Divergent Movie Companion

So, um, you can kind of already tell that this is going to be a quick read (quicker than most movie companions, that is) because the author's name (Kate Egan) isn't even on the cover or spine. Maybe also from the fact that I was expecting to find it in the section in the bookstore where the other movie books are kept--and instead it was in the teen section next to the Divergent books. While it does make sense to group things by subject matter instead of just genre, it didn't take long to find that this book is targeted at a certain audience--despite the fact that I like Divergent and I am not in that particular audience.

My first movie companion was for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; I was fourteen, and I was not overwhelmed by it. While I realize that there are more details to go over for a movie like that than for this one, I'm not just referring to the degree of detail--I'm talking about the way a movie companion is written. I find the Divergent companion a tad simplistic. Maybe even patronizing at times--in the way it's written. While I realize that the intention may be to make it an easier read for people who have never read a movie companion or are still a little young, I don't think this approach achieves anything. If they're teens (as I was when I first started on movie books), they'll get the hang of it easily. And if they happen to be younger and maybe the text has a little too much detail, well, they can just read as much as they want to and leave the rest be--it isn't necessary to dumb it down for the rest of us who really want to hear about how the movie was made. After all, it's a movie companion--not a visual companion. Visual companions are about pictures; movie companions need more text. And I don't like the font of the main text in this book, either.

I don't know. I've probably exaggerated my point. I'm almost ready to just erase the previous paragraph because, contrary to my seemingly black negativity, I am glad I got this book.

The details may be sparse and the tone simple, but I still learned a little. There are, at least, still plenty of quotes from the cast and crew--those tend to be the best part. It adds something to hear what an actor thinks of his character, or what someone on the crew finds compelling about the story. And behind the scenes pictures are always nice to have. I think my favorite sections were on the sets, costumes, and makeup. I've become so accustomed (with, say, The Hobbit) to films using sets and costumes in a thematic way--and even though this was kind of a mainstream action-type movie, that same concept holds. Characters blend with their environments and subtle differences in the way similarly-dressed characters look can give indications about their past and their choices. 

Final point: this wasn't my favorite movie companion, but I still like movie companions and I still like this movie, so I still enjoyed my time reading through it.

The Final Hobbit Companion

I decided some time ago that I would wait until all three Hobbit movies came out on DVD so I could buy them as a set; it's been a long wait. What's been harder than not watching the movies, though, has been waiting for the behind the scenes. I do love behind the scenes. But I have had all the lovely Chronicles books from Weta to take care of certain aspects of production. For the areas that those books don't cover, the movie guides fill in some more details.

I feel like I've been reading the movie guide for The Battle of the Five Armies for a very long time. Though it isn't long, I've just had to keep pausing in it for many and various reasons. Glad, then, it is that the book is divided into many, many short sections, most of which are only two pages. For being such a brief book, it covers a lot of ground. We hear about so many of the different crew members and what their roles have been, along with stories from the actors. Although there is only so much space for each person or each department, there is a good amount to read for the amount of space that's available. Much of the material comes in direct quotes, which I always appreciate.

Given that so many of the characters and sets are the same for The Battle of the Five Armies, I do begin to wonder how much more they all have to say. (Yes, this book does cover aspects of the first two movies, as well--but there is still plenty of material specific to the last installment.) Apparently there is still more to talk about. There are things I hadn't so much thought about, like the location of Ravenhill and all of the planning and mapping required for a battle. There is also some more discussion about characters and their motives and the fulfillment of their journeys. Brian Sibley has put together some nice settings for the movie material by describing the stories that Tolkien tells and pairing that information alongside the plot and characters of the movie.

This book has really made me excited for those DVD special features. It won't be too much longer now. In the meantime, I have the next Chronicles book waiting for me--after a short break from hobbits, that is. 

