When it comes to fan films, one of the places that even the biggest productions skimp is the music. More often than not, it gets liberally ‘borrowed’ from a soundtrack CD or two, whether from the franchise the fan flick is paying tribute to, or another film’s disc that the filmmakers just happen to like.
On rare occasion, however, you’ll come across a fan production that not only has original music, it exists primarily because of the music—like The Lord of the Rings: The Sons of Elrond. The 3-minute short is the result of twin brothers, Cody and Toby McClure, who teamed up with computer animator/Wal-Mart cake decorator Aubrey Serr to make the film. The McClures, you see, both attend the University of Oklahoma, and switched a few years ago from business majors to music majors, inspired by Howard Shore’s work on the LOTR films. That, in turn, led to the flick.
With such a short running time, there isn’t much of a plot. Two twin Elven brothers—who, yeah, just happen to resemble the McClures—check out a gorgeous view or two and wander around the countryside of Middle-Earth for a while, looking quite serious. Eventually, they get to the Mirror of Galadriel, a birdbath that shows visions of the past, present and future (You might remember Cate Blanchett using it in the Peter Jackson films). Looking into the Mirror, they see a few CGI’ed bits that will be familiar to viewers of the LOTR movies and then close out the short by watching their grandfather, Earendil, careen across the night sky in a giant ship shaped like a swan. Uh-huh.
It’s an odd thing watching a Tolkien-based fan film with essentially no story; after all, every movie version of the original books has been overstuffed with plot, so to land at the other end of the spectrum makes for a peculiar (and moderately disappointing) viewing experience. Even so, it’s still a respectable fan flick.
The brothers’ music is lush and reminiscent of the Shore score, to the point where if you told me it was lifted from the original soundtrack CDs, I wouldn’t give it a second thought. However, a fan film without strong visuals makes for a tepid viewing experience, but fortunately, Serr’s CGI work is more than up to the challenge. Creating landscapes that hew to the movie trilogy yet occasionally feel like a Maxfield Parrish painting come to life, he shows he has a terrific eye for color and sumptuous detail. The rich lighting and well-conceived ‘camera’ moves match the music perfectly, so that the sound and eye candy are complementary, as opposed to one supplementing the other.
Clearly other folks thought it was a quality production as well, as The Sons of Elrond won “Best Fan Film” at The One Ring.Com’s fan convention in 2006. The McClures’ website, Seakings.net, offers the film and a short ‘behind-the-scenes’ montage, which ends with a tease suggesting that they’re making a fan flick about Numenor, a different land on the same world as Middle-Earth. There’s no other mention of it on their site, so who knows if they’ll actually make it, but it is intriguing. If the trio could marry their obvious talents to something with a plot, they’d likely come up with a winner of a fan film.
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