Thursday, September 26, 2013

Lord of the Matrix

I made a bunch of videos in late 2011 and 2012 - a new hobby for me that I leapt into with both feet. Then I stopped. I just lost my enthusiasm. A shame - I had a ton of great ideas.

Then, last month, I found the mojo again and madeLord of the Matrix. I got a really good deal on some action figures, and saw an opportunity to do a skit I've had in my head since 2002, the year the first Lord of the Rings movie came out.

I'd bought my brother a bunch of the Burger King LOTR toys for Christmas (remember those? Some of them lit up, some of them had sound bytes like "The Ring must be destroyed," and "Then what are we waiting for?"), because he's been a fan of the book for as long as I can remember. I was messing around with the toy of Elf Chief Elrond, played in the films by Hugo Weaving, and I remembered another important movie role Hugo had played - Agent Smith in The Matrix. I put some of Agent Smith's lines in Elrond's mouth, and took advantage of the fact that, in The Fellowship of The Ring, Frodo used the fake name of Mr. Underhill. "Mister Underhill," I said in my best Hugo Weaving voice. "My name is Frodo!" I added in a voice not totally dissimilar to Keanu Reeves...

After that, the skit wrote itself. I haven't even written it down, as such - I've just had it in my head for eleven years. Finally I've had the opportunity to visualize it, thanks to six affordable action figures from The Silver Snail, an Elrod action figure from Ebay, and a plush South Park Satan given to me years ago by a friend. Filming took about a week, using lots of cardboard for sets. In some shots I'm afraid you can see the puppeteer's fingers, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Here it is! If you are a fan of both movies (and of Hugo Weaving), this will hopefully give you a few chuckles.

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