The Hobbit's Beautiful Desolation

As I finally move into the movie guide for The Desolation of Smaug, I also move into greater details. While there are many new things that we saw in the second movie that weren't in the first (Beorn, the spiders and elves in Mirkwood, Lake-town, and Smaug), there are certain factors that are the same. It's still the same director, same team, same principal actors--and these already had some page time in the first movie guide. So this time there was the chance to delve into smaller details. 

I love reading about food, so the section on Food Stylist Debbie Logan was one of my favorites: this is an area of movie-making that's intriguing, but that you hear extremely little about. In addition to the sections that cover props making, makeup, and set design, there are also small boxes inserted into other sections; these might describe something like the making of a particular prop. And everywhere, once again, Brian Sibley's text only accents and puts into context quotes from quite a number of the cast and crew. Reading this book ended up similar to watching a series of interviews in a making of video, and that's exactly what I like to have in a movie companion. 

Somehow this one felt longer than the first companion, even though it's about the same length. But I think this was because the sections are longer in this book; instead of many being two pages, most are four pages. That means that the format wasn't as uber-tidy as it was in the first companion--but it's still pretty much average for a companion book. 

One of my other favorite parts was anything to do with Lake-town, including the costumes, props, and set. After watching the movie, I was trying to guess what the cultural inspiration was for Lake-town, but I kept on feeling like I wasn't naming the right thing. And then along comes this book, describing that that's exactly how everyone wanted it to be: they drew from so many sources that they wanted Lake-town to be inspired by those sources but not 100% identifiable with them. So while it will probably be better to watch the DVD material to learn about the making of Smaug, Lake-town really stood out in this book. What an amazing feat that place was. 

The Return to the Hobbit

Click to read my initial thoughts on: An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug.

The problem is, when I purchased the movie guide for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I was in the middle of my senior year of college and I just couldn't find the time to sit down and read it, page per page. So it sat, sadly, on my shelf (figuratively, since I don't keep my books on shelves) for months. I have since also acquired the companion for The Desolation of Smaug and the three Chronicles books from Weta. I'll be moving into all of those next. 

After flipping through those immensely detailed Chronicles books, the movie guide seemed hardly to have time to go into any detail. It's only regular length at about 170 pages, yet it covers so many different aspects of how the movie was made. The Contents lists about 52 different sections; that means that many of them are only a couple of pages long. And yet Brian Sibley makes it all work so well. 

The short sections make the book easy to read, if you want to sit for a few hours or only read a few pages at a time. As I always hope to find, the pictures flow well with the text so that you don't have to flip back and forth or pause in the middle of a paragraph to look at a picture. But the content itself is also well-organized. There is very little plot summary, very much of quotes from cast and crew, and details on both the more expected aspects (like wardrobe) and the less expected. I really enjoyed, for instance, learning about what Terry Notary does as the movement choreography and about Amy Wright's field as a breakdown artist. Interestingly, the character sections (on Dori or Nori or Radagast, etc.) are interspersed among the other sections. So you don't have to read all of the character material at once, or all the costume material, or all the digital material. It's arranged so that you have a large amount of information in front of you, but it doesn't seem overwhelming. 

And the usual mix of still photos, behind the scenes picture, and concept art are all wonderful to have. I think I'll move on to the Desolation of Smaug companion before I dig into more detail in the Chronicles books. 

The Once TV Companion

This was one of those books where I felt a little odd buying it, as if I should maybe be ten or eight years younger. But if I always get movie companions when they're available for a movie I've enjoyed, why not do the same for TV? I've enjoyed Once Upon a Time, so here is the companion book for the series, Once Upon a Time: Behind the Magic.

Although the book reviews let me know that much of this book is taken from a magazine spread the show had, I never read that magazine. So the only effect this fact has on me is that you can tell it's magazine format and writing. But I don't read companions for the writing, anyway. You read them for facts and for quotes, and this book does have both. There are interview-articles with the actors, the writers, the producers, the effects people, and so on. In about 170 pages that have many pictures but also rather small text, there is a good amount of material. Some things I already knew, some things informed me on how certain things in the show were done, and some things taught me more about the TV-making field as a whole. Honestly, it was all better than I was expecting.

