Random Play by Graham Reid

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Random Play: This land is your land . . .

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  • Leopold,

    Actually, don't tell PJ, but from what I remember, Provence would be an ideal place for the Hobbitt - varieties of landscape often superior to New Zealand, all the infrastructure just down the road- only prob being labour costs..

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    ...and in British dramas, when a character sets off for NZ, its just shorthand for writing them out without the inconvenient tedium of having them killed and then having to screen a funeral episode

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • dyan campbell,

    dyan, you must have a Ring of Power stashed away. I thought you were early 40s, at the most.

    Why thank you, very gallant of you to say, though you have not seen me by daylight. My sister, on the other hand, is in her mid 60s, and is usually assumed to be 20 or 25 years younger than she is. And I think my cousin set some kind of record, being asked for ID to prove she was over 18 while standing under flourescent lights. .. when she was 45.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Why thank you, very gallant of you to say, though you have not seen me by daylight.

    Nor sober, but I'm still surprised.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Matthew Poole,

    And I think my cousin set some kind of record, being asked for ID to prove she was over 18 while standing under flourescent lights. .. when she was 45

    Brings to mind the "Happy 40th" card which has a list of "May ..." happen, one of which is "May a bartender ask you for ID".

    Auckland • Since Mar 2007 • 4097 posts Report Reply

  • dyan campbell,

    Nor sober, but I'm still surprised.

    I don't think I look that young - I am often guessed to be about the same age as my sister who is in her mid 60s.

    This is a clip of my sister Shirl - she's 64 - though still 63 in this clip. She's a few minutes into it, and she is shot in unflattering daylight. And she has begun to look eerily like our Mum... whereas people tell me I look like eerily like Keanu Reeves.

    Please excuse the shameless plea for donations in the clip - Shirl runs one of Jane Goodall's (Schools Without Borders) schools.

    Fundraising - School in Kathmandu

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Well you do know what you looked like when you were younger, whereas I can only judge you by what other people of various ages look like.

    IIRC, you are quite small. That helps a lot.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    OK, so Shirl doesn't look 63 in the clip either. I'd have thought 40s for her too.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Which makes them like a French painter. Two loos le trek.

    at least you won't be caught short...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Michie,

    As Tolkein studied and drew on northern European epic poetry to form his Middle Earht cultures then I think it could be argued NZ has been standing in for the locations filming may head to.

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    Tim, so true, I was thinking there wouldn't be any shortage of the kind of twee countryside and old ruins that Tolkien makes constant reference to. But the empty wilds?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Tim Michie,

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    Finland has empty wilds and genuine Tolkienesque landscapes - after all, he based a lot of LOTR aspects (Elvish) and legends on Kalevala. Also sophisticated infrastructure. Butonr could also use bits of Provence - not too far - and , PJ had to do a fair bit of travelling to cherrypick bits of NZ scenery - Probably just as costly when one thinks of superior tansport systems in Europe

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    That's right. We are shit. Everywhere else is better. I thought cultural cringe was a thing of the past? Evidemment pas.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Well for you Jackie - and me! - we are the centre of universe-
    but I dont think hugely-budgeted film gigs (underwritten by the ANZ tax-payer - who, in the majority of cases- see nothing back for the investment) were ever a good way to go...

    I truly think it wrecked a lot of ANZ film creativity.
    But hooray for the green sprouts - hullo, "Home by Christmas"! Hullo, "Boy"! Annnd, hullo, "The Water Whisperers"-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    Cultural cringe? You mean that you were personally responsible for the landscape (certainly wasn't me, but I wish you had consulted me - could we have had slightly smaller mountains as a trade-off for less faultlines - OTOH you seem to have placed the latitudes nicely,tho' why you couldn't have settled on more regular rain pattern would have helped). The landscape in which are raised is fairly random. In some places we are better than others, in others worse.

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Nah Leopold- while I cant speak for Jackie, 'cultural cringe' - in Aotearoa-NZ means - the apologetic -well, cringe- ANZers used to take to *anything* about our place. Weather, landscape, writers, films - you name it, we humbly apologised for it.

    This has changed, more than a little bit.

    Actually, now, we find your kind of remark something that should be hit on the head with - a VERY large plate of whitebait. Which we will eat, afterwards.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Leopold,

    To iterate. 'Cultural cringe' can only apply to those things we are responsible for - writers, film etc. Landscape and weather are out of our hands. We can neither apologise for them nor claim credit

    Since Jan 2007 • 153 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    I have been in Napier for a long weekend (where there is landscape) and catching up on the conversations here. I am pretty much in accord with you Graham, about the alleged 'unique' qualities of the NZ landscape/filmscape. We tend to focus on the big feature films, forgetting that there have been a number of tele-features or series shot here, where NZ has stood in for all kinds of different places eg Lucy (CBS, 2003), where Auckland stood in for Los Angeles or Countdown to D-Day, where Tom Selleck (playing Ike Eisenhower) launched the liberation of Europe from the shores of New Zealand! As someone involved with both ventures remarked "We can fake America better than anyone else!"

    In addition, most of the locations in LOTR have been so digitally enhanced or altered, they are several generations away from the original landscapes!

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    btw, I believe that in California you can swim and ski on the same day too, maybe that's why Hollywood is there.

    Lots of reliable sun. Early film needed lots of light.

    And a Hobbiton – and this isn't a threatening or petulant observation, just an uncomfortable fact -- can be built anywhere.

    It's not uncomfortable really - surely it's how it got to be built in New Zealand in the first place? It's unlikely to have been the location that Tolkien had in mind.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    I believe that in California you can swim and ski on the same day too, maybe that's why Hollywood is there.

    Lots of reliable sun. Early film needed lots of light.

    It's also about as far away as you can get from the East Coast and still remain in the same country.

    Why is this relevant?

    Because Thomas Edison owned a lot of patents relating to film. And usually used a goon squad to collect from various small production houses in NY.

    As wiki puts it: "Many worked with equipment for which they did not own the rights, and thus filming in New York could be dangerous; it was close to Edison's Company headquarters, and to agents the company set out to seize cameras....in 1913 many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process."

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    Kind of ironic, in light of the "would you steal a car" ads we're subjected to from said industry.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Doubly ironic given this from Wikipedia:

    In 1902, agents of Thomas Edison bribed a theater owner in London for a copy of A Trip to the Moon by Georges Méliès. Edison then made hundreds of copies and showed them in New York City. Méliès received no compensation. He was counting on taking the film to the US and recapture its huge cost by showing it throughout the country when he realized it had already been shown there by Edison. This effectively bankrupted Méliès.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

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