Narnia Fans » Miscellaneous

Narnia Vocalist Lisbeth Scott Releases Innovative Photo Campaign “Hope is a Thing,” to Benefit Children’s Charity “Education Through Music”

Paul Martin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:55:39 +0000

One of my favorite parts of going to movies is the soundtrack that accompanies the film. I’m a huge fan of music that not only compliments a movie, but enhances the film so much that, without it, the film would not be as effective. When it comes to the Narnia films so far, Lisbeth Scott’s vocals have been an ever present part of the experience, as the Pevensies enter Narnia, or on the journey to the Professor’s. She has a new album coming out, with a campaign to support a children’s charity. She also collaborated with composer Harry Gregson-Williams, whose music was present in the first two Narnia films.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Lisbeth Scott’s new album, “Hope is a Thing,” will be released late November. The new album will be available for sale on iTunes, Amazon.com and in select stores nationwide. The disc features collaborations with well-known composers (Harry Gregson-Williams, Nathan Barr) as well as two stirring new covers (Imagine, Hallelujah). Distributed by BFM Digital, Inc., “Hope is a Thing” features two new music videos for the title track “Hope is a Thing” and “Good to Me” (originally from the 2008 film “Shutter”).

During this challenging economic time, Scott wanted to create a musical and visual collection that would remind people of the importance of hanging on to hopes and dreams and the simple, non-material things that open our hearts and bring us joy. Thus the music and video of “Hope Is a Thing” was born. Lisbeth also feels these concepts are often best demonstrated through innocent eyes, so along-side the album release comes the launch of an innovative web-based world-wide campaign featuring children of all backgrounds and ethnicities who express what it is they hope for in today’s world via the simple image of holding up a hand-created sign. The first phase of the campaign can be seen at www.hopeisathing.com, in the “Gallery” section. Over time, children and schools from all over are encouraged to upload their own photos to help boost the awareness of the campaign. A portion of proceeds will benefit the organization, Education Through Music.

Scott will be promoting her new album at several upcoming appearances: 10/17 at Yogaglo in Santa Monica, 10/19 for a concert in New York City for the premiere of Joe Pantoliano’s film, “No Kidding, Me Too!”, 11/7 and 11/8 for the official CD release parties in LA at the Edgemar Theater in Santa Monica. The 11/8 show is all ages and children are encouraged to bring their own “Hope” signs. 11/20 finds Scott in Northern California with a performance at Berkeley’s Rudramandir – a center for spirituality and healing.

For more information on Lisbeth Scott and to hear samples of her music, visit her official website www.lisbethscott.com. For interview requests and publicity materials, please contact Chandler Poling at chandler@cw3pr.com or 818-605-2237.

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Brazil celebrates its first Narnia Day

Jonathon Svendsen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:05:16 +0000

Website MundoNarnia contacted us with news that Brazil will be celebrating it’s first ever “Narnia Day.” They write:

With great joy fans of The Chronicles of Narnia are promoting for the first time their Narnia Day, a very special day for fans to get together and for the divulgation of the series written by C. S. Lewis.
The event is an initiative of Editor WMF Martins Fontes, that publishes The Chronicles of Narnia in Brazil and invited the fan site MundoNarnia.com to be responsible for the organization of audience in different Brazilian regions.

Besides events in schools, libraries, churches and internet, a major meeting is happening, from 1 to 5 p.m., at Saraiva MegaStore, a bookshop in Ibirapuera Shopping Center, in São Paulo – the biggest city in Latin America.

This event is celebrating The Chronicles of Narnia, paying homage to the author, C. S. Lewis, with a public reading of some parts of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, dance exhibitions (Escola Paulista de Dança), a music show with the Merrow Band, playing rock and Celtic music, a talk about the series with Gabriele Greggersen, a Narnia expert, and the distribution of gifts and Turkish delights at the end of the event. Entrance is free, but we ask the audience to bring in toys that are going to be given to a charity institution.

