton.
As the opening chapter of the three-part trilogy, which is more than 600 minutes long, the scene builds one of the most important locations in Middle-earth, the Pocket Hole at Hobbiton, and introduces two important characters, Frodo Baggins and Gandalf. Through sets, cinematography, editing, and sound, the scene depicts Hobbiton as a picturesque, tranquil and secluded paradise, and introduces the deep friendship between the wise Gandalf and the naïve Frodo.
Details are as follows:
The scene opens with a long shot of Frodo sitting under a tree reading a book. Sunlight shines through the leaves and falls into the clearing in the blurred background, adding a warm and cozy color to the scene. Frodo wears a plain light green linen shirt and dark green suspenders that harmonize with the colors of the forest, representing his identity as a light-hearted traditional hobbit. Amid the birdsong, an old man hummed a tune that grew louder and louder.
This off-screen narrative sound effect takes Frodo to his feet and helps transition to a close-up of Frodo's face as he pushes in. He smiles at the camera because he knows the person he's waiting for has arrived. By using a telephoto spherical lens with a wide aperture, the depth of field is shallow, transforming the background into a myriad of brilliant and dreamy flares. Frodo's face is illuminated by two types of lighting: a soft side light and a strong backlight, a typical variation of the three-point lighting, emphasizing Frodo's two physical features: curly brown hair and beautiful blue eyes.
When Frodo runs out of frame, the film cuts to a long shot that rises from the ground to normal height, showing the back of an old man with a beard driving a horse-drawn carriage down a grassy forest path. Due to the deliberate black light and shooting angles, the audience could not see the character's face clearly and could only hear him humming, which both retained his mystery and aroused the audience's curiosity. As the camera pans higher and away from the carriage, the narrative sound of the wooden wheel on the screen noticeably shifts from the left channel to the right channel, and the volume decreases continuously, mimicking the real sound movement and making the scene more believable.
With his buzz and the jingle of bells on the horse's neck, the camera cuts to a long shot of the old man's front slowly panning to the left. However, the director lied to us again. The shadows caused by the strong backlight obscured his features, so we still don't know who he is. The only distinguishable thing is his costume, which consists of a gray wizard's hat and loose gray robes, which indicate his status as a wizard.
Accompanied by the sound of a lilting and birdchiping flute, the film cuts to a medium shot that pans quickly to the right, tracking Frodo's movements. In the picture, Frodo is seen facing to the right as he shuttles through the forest. The sun shone on Frodo's back, outlining his figure and making Frodo stand out from the dark forest background. By slowing down the shutter speed or increasing the shutter angle and using a wide aperture, the background becomes very blurry, which reinforces the movement of the lens and emphasizes Frodo's running speed.
Then, a long shot that moves to the upper left shows the old man coming towards us, and Frodo is standing on the side of the road on the left looking at the old man. For editing purposes, this shot matches the action from the previous shot. Because Frodo ran to the right side in the previous shot, and in this shot he enters the frame from the left. In addition, this wide-angle shot establishes the spatial relationship and gaze match between the two characters, preparing them for their next dialogue scene.
The next shot is a close-up of Frodo's low-angle, left-hand push, as he crosses his arms and says, "You're late." Through a choreographed camera movement, the shot deliberately matches the old man's point of view, pretending that he is looking up at Frodo, which helps to establish a line of sight. Frodo is illuminated by an artificial side light.
After his lines, the camera cuts to a high-angle static close-up of the old man. Until now, his mysterious face remains hidden beneath his massive wizarding hat. After a pause, the old man looked up, and the camera gently lifted to follow his movements, saying, "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins." Finally, the audience can clearly see his face, which is the first appearance of the character of Gandalf in the trilogy. According to behind-the-scenes documentaries, his long white beard and unusually large nose look natural on footage, but they are not real, and they are designed to emphasize his facial features. As expected by makeup artists, long beards and large noses have indeed become one of the most recognizable and classic features of wizards. From his eyes, we can see that he is intelligent, experienced, steady, and amiable. In this shot, the old man continues: "He won't be early either. It's about arriving on time. This line seems redundant, but it is actually related to the scene where he was late and discredited due to an accident.
When he finishes this line, the camera cuts to a close-up of Frodo, who stares at the old man with a serious face, as if he does not accept his explanation. Obviously, this is a pair of positive and negative shots of a typical dialogue scene. The sound design is relatively quiet, with only a little birdsong that creates tension between the two characters.
Three seconds later, the camera cuts to a short shot of the old man, a short shot of Frodo trying to hold back his laughter, a shot of the old man starting to laugh, a shot of Frodo laughing as well, a shot of the old man starting to laugh. Laughing more.
In the next shot, Frodo will jump out of the frame and say, "Nice to meet you, Gandalf!" The director made a joke with the audience. Frodo didn't really blame Gandalf. In fact, they are close old friends, even though Gandalf may be thousands of years older than Flo.
In action matching, the camera cuts to a fixed-frame panoramic shot, showing Frodo jumping into the carriage and giving Gandalf a big hug. It is evident from this wide-angle shot that Frodo is much shorter than Gandalf, which also reflects the height characteristics of the hobbit race. The average height of an adult hobbit is much shorter than that of adult humans and adult elves, and similar to the height of a 10-year-old human child.