(Credits: Dangerous Minds / Independent Online Cinema)
If you need proof that the technology needed to make Hollywood movies is more accessible than ever, look no further than the wild world of fan films.
Not too long ago, films made outside the major studio system often made porn parodies look like Barry Lyndon. They were shot on video cameras better suited to filming family pool parties. The sound design picked up more passing cars and light breezes than actual dialogue. The casts were often made up of “actors” who seemed to have taken the role mainly to appease the director. These were projects driven by enthusiasm rather than skill. They were impressive only in the sense that making any film at all is impressive, not because of the quality of the work itself.
Yet in the 21st century, everything changed. The kind of technology used to make motion pictures became a hell of a lot cheaper, and the barriers set up to prevent people from learning how to use them became a hell of a lot smaller.
These days, you can find YouTube channels with the kind of filmmaking chops that put the worst mainstream movies to shame. The best of those mainstream movies are sometimes directed by people who started out making these low-budget films, just look at the Philippou Brothers.
For proof of this, look no further than how fans are now making films based on some of the biggest properties of the day. What’s more, the gap between the way these fan-films look and the real thing is smaller than ever. One could look at The Hunt for Gollum, a fan-made film made for around £3,000, and at first glance, confuse it for the (at the time of writing) upcoming The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum film.
A feat made even more incredible by the fact that The Hunt for Gollum was made in 2009.
But how do Lord of the Rings fan films get made?
The project was the brainchild of Chris Brouchard, who directed the picture while also co-writing, co-producing and co-scoring the pitch. Make your own “based on melodies originally whistled by” jokes here.
Strangely enough, Brouchard found a way of making this film in a way that didn’t cause the Tolkien estate’s legal team to descend upon him like the Witch King of Angmar himself. The project was far from authorised, but Brouchard said after the film was finished that he could make the film on one condition.
He said, “We got in touch with Tolkien Enterprises and reached an understanding with them that as long as we are completely non-profit, then we’re okay. We have to be careful not to disrespect their ownership of the intellectual property. They are supportive of the way fans wish to express their enthusiasm.”
The enthusiasm on display here is palpable. One can feel the genuine joy of getting to play in Middle Earth from a mile off. Brouchard isn’t alone either; Kate Madison directed another Lord of the Rings fan-film in the same year called Born of Hope.
It’s that joy that will almost certainly make this fan-film, one that barely passes the 40-minute mark and contains scenes shot in Hampstead Heath, a much more welcome presence in fan circles than the actual, canonical, multi-million dollar blockbuster movie being made of the same story in 2027. Because passion is something that can’t be bought, only felt. And anyone who’s seen the genuinely tragic footage of a burnt-out, broken Peter Jackson trying to direct The Hobbit movies that nobody wanted to make or see knows one thing for sure.
Anyone involved in “official” Lord of the Rings projects really doesn’t want to make them.