For Seasons 1 and 2, the book provides an episode guide with plot summaries, character lists, and facts to note. For a show with a twisted plot-line and so many characters, this is kind of nice to have. And, you know, even those pictures are nice: you have the chance to look closely at Red Riding Hood's hair or Mary Margaret's home or Cinderella's ball gown (which has very little screen time). For a Once fan, this companion is worth having.

Ender's Game Deconstructed

Click here to read my thoughts on the movie. 

In my voracious appetite for movie books, I quickly acquired the companion book for Ender's Game after seeing the movie. Going through Jed Alger's Ender's Game: Inside the World of an Epic Adventure reminded me of my early days delving into movie companions. This was back before I was willing or able to go see a movie more than once in theaters, so sifting through the companion book was a way of reliving the movie experience. 

While average movie companions are slim, paperback beings, this volume is hefty and hardcover. That's all good and well, but it does come with a higher price tag. It's hard, though, to complain when you hold this book in your hands. The design of it is almost seamless. There are movie stills, behind the scenes pictures, and a large amount of concept art; the images are all arranged well with the text so that you can read page by page without having to flip back and forth. The text is also arranged in small enough sections that you can move easily through it. As the book advertises, it has two little fold-out posters, an I.D. badge, and stickers with the team/army logos. Although all that made me feel like I was twelve years old (who ever said this was a children's book or movie?), I was tempted to peel off those stickers--but don't worry, I kept them safely unused for preservation purposes.

The content of this book deals primarily with the themes, settings, imagery, and overall look of the film. This includes things like the sets, the uniforms, the battle rooms, and various props. Unlike some companions, it isn't heavy on what it was like to be on set; it's more about the craftsmanship, whether physical or digital, involved and the philosophy behind this work. In describing everyone's interpretations of things in the book, there ends up being quite a bit of talk about plot. It all starts to get a little too plot heavy (most people reading this companion will have already watched the movie and read the book it's based on). However, Alger doesn't simply retell the plot; he is providing interpretations of it. And since this is a book for which you can form many interpretations, this plot-heavy approach does make a certain sense. I mean, I've come to love this story enough that I don't mind reading more about it. But for me, the real value in this book is in the images it provides (particularly the concept art and the images of sets, things being built, or mechanisms that were used) and the quotes from the cast and crew (these are all woven straight into the text instead of being isolated). This book was well worth reliving the movie and learning more about how this story was brought to a new medium, the screen. 

The Hugo Movie Companion

Because The Invention of Hugo Cabret was in such a format that made its pages like film slides, it follows that The Hugo Movie Companion, which is also written by author Brian Selznick, isn't in the typical movie companion format. It is not a slender, large paperback; it's regular book-size. It's in fact around the same size as the book the movie is based on, just much thinner with around 250 pages. 

The pages also aren't glossy. While this was odd at first for the pictures, it does mean no fingerprints and also enhances the idea that you're reading a book--not just looking through a companion to a movie. Brian Selznick also divided the book up a little differently than most companions do. His format emphasizes storytelling and storytellers, giving as many people as possible a mini chapter within the larger chapters. Whereas so many movie companions have you pausing what you're reading and marking your place while you look at a picture or read a box that breaks up the text, this book is much more reader friendly. A page usually ends with the end of a sentence, so you're free to look at everything individually without having to flip back and forth. This may seem like a minor detail, but it always bothers me with other movie companions.

Some of the pictures are illustrations from the book, along with a comparison of the corresponding scenes from the movie. There are also behind the scenes and historical pictures, as well as a page or two of the script. One of the images I found most fascinating was of the dialogue coach's notes about how to pronounce the dialogue with an accent. I've always seen dialogue coaches in movie credits, but I've never heard anyone explain how exactly they do their work.

