The Deathly Hallows Movie Split

[AccioLumos]

i like after malfoy manor for the split..

the events at the manor would act as the first movie climax.

the aftermath of whch would be dobby's burial.

insert some strong or vengeful words by harry complimented by a determined look in his eye.

pan away from the group standing by the grave, or perhaps away from the stone with dobby's inscription. maybe add some extra rain/lightning/wind for effect

roll credits.

also the shell cottage makes for a calmer yet still purposeful intro to part 2.

[Klio]

Originally Posted by JACK5555

Yeah, true. I just don't want to spend money on basically half of a movie only to buy the full thing six months later . I would like to see it a few more times once it has left theaters before part 2 comes out...
Well at least they did not go with 3 parts.....

Well, there is nothing to stop you from waiting. If they release a disk with minimal extras, just don't buy it.

The LotR people actually announced beforehand how they would release the DVDs. I never bought the theatre versions and waited for the Extended ones each time. It's easy - and even if they don't announce it you can tell from the included extras whether there willbe soething bigger later. IMHO.

[darkjad]

Originally Posted by Klio

Well, there is nothing to stop you from waiting. If they release a disk with minimal extras, just don't buy it.
The LotR people actually announced beforehand how they would release the DVDs. I never bought the theatre versions and waited for the Extended ones each time. It's easy - and even if they don't announce it you can tell from the included extras whether there willbe soething bigger later. IMHO.

There will always be something bigger later

Personally, I'm just going to wait until all eight movies arrive in one big pack, then preorder it off of Amazon the day it's announced for relatively cheap. They sometimes have some crazy details; I preordered the recent LotR Blu-Ray pack for like 30% off. I might cancel my preorder (I didn't know it wasn't the extended edition) but it never hurts to preorder at 30% off!

[katana]

Originally Posted by darkjad

There will always be something bigger later

Personally, I'm just going to wait until all eight movies arrive in one big pack, then preorder it off of Amazon the day it's announced for relatively cheap. They sometimes have some crazy details; I preordered the recent LotR Blu-Ray pack for like 30% off. I might cancel my preorder (I didn't know it wasn't the extended edition) but it never hurts to preorder at 30% off!

I think I'll end up buying them all I wouldn't mind if they released DH pt. 1 on dvd before pt. 2. I'd buy it. I'd buy it again later if they released them all as a set.

I wish they'd release them all with extended versions. I recorded the first three off tv when they played them with extended scenes. But I'd love to have 'official' versions.

We did that with LOTR. We bought the regular ones and then the boxed extended ones too.

[yoshi2542]

Just responding to a post from the main DH thread:

Originally Posted by darkjad

The Matrix Reloaded ended with quite a cliffhanger.

Probably not the best example seeing as less than half of the audience for Reloaded came back to see Revolutions. The Matrix sequels have already demonstrated the worst possible way to go about telling one story in two films, one filled with frivolous characters and self-indulgent exposition, it would be very unwise for Warner to repeat those mistakes IMO.

[rowansjet]

Originally Posted by MoodysMagicEye

If you go to tis link on Leaky: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/20...se-cliffhanger

it say at the bottom:

This to me would bea strange choice I'm wonder weather aren't combining this scene with being caunt by the snatchers?

Oh. My. God! I so freaking called this!

[Allison27]

I find it an odd choice to split it after the visit to the Lovegood house. It's further into the book than I would have expected...

[ashwizard]

Originally Posted by Allison27

I find it an odd choice to split it after the visit to the Lovegood house. It's further into the book than I would have expected...

I agree . A better choice would have been to split it immediately after the reunion of Ron with Harry and Hermione

[ArryGrotter]

Originally Posted by ashwizard

I agree . A better choice would have been to split it immediately after the reunion of Ron with Harry and Hermione

The Hallows would never be mentioned in Part 1 then - things would have to be moved around if that was the split spot to make the audience not be confused why the title was what it is.

