If My Life Were a Novel: Lord of the Rings, part 2

Seventh and eighth grades were two years that saw me mature as a reader. Well almost. They were the years that I realized that there was perhaps a bit more to the books I’d been reading. I’d gotten tastes of that idea before, The Book Thief being one book that knocked my socks off. But it wasn’t until Lord of the Rings cracked my heart open the spring of eighth grade and until I met my high school freshman English teacher that I began to delve into books and stories more deeply than I’d ever known you could.

Spring break of eighth grade.

I spent it sitting in my family’s basement, watching Lord of the Rings. I’m not certain why that first day of spring break seemed like a wonderful day to go sit on a couch in the dark and watch a movie all morning. Maybe it was because everyone else was asleep and nothing good was on tv. Maybe it was because I hadn’t watched the movies for a while, and was needing my Middle Earth fix. It might also have had something to do with the wonderfully new, huge, beautiful tv we had downstairs, complete with earbleedingly wonderful sound that had served as a Christmas present to pretty much the entire family.

Whatever the reason, I spent that morning watching the first half of the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. I got through the second half the next day, going through the second movie the two days after that and the third movie the two days after that. I’ll admit that that is not the fastest I’ve ever watched all three of the movies. But taking it slowly allowed time for digestion. Suddenly, I noticed scenes I’d never really paid much attention to. Certain characters (like, say, Faramir) suddenly came into focus. At the end of that week, I’d become aware that there was much more to these stories than I had previously guessed. Yes, the elves were still beautiful, Aragorn still as sexy as ever, and everything ended happy sadly like it always did.

But. I’d noticed new things. Like Faramir. And how Merry is actually really, really clever. And the Sam/Frodo relationship was so beautifully constructed. And Theoden and his pride and love for his nation.

I’m very glad that this particular shift happened. I was about to embark on four years of a literary journey that has taken me rather far. I admit, when I first started out in Freshman English, I was pretty skeptical of all that essay writing business we would have do to. I only wanted to let stories remain stories, and let them be. But by the end of the year, I saw the merit in conversation and trying to think thoughtfully about what you read. And four years later I’ve found myself obsessed with the strange connecting and communicating power of stories.

But that isn’t even the most important thing.

The most important part of the big shift happened the week after my Lord of the Rings marathon. Because I also marathoned the lovely behind the scenes dvds that came in the extended edition. If you’ve never had the pleasure of watching these behind the scenes, and if you are even remotely interested in anything vaguely related to making movies or Lord of the Rings, you have to watch them. They take you through an in depth explanation of many off the different parts of making a movie from the first parts of the planning stage all the way to the final edit. They talked about the design plans, the models they made, the though that goes into the costumes, the lights, the set, the music, the characters, decisions they made in writing the script and more.

There are two parts of the behind the scenes for each movie. Six in total. I did the same thing watching these. One a day. Six days in a row.

And during those six days, everything I had thought I knew about my future quietly exploded. For the previous three years or so, the only careers I really liked the sound of were being an author and an actress. There wasn’t really much else that I was interested in enough to want to work in. But watching these behind the scenes changed that for me.

There were three things that exploded in my mind, and I took them away with me, shakily holding these new ideas in my head.

The first was a lesson I should have figured out the moment I got involved in theatre. I clearly recall the theatre director of my school setting the cast of one middle school play down. He asked us who we thought were the most important part of a play. What is the actors? The directors? The band? The crew?

I’d already been involved in the school theatre for a few years, so I thought I knew my stuff. But I’m embarrassed to admit that this question puzzled me.

Who was the most important part of a production?

Being the young aspiring actress that I was, I had just about settled on the actors being the most important part of a production when our theatre director interrupted our ponderings and gave us the answer to his question.

No one.

There is no role, no position, no part more important than any of the others in theatre. Because theatre is bigger than people. And every little tiny piece and part are essential. 

I nodded my head in agreement to this answer, resolving to agree with it. But I don’t think I really understood what this answer meant until I watched those lovely behind the scenes.

I was blown away by the work that went into the development of the films. The days and months and years of effort and ideas and creativity that was poured into the design phase of the movie, before the cameras even began to roll.