This book tells not just how the movie Hugo was made, but also where all the people who worked on it drew their inspiration from. It goes into great detail without becoming overly technical. With all the pictures it's a short read. While The Invention of Hugo Cabret is like a film, this movie companion connects film back to books.

The Hugo Movie Companion: A Behind the Scenes Look at How a Beloved Book Became a Major Motion Picture

Movie Companion Time

After I watched The Host the first time, I was tempted to go into Barnes & Noble and buy the movie companion on the spot, even though it would be almost double the price in store versus online--but I wasn't that tempted considering that my local store didn't even have it in stock. Compared with all the books and merch that I would stare at every time I visited after The Hobbit came out, this was disappointing.

But I had been planning, for months now, a big online book purchase of all the random things I've been wanting. Now that the shipment has arrived, I keep thinking of more books that I want, but I am gleeful of the fact that I do now own so many coveted ones. As I look over them, I find that many are movie books, including Mark Cotta Vaz's The Host: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion.

Mark Cotta Vaz also wrote the four Twilight movie companions, and I do feel that his writing approach has improved over the course of these five books (which are nowhere near all he has written, of course). I really enjoy movie companions, provided they do more than show pictures and re-explain plot elements. So I am happy to say that this book does much more than that.

There are just the right amount of quotes from the cast and crew, whether major or minor actors, producers, stunt performers, location scouts, or anyone else involved in the project. The balance was perfect between getting words from people we'd love to hear from (like Saoirse Ronan and Stephenie Meyer) and also people whose voices don't always get heard in as much detail but were still important parts of the venture. The format of the book takes us smoothly through from preproduction to post, highlighting what it was like being on set and how certain aspects of the movie were achieved. The only thing that I noticed missing was the score, particularly considering that this was one part of the movie I really enjoyed. But I would imagine this was just an area where Vaz didn't have the opportunity to conduct interviews; after all, he's writing at everyone's mercy.

Despite the fact that I don't like to just have visuals, there are some beautiful pictures in here. I'm a particular fan of Ian and Wanderer sitting on the desert mountaintop on page 107; am I so very strange that I think that's such a romantic and gorgeous picture? Seeing all of these images in still, picture form reminds me of how perfect the colors in the movie were. I loved learning about how Andrew Niccol purposefully chose a plain, barren landscape in order to give the film a unique look. Since I missed all the vegetation I'm used to associating with Arizona, hearing this helped me understand why he chose these particular New Mexico locations.

Some other bits I enjoyed reading about included the crazy contact lenses, the amazing cave set, all the stunt people, and the ethereal and mythological Shiprock location. I definitely recommend this movie companion.

Breaking Dawn Movie Companion

I can't believe it took me so long to get to this book. Although I love behind the scenes on movies, a good amount of the movies I'm interested in don't actually get movie companions, so when they do, I snatch them up. Yet here I am barely going over this book in April when it came out in December.

I was expecting a sort of downhill surge to happen on this book, with it ending up the weakest of the Twilight movie companions. At 140-150 pages or so, it certainly isn't long or terribly extensive. And after my pessimistic post about the movie itself, we all know the movie addressed in the book wasn't my favorite.

But, short or not, this movie companion happily doesn't have too much fluff. It starts off in the usual sort of way with some plot exposition and has bits interspersed throughout, but mostly keeps to explaining how things were done, mainly by giving quotes from the crew. So there are some nice technical and artistic explanations, along with a few brief making-of stories. Some of my favorites were about the filming of the wedding ceremony and how they achieved Bella's emaciated look in the second half of the movie.

Reading movie companions always makes me better appreciate the final product (the film, of course), this situation included despite my still-not-particularly-thrilled attitude toward the movie. I am amused, though, that the book is marked as having an exclusive Q&A with Stephenie Meyer: that particular section is only two pages. It had interesting comments, but wasn't such a big deal as the label makes it out to be.