So therefore the split should be at least after Xeno's IMO

[MasterOfDeath]

I hope this is only a rumor...

This might be an exciting ending but in the long run not the best artistic place to split. The Hallows would be introduced, yeah, but Harry's conflict in wrestling between horcruxes and hallows should have been the main conflict resolved at the end of part one.

A pure action cliffhanger just feels more like a cheap way to split and get people to come back imo.

[Pearl_Took]

Originally Posted by MasterOfDeath

This might be an exciting ending but in the long run not the best artistic place to split. The Hallows would be introduced, yeah, but Harry's conflict in wrestling between horcruxes and hallows should have been the main conflict resolved at the end of part one.

I agree with this completely. Part One must introduce the Hallows motif, for goodness sake. Otherwise they'll have to call the film something else. Not a good move.

A pure action cliffhanger just feels more like a cheap way to split and get people to come back imo.

Yep. Agree.

I would just hate that.

For one thing, I already know the story, and to me there is no point in keeping me waiting for an ending when I know already how it will turn out. So that's whatever percentage of the audience who are seasoned HP fans ticked off.

I hesitate to mention LotR yet again, but from a movie-making perspective, it is interesting that Peter Jackson decided to ditch the cliffhanger at the end of TTT and end his film in a different place from the book. Many would say he took the right decision. (I still think the cliffhanger could have worked -- purely from a cinematic POV, not for purist reasons -- but that's obviously for another discussion.) In most cases -- and this probably proves Jackson right! -- I would say that movie cliffhangers are a bad idea. OK, I know everybody will cite The Empire Strikes Back which is a very good cliffhanger, of course.

My problem is that I can't really see a natural 'cliffhanger' anywhere in the DH story, without disturbing the balance of the story.

I always thought it would be better if, as MoD says, Part One ended with catharsis and resolution, e.g. Harry deciding for the Horcruxes versus the Hallows.

[Hes]

The only cliffhanger I can see is the moment Harry and Dobby apparate from Malfoy Manor and you see Bellatrix hurdling her knife.

[ashwizard]

Originally Posted by Hes

The only cliffhanger I can see is the moment Harry and Dobby apparate from Malfoy Manor and you see Bellatrix hurdling her knife.

The part where Voldemort narrowly misses Harry and Hermione in Bathilda Bagshot's house is even more of a thriller .

[Klio]

Well, if they want to make it a cliffhanger they really have to cut right at the moment when the death eaters arrive and before Hermione casts her spell.

Which would be *awful*.

I am with Pearl - I think that cliffhangers rarely work in film.
Although Empire Strikes Back is an interesting exception. But that is such a HUGE cliffhanger, with everything so momentously in nthe balance - it's hard to repeat that. Because it was really hard to see how that could all turn out all right.

In the case of the kids in Xeno's house - well, they have byt this point escaped death Eaters before (GH, in a very similar situation) - it's not as if the cliffhanger will really leave you on the edge, because obviously they'll find a way out.

And I am not sure whether the (at this point presumably) recently introduced Deathly hallows will make up enough of a 'proper' cliffhanger, if you know what I mean - the situation where you can't (if you don't know the book) guess where it's going to go.


So yes, I am with MOD, too - I'd rather see some sort of interim resolution at the end of film 1.

Is it possible that they built up the 'Harry searching for the missing piece in the jigsaw' issue so much that the simple revelation of the Hallows plot is enough of a resolution? I can't quite see it.....



Funnily enough, I expected them to cut a good deal *later* (either by resolution or by cliffhanger), to get more of the Hallows stuff out of the way. There is far too much to do in part 2!