For other activities which are taking place on this September 12th, MundoNarnia.com is promoting a contest, the most creative enterprise being awarded.

This is a special achievement for this fan club, the partnership with the publishing house which publishes Narnia, making this event an official one. Fox Film do Brasil confirmed some of its members are going to be present at Narnia Day in São paulo and our expectations are that, for the next year we, MundoNarnia.com will do something together with Fox.
For further information and photos, access www.mundonarnia.com

Walden Media uses Digital Vision on Dawn Treader

Paul Martin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:31:27 +0000

For those interested in the technology that is in use on the production of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we now have some information on the process that they’re going through to create movie magic. This article is highly technical, intended to inform those interested in filmmaking, and the tools of the trade.

Digital Vision, manufacturers of image enhancement and mastering systems for film and television post-production, has announced that Hollywood mini-studio Anschutz Film Group/Walden Media has taken delivery of Digital Vision’s Nucoda HD system. Digital Vision has worked closely with Walden to create a streamlined color pipeline from dailies to final delivery for their international productions. The two grading and one conform systems for Walden form the cornerstone of a complete production and post production workflow on “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” one of the industry’s first 100% digitally acquired, file-based feature projects. The Nucoda HD systems capture and utilize the American Society of Cinematographer’s CDL (color decision list) metadata, and maintain it as a basis for grading throughout the project with Digital Vision’s comprehensive toolset.

Walden Media has produced several box office blockbusters. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Bridge to Terabithia,” and “The Water Horse,” are a few high-profile theatrical titles in the AFG/Walden Media library.

Earlier this year, Doug Jones, Walden’s EVP of Physical Production, Sean Santiago, VP Visual Effects and Jonas Thaler, VP Post Production designed a workflow for the third chapter in the Narnia series. The Director of Photography and On-Set Colorist create a look for each scene, which is expressed and documented as ten-digit ASC CDL value. In the Walden plan, the CDL grades follow the project from set to dailies to VFX and final DI color timing.

When the Walden team was ready to discuss hardware and software solutions with which to implement the new ”Dawn Treader” workflow, they met with Simon Cuff, President and COO of Digital Vision. Digital Vision responded to the challenge and is currently developing an on-set grading solution based on the research and development that the two companies have done together. For Dawn Treader’s Australia shoot, Digital Vision provided a modified Nucoda HD System that takes in and manages color choices from the set and keeps the salient metadata available to the colorist and visual effects through final DI color grading. Walden will use systems in Australia, UK and the US on upcoming features.

Doug Jones of Walden commented that, “We and our filmmakers strive to make successful films with powerful and memorable visual content. Directors and cinematographers do their best work if they are given instant access to high resolution images and precise color and density control from day one through final delivery. After meeting in Los Angeles and London and getting to know Digital Vision’s international development group and product line, we could see that the Nucoda HD system fit the bill. The efficiency of the ASC CDL color value system and the power and depth of Digital Vision’s tools are the essence of our workflow. Our partnership with Digital Vision has evolved to the point where we’d like to keep this going on future projects.”

Simon Cuff, President and COO of Digital Vision, commented, “Walden Media has a history of telling high quality stories with beautiful imagery created by top filmmakers. To work so closely with this team and this caliber of entertainment is exciting, and we are looking forward to Nucoda being part of that creative process, from the camera to the cinema screen. Walden’s push forward in production, VFX and post production workflow has allowed us to accelerate the development and refine the functionality of our on-set and dailies solutions – ensuring this will become an essential part of the movie-making process.”

New Fansite NarniaHome.com Launches

John Burkitt — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:29:53 +0000

NarniaHome.com, a site created by and for the fans of C. S. Lewis and Narnia, was unveiled today. While it is still in a state of flux, it shows its promise from the moment the careful texturing and flash animation come up on the screen.

NarniaHome.com is a brother site to NarniaFans.com, and in addition to hosting some featured stories, it will also host art submitted by others, including eventually video, sound, prose, poetry and animation. It will be home to some contests designed to let the Narnia community show what it can do.

