If you choose wisely, apparently a pretty good one.

This is the trailer for a fan film based, obviously, on Peter Jackson’s take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It attempts to cover the story just prior to the trilogy, where Aragorn (Strider) and Gandalf the Wizard try . . . → Read More: A return to Middle Earth: The Hunt for Gollum – Tuesday TubeWatch]]> What kind of a movie can you make with $5000 and some talented friends?

If you choose wisely, apparently a pretty good one.

This is the trailer for a fan film based, obviously, on Peter Jackson’s take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It attempts to cover the story just prior to the trilogy, where Aragorn (Strider) and Gandalf the Wizard try to locate Gollum.

Apparently there are a few inconsistencies in the story as compared to the books, but the quality of this thing is unbelievably impressive to me, especially given that they made this for under $5000. That’s just astounding.

The full movie is 38 minutes long. You may have to crank your speakers to hear it, as they didn’t consider their medium well in that regard, creating their sound with the theater in mind rather than a PC.

The look of this thing is great though. Nice locations, good camera work, better acting than a lot of fan films… kudos to all who worked on it. It really does evoke the feel of Peter Jackson’s movies, which I assume was their goal.

In general, fan films have really improved in quality over the last few years. Perhaps that isn’t a huge surprise, as technology continues to leap forward in usability and power, and become cheaper at the same time. Still, most of what gets produced is obviously cheesy and lacks talent. It’s great to find a gem like this one.