Simon J. Cook's Blog, page 3
August 20, 2019
August 10, 2019
On our 4th video: Ali Baba
In making these videos the ultimate challenge is to express visually the idea of signs and their meanings out of which Tolkien drew The Hobbit. But it is a slow process learning the art of video and we are still a way from such integration of theory and practice. In our fourth video the theory is removed […]
July 30, 2019
An Assyrian Riddle
More often than not the things that turn up in my research on Tolkien remain unused because, while I intuit a connection, there is no way it can be proved. The above ancient Assyrian riddle is a case in point. It is found in A.H. Sayce’s Assyria: Its Princes, Priests, and People (1893). Together with John Rhys […]
July 11, 2019
Ali Baba & The Hobbit
So, we have our fourth video uploaded. It took a long time to produce this video.We wanted to shift our movie-making up a gear. And we were also stepping from older research to a new path that I hope will encircle the magic ring. We had a version of this video ready two months ago. […]
July 5, 2019
Tolkien TV
So, after a long break in which we all learned something about making movies, we are back on the videos. We renamed our YouTube channel Tolkien TV and have mapped out all but one of the remaining hobbit videos. We have also started preparations for a second series showing how Tolkien’s study of Beowulf gave birth to his […]
June 12, 2019
in the magic ring
Happily, I’m back to thinking again. A few days ago I reported my discovery of the linguistic origin of the magic ring as the culmination of a research path that allows me to trace Tolkien’s reworking of his own ideas as he composed a sequel. And I reported, too, the monstrous lethargy that has accompanied […]
June 10, 2019
magic ring
So I’ve now written the script for the sixth Hobbit video and with that drawn my research into The Hobbit to a close. The fourth video, almost finished, shows how The Hobbit draws on Ali Baba, the fifth reconstructs the original riddle game, which brings to light how different the original story was from The Hobbit that became the introduction […]
May 12, 2019
Tolkien Movie Review
I’ve learned so much about video editing over the last couple of months making a series of videos on The Hobbit that I thought I’d try my hand at a video review of the new movie about the young Tolkien. But I still have much to learn, not least about fair use and copyright law. This is the […]
April 20, 2019
Hobbit videos: reflections after 3 videos
We uploaded the third Hobbit video last night (Beowulf and the Hobbit). I have to admit that making these videos is more difficult than I had anticipated. First of all, after years of training I now habitually think in text and I’m finding it very difficult to think in images, or even to grasp the […]
April 1, 2019
What are Hobbits? Video 2
A family production! We are getting the hang of things… But there is still much to learn – including various technical issues. If anyone out there has experience of video editing and uploading to YouTube we would really appreciate some tips on how to avoid loss of quality when we upload.