NarniaHome.com has started out with an eye to be tech savvy. Already it has a group on Facebook (look for NarniaHome.com) and is beginning to explore other social networking technologies as it goes.

Come home to NarniaHome!

For more information, contact John Burkitt at magescribe@comcast.net.

Walden Media’s Website Redesigned

Paul Martin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:56:09 +0000

Walden Media has redesigned their website with great style. Not only that, but it confirms the Dawn Treader logo that was posted in really low quality a few months ago (though on a black background, the rest is the same).

Walden.com has been designed with usability in mind, as well as ease of use for community involvement. It’s a great site, that is definitely easier to navigate than ever before, and even includes social networking links at the bottom, as well as easier to locate teaching tools.

Walden Media has always had education in mind when creating their website, and this is no different. With a blog section, as well as educator guides to each of their films and books, Walden has gone the distance to create classroom materials that teachers can use, and they’ve done a fantastic job of bringing in some amazing new features. Go exploring at Walden.com

Andrew Adamson to direct adaptation of Mister Pip

Paul Martin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:14:02 +0000

Andrew Adamson, who directed the previous two Narnia films: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian prior to passing the reigns to Michael Apted for the third, has just written and will direct an adaptation of the Lloyd Jones novel, Mister Pip. It is a film that is set in a province of Papua New Guinea, where director Adamson spent much of his childhood.

Producer Robin Scholes plans to have the film shot in Australia, with post-production happening in New Zealand, and sound work done in the United Kingdom.

Mister Pip will be principally set in the Papua New Guinea province of Bougainville during an ongoing war between soldiers and rebels over copper mining. It tells the story of a young girl who becomes transfixed by the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, which is being read at school by the only white man in the village.

“The overarching theme is the power of the human imagination to be used for both good and evil,” Scholes told ScreenDaily. “Meeting 37º South’s guests in an atmosphere in which they were not distracted by the need to sell films, was a great advantage.”

For director Andrew Adamson, growing up in Papua New Guinea gave him a personal connection to the location, which is likely a big part of why he took on that story for his next film project.

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Narnia Producer Mark Johnson Appears in ‘My Sister’s Keeper’

Paul Martin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:12:43 +0000

Producer Mark Johnson, who is currently working on many projects including The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, was recently on the other side of the camera for the third time. He previously appeared in Good Morning, Vietnam and The Notebook. He was also a producer on both films. Most recently, he appeared as Uncle Pervis in the film My Sister’s Keeper. For those who don’t know what the film is about, it is an adaptation of a novel of the same name, by Jodi Picoult.

New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged…until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child’s life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.

(Order My Sister’s Keeper on Paperback from Amazon)

My sister went to see it with my mom, as did my friend and colleague Kristi, who runs TheLionsCall.com and managed to find Mr. Johnson among the cast. As far as I know, it’s only a cameo in the film.

Ben Barnes: Bigga than Ben on DVD in UK, Dorian Gray Poster

Paul Martin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:27:26 +0000

Ben Barnes, who is currently preparing to return to the role of Caspian for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, has been active in the film world since then. While Bigga than Ben filmed prior to Prince Caspian, it released after, in the cinemas in the UK, and now it has been released onto DVD there as well. It’s producer, Liz Holford, tells me that they are working on a deal to release the film in the United States, and I will be sure to update you when that deal occurs. We’ve also got the first poster for Ben’s next film, Dorian Gray. Take a look!

According to Amazon.co.uk, the film has a certificate rating of 15.