[MrSleepyHead]

I am skeptical about ending Part One with a cliffhanger. I have always thought ending near Xenophilius would make a good place to split, but I hope it is not in the middle of the scene, before/during the Death Eaters' arrival. As Klio says, this is not the most suspenseful area in the story. Godric's Hollow, the Silver Doe, and Malfoy Manor are all, as I see it, better places for a pure cliffhanger. This scene will have two Death Eaters (plus Xenophilius) against the trio. It is a winnable fight by the trio, since we will likely see them triumph in a similar situation (Tottenham Court Road). Also, as I see it, no matter where the cliffhanger, a cliffhanger will not be as suspenseful as it could be: the audience should know, with another part of the story, that Harry will survive. The only possibility for suspense is if Ron or Hermione will die, and that would be far more suspenseful if it ended at Malfoy Manor.

Nevertheless, I think ending at Xenophilius' can work quite nicely. After being told The Tale of the Three Brothers, the trio does have a conversation about the Hallows. No matter what, that discussion must be included. I think that, ending after this, the Hallows will be introduced and the conflict that will surround them will be hinted at, so the audience may pick up on it.

I feel it would be smartest to show the trio leave Xenophilius', discuss the Hallows, introduce Harry's dilemma, and end with some resolution. Of course, it does not seem like this is the case. If it does end with a cliffhanger at Xenophilius', I can envision two places:

1. When Harry asks Xenophilius, "Where's Luna?" or sometime during that conversation, when the trio discovers The Quibbler's "new angle."
2. Or (in my opinion) a more likely position, when the trio sees figures flying on broomsticks out of the window, and Hermione shouts, "HARRY!"

[mrfutterman]

I honestly don't want to give offence, but I think most of the suggestions for the point of the split are dramatically weak. Remember that the split itself is artificial. That is not disastrous - such things have been done before, but some kind of resolution is needed at the climax to a film. The 2½ hours (guessing) of the first film should contain a satisfactory story arc. What is "in the book" is not relevant to this.

As for The Empire Strikes Back analogy - it does not fit. That film was crafted purely for the screen, and it shows. We hit the ground running at the beginning; there is little exposition; new characters are smoothly introduced (and nothing like the glut of tertiary, and lower, HP characters who are in the films simply because they are "in the book"). The climax contains a quite shocking piece of information (people gasped aloud in cinemas when Vadar said his piece). but this was followed by the remaining good guys reunited and resolved upon their next move.

Likewise at the end of FOTR, the parts of the broken Company were, after various shocks, resolved on what to do next.

This is dramatically satisfying.

Everything points to the optimum place for this (unnecessary) split to be after Harry has resolved to pursue the horcruxes.

This risks, however, throwing out the balance of both parts. Before Harry's resolution there is a lot of "stuff", which the film-makers appear to be too timid to streamline. After Harry's resolution, the material cries to be treated like the Act 3 of a drama, and pushed forward, with inexorable momentum, to full resolution.

Instead, by making it a full 2 hour (guessing) film, they will be obliged to pad it out, with exposition about Dumbledore's past, and Snape's past, and lots of backward looking "stuff".

[Klio]

I can see your point - especially also because it would highlight the Horcruxes well enough to (just) give an excuse for the title!

I am just wondering. If someone 'in the business' says 'we'll end on a cliffhanger' - would the end you are suggesting qualify?

I totally agree on the idea that each film has to have its own arc and so forth - but that cliffhanger remark throws me a bit....

[KlausBaudelaire]

I agree that cliffhangers are awful, and not suited for DH.
The ideal place to split would be after Dobby's (or whoever dies at his place) funeral.

[ArryGrotter]

I was just thinking that when Voldemort steals the Elder Wand was a very tense cliffhanger - but of course that is perhaps a little too late in the narrative...

[decarus]

I don't like the idea of the first part ending after Dobby's death. It may be that i didn't really find that part really that intense. I almost think Harry's owl's death bothered me more then Dobby's. I am just not a fan of Dobby. I also think it is too late.

Is there any confirmation that the scene at Luna's house with Xenophilius will be in the film? I thought i remembered an announcement that they had chosen an actor to play Xenophilius. I just really think that scene isn't that necessary if they find out about the Hallows through someone else or even simply find out about it from Xenophilius at the wedding.

I know that we all hope that every scene that is in the book will be in the film, but i don't think that is likely.