The Hobbit Analysis

This critique is about the film “The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies”. It is a heavy designed film that definitely had a long research and design process. There is more than one designer in each area of the following; scenery, costume, lighting and sound. Instead of talking about each designer’s accomplishment in the film. I will be talking only about their work. There were so many participants in the creating of the film it would be hard to reference each design element to an artist. The following are the mentioned artist, The Art Directors Simon Bright and Andy Mclaren, Set decoration by Myktya Brazhnyk, Simon Bright, and Ra Vincent, Costume design by Bob Buck, Ann Maskrey, and Richard Taylor, Music by Howard Shore, and many more creators

The clothing was definitely not based on today’s modern fashion, but more of the era of vests, shiny armor, bonnets, long layered skirts for women, and trousers for men. This type of clothing was more for man. The beginning of the film focused on a fishing village and because the village is surrounded by water, there must be an increase of humidity, and mist. The clothing looked slightly wet and the colors were earth tones and dark. The people were poor and fish looked like their main source of food. They traveled by water. The costume designers of this film had to produce this effect. In order for the film to be realistic then the clothes would be tattered, well-worn, perhaps even smelly like fish. The purpose of these clothes is to help the actors to tell the story, the story of a poor villager in a home built above water, with little to no pay, hungry, and tired of life. This type of clothing was meant for this particular village and type of people. As for the woodland elves. Throughout all of the “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” series, it looks like the elves were prideful people. Refinement, organized, not wasteful, trying to have the best of the best, and yet govern other people in the world. Their clothes were rarely ever presented dirty or torn, unless on the bloody battle field. They had clothing that would be neatly woven, clean, designed, and easy to move in. Their costumes were delicate looking but forged to be the strongest

The type of buildings were meant to conceal, to protect, and to distinguish the culture. In today’s world, buildings are replicated amongst countries, and instead of hiding the communities, it is more efficiency and being the best; especially in America. In “The Hobbit”, a lot of nature is depicted. The vast sky, long lonely yet beautiful mountains, a hillside of change (a hill is shown in the film to depict a change of tide in the battles or mood). Red, volcanic, black, drought, and dirty looking waste land depicts the bad characters in the film. Color also is essential; following the typical color understanding in America, red being the bad guy, and the soft green, light blues and white, and sunlight representing peace or good. The blues and purples played a role of sadness and deep trouble, ex: the fishing village. The lighting follows according to the time of day, but there is editing in color for some scenes. The dramatic scenes where important characters die, the scene is slowed down and the picture is slightly blue and less vibrant. Life looks hopeless during those scenes. There are also scenes when life is back to normal (Bilbo Baggins going back to the Shire). The Shire in “The Hobbit” is like a place of carefreeness and a