Product Description
Based on the best selling diaries by two self confessed “pieces of Moscow scum” who produced their own rough guide to London. This dark comedy is the tale of two likeable but wayward young Russian immigrants who come to London do amass an easy fortune. But it s not too long before Spiker (Ben Barnes) and Cobakka (Andrei Chadov) realise that legally they are not going to get very far. So aided by the dodgy Artash they learn to shoplift, rip off banks, joyride ride on the tube and turn mobile phones in to crack. Finding themselves drawn into the shadowy underworld life begins to turn sour and the highs begin to fade. When Spiker begins to fall prey to the easy drugs Cobakka is forced to making some life-changing decisions. Special Features: Making of Bigga Than Ben

Synopsis
Based on the best-selling diaries of Pavel Tetersky and Sergei Sakin, BIGGA THAN BEN the acclaimed film that critics have compared to TRAINSPOTTING. This dark comedy follows the trials and tribulations of a pair of Russian immigrants struggling to make their fortune in London.

Order Bigga Then Ben [DVD] from Amazon.co.uk (Region 2)

And that’s not all that Ben’s been up to. As we have heard, he’s filmed an adaptation of The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray will be released to the UK cinemas on 11 September 2009, with no word on the United States release date as of yet.

Here is the poster, featuring our friend, Ben Barnes in the title role:

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Who will Rescue the Narnia Gas Lamps?

Paul Martin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:48:20 +0000

Academic fans of Narnia creator C.S. Lewis could come to the defence of Malvern’s gas lamps, which served as the inspiration for a famous scene in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The future of the gas lamps has been raised after parish councils around Malvern were hit with unexpected top-up bills to pay for their maintenance and running.

The president of the Oxford C S Lewis Society, lecturer Judith Tonning, told the Malvern Gazette yesterday that the society is prepared to speak up if the lamps were threatened.

She said: “It would be a very sad day indeed for admirers of Lewis if these lamps were to go.

“As a non-profit organisation, we don’t have any funds ourselves which we can use to pay to preserve the lamps, but we can raise our voice.

“We have spoken out in the past, not without success. There was a proposal to demolish The Kilns, Lewis’s house here in Oxford, and that was withdrawn after a campaign in which we played our part.”

Malvern currently has 102 gas lamps, split between the parishes of Malvern town, the Wells and West Malvern.

The three councils were shocked to receive bills for maintaining the lamps from Malvern Hills District Council, over and above the previously-agreed figures. The Wells was charged an extra £1400, Malvern town £639, and West Malvern £798.

Wells parish chairman Malcolm Victory is promoting a suggestion that the lamps could be sponsored to keep them going. He hopes the idea can be put on the agenda at the next parish council meeting on June 24.

Interested in sponsoring one of the lamps?

-via Malvern Gazette

Ben Barnes in Horse Riding Accident on Set of Easy Virtue

Paul Martin — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:06:41 +0000

As many fans know, Ben Barnes claimed during auditions for Prince Caspian that he could ride a horse. It turned out to be a stretch of the truth as he had only been on a horse once when he was very small. So they trained him in horseback riding.

While filming Easy Virtue, the last part of shooting involved a big and expensive fox hunt on horseback. The director, Stephan Elliot comments:

“Ben really wanted to ride in the hunt scene, which was the last thing we shot, but the insurance company wouldn’t let him. It was such a shame because he’d learned to ride for Prince Caspian and he knew he was good on a horse. I put all the money we had left into this hunt and it looked great, so I just said, ‘Ben, get on the horse.’ He was thrilled… The producers found out too late and I could see them rushing to the set, where they’d attempt to pull him off the horse. I yelled, ‘Action,’ the hunt took off and Ben rode his horse straight into a tree, was thrown off and knocked himself out. He was fine but for a minute there, I was really concerned… but I thought, ‘Well I’ve got what I need and they can’t take the film away from me.’ The insurance company guys were not happy.”

Ben Barnes is currently preparing for his return to Narnia in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; shooting starts this July in Australia.

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Narnia Fans » Miscellaneous

Narnia Vocalist Lisbeth Scott Releases Innovative Photo Campaign “Hope is a Thing,” to Benefit Children’s Charity “Education Through Music”

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Brazil celebrates its first Narnia Day

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Walden Media uses Digital Vision on Dawn Treader

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Walden Media’s Website Redesigned

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