These people working so hard never show up on the screen. They don’t get to dress up and act in front of the cameras—their names just scroll by at the end of the movie, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve already turned off the tv by that time. You’ve got these people pouring their heart and soul into the movie, and the general audience doesn’t really realize they exist.

And as I learned more about the roles of the designers and set-builders, and the post-production team, I finally understood what my theatre teacher had been trying to say. There really is so much more to movie making and theatre productions than the people you see performing. Those people would be nothing if not for the work of others. The people who build up the world around the actors, making the lights and colors and textures of the world. They polish things, refine things, add the mood and the music. Without them…well, there would be nothing to see.

That was my first lesson. No one is most important.

The second lesson came from the same source: the creators I hadn’t realized existed. Not only were they just as important as the famous actors and directors, but what also struck me was the unbelievable skill that these artists have. All the drawing, sculpting, painting, building…I was dumbstruck, impressed, inspired. I was suddenly aware of how little skill I had. What could I do? At that time in my life, if someone asked me what I did, I would say, “Read, write, and act.” (Student hadn’t yet made it onto the list, that wouldn’t happen for another year) I was an avid reader, a writer who didn’t write, and a beginning actress. I did not have much experience making things with my hands.

When I drew, the lines were wibbly. Pottery was more my thing, but I hadn’t ever pursued it seriously, and when I sculpted, my product was lumpy. I’d learned how to use power tools, but I was less than confident with them and couldn’t build anything more than a very basic structure.

And the things that the pre- and post-production teams went way beyond just painting and sculpting and building. Things like welding, lighting, sound mixing, color grading. So many different types of skills and crafts were needed.

When I realized that there were so many different skills required for making a movie, my mind suddenly stumbled upon another new idea. If a movie needs all these cool jobs and skills, then the rest of the world must also have room for many more jobs and skills than I’d ever imagined.

That was the moment when I realized that the options for what you do in your life, what your career can be are virtually unlimited. The doctor-fireman-teacher-nurse type options that you learn about when you are a kid is only the tip of the ice berg. I’d been ridiculously narrow minded when I thought about my future. Author and actress? Yeah, I liked that stuff, but those were only the first things I’d ever found that I particularly liked. But there were other things, there had to be.

I wasn’t yet certain what they were, for sure I suddenly realized that my career options in the arts were suddenly much greater—learning about lighting and sound mixing seemed like it would be pretty cool. But there were these other things that people did in other parts of life. Stuff that I didn’t know anything about. Stuff ranging from carpentry, to forensic science, to art curating, to working on yachts, to building airplanes, to uncovering ancient artifacts, to translating driver’s liscences and more. Jobs I’d never heard of. Hobbies I’d never imagined. Year and years of study dedicated to subjects I’d never dreamed existed.

I didn’t know a single thing about any of those things. And suddenly, these big mysterious fields of study or careers turned into windows of opportunity. I wanted to learn about all of them, just to see if I would like them.

There’s a whole world of things out there that I don’t know about.

That was the second lesson. There are so many options out there, so many things you can pursue, so many things to fall in love with doing.

The third lesson was of a different sort. I’d sort of already had a taste of it, but I didn’t really identify it until this moment.

I was struck by how wonderful an experience it seemed to be, working on these movies. And yes, they surely glided over unpleasant parts of the job. But still. It was pretty clear that this was a group of highly motivated, creative, intelligent, interesting people all working together on a crazy, awesome, unbelievable project.

I want to do that.

I want to be surrounded by inspirational, creative, talented, good people and throw my lot in on something big and important and good for the world.

So that, in a long rambly explanation, is what Lord of the Rings has given me. These three little things have stuck to me like burs over the last five years, and done a whole lot to shape me, in terms of the things I’ve pursued and the decisions I’ve made.

Yes, this is an awfully long post. If you read until the end, thanks. Yes it was a little more me centered than normal (well, I'm not certain how me centered my posts usually are, but I certainly used the word "I" a lot in this one), but I started it with Part 1 and I felt like I should finish it. 

What big things have influenced you? What works of art do you keep coming back to? What was a moment when your perspective on things suddenly changed?