Hobbit Alert

Yes, I have often been referred to as a Hobbit. This may have a lot to do with my New Zealand heritage and short height and obsession with LOTR (L)(L)(L). However, this post is not alerting you to the fact that a small Melbournian hobbit just started writing a blog.

No my dear friend….A GOOGLE ALERT. So what’s all this business about RSS feeds and setting up google alerts? Networked media is the resounding response. It is all around us. So, my inbox – since setting up a series of google alerts (which, lo and behold, ALERT you via email messages to things of your interest depending on what alerts you have set up!) my RMIT University inbox is now flooded with billions of alerts that I JUST CANNOT WAIT TO READ ABOUT. No really, regardless of the capitalisation of my words, that implies immense sarcasm…I am actually interested in many different topics. But honestly, GOOGLE ALERTS (set your own up HERE) take a chill pill. 

As if I was not already drowning in information. My inbox is now flooded with unopened alert messages…simply because I’ve been too scared to check them for fear of the walls of mind  inwardly collapsing like the styrofoam pillars in Seaworld’s ‘Bermuda Triangle’ log flume. 

Dear goodness. University, what are you doing to my brain? As if I was not already a slave, looking at my phone every 5minutes, receiving txts every 10minutes, calls every and 20mins, facebook alerts every 7mins…now I have google alerts, university emails, twitter pages, linkedIn*.

(* Maggie Jackson’s Article on the CNN website, extrapolates on the invasion into everyday life of smartphone technology and online communication)

But alas, today, I have checked one.

http://cliqueclack.com/p/one-novel-many-films/

It is on the recent developments of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. Hellooooo, turns out it’s now a trilogy.

Look, as a devout Lord of the Rings fan (it’s basically the reason I exist) what I can’t get my head around, is why people have to bother analysing everything from such a cynical point of view. (IRONY – considering how I can’t just get on with the tasks for this subject without complaining and whinging for half a page…maybe I should’ve chosen ‘the information overload age and its impact on the young adult psyche’ as my google alert.

ANYWAY. Cynicism. I think Peter Jackson really wanted to make a great film, that also made money. Making three films out of one book, what of it? Well, you could react like this (CliqueClack Blog on film trends) or we could consider that perhaps, in this day and age, it is utterly unthinkable to ever separate economic considerations, financial considerations from  ANY industry…including the Arts Industry. Films need lots of money. Audiences watch films. Audiences pay for films. Films get more money. Filmmakers make more films. It’s a very easily graspable concept. The trick has always been to marry audience satisfaction (and subsequently audience CONSUMPTION) with novelty, a unique story, something that sells.

So if we can marry every player together in one happy marriage of film-loving(/money-loving) goodness, then why the flip complain?

Holy moley. Three films out of one book?

What of it? Readers are tirelessly complaining that a film hasn’t captured the essence of the book, or has skipped major plot concerns, or lost something significant in trying to cut it down. So readers of the Hobbit/LOTR fans like myself can’t WAIT to watch hours and hours and hours of filmically-articulated-Tolkien-speak. Peter Jackson and the production companies make more money. The distributers get more money. The cast and crew get more money. Fans pay more money, but that’s because they’re gettin’ more goods. Goooood lots of good goods. So who’s complaining? People that are neither fans of the films or books. Doesn’t seem to make much sense. It seems to me that no-one’s really getting exploited here. Seems like everyone’s just capitalising on Tolkien’s great book and extracted as much of everything they can from it….money, yes…but also audience satisfaction, visual appreciation, jobs, employment, growth in the film industry, catering industry…All good things if you ask me.

[‘Hobbitset3′ by The Hobbit Movie’ on flickr]