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RE: Star Wars on the Low Budget
Babylon 5 comes to mind in terms of being constrained by time constraints and the conventions of TV. The third season episode Grey 17 is Missing comes readily to mind, which seemed to me had about ten minutes of storyline integral to the overall arc of the series, but the rest of the episode was crappy filler.
RE: Star Wars on the Low Budget
I'm re-reading the books again after the movies. While the main plotlines for the most part hold true, the detail and small-plots are almost all completely different. I think that this was done of course because you can't tell the whole story, and sometimes leaving certain stuff out will have an effect on parts that are included. Specifics include the scene just outside Moria where Pippin throws a rock into the water. In the books this was actually Boromir. Also the part where Pippin knocks the armor and skeleton down the well happened in a different room, not the one where the tomb was. That whole fight scene didn't even happen in that room. I've just finished the first book and there are too many inconsistencies to list without making an article out of it.
I think the movies come out great, as they change certain things without destroying the story that is being told, but most of what is changed is small details or whole sections that don't have much greater effect such as the entire section of the book involving Tom Bombadil just after the group of four hobbits leave for Bree. The entire first part of the first movie was re-written to change the fact, but I think that they are details better used for a book. All in all I think the conversion from book to movie was excellent. I'm sure it is hard trying to wittle down that amount of information to fit in a 12-hour story (extended editions) without having to change a few things to keep continuity together.
I can't comment about the portrayal of Theoden quite yet as I just started the second book and haven't read the books in 4-5 viewings of the movies.
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Star Wars on the Low Budget
Some other examples I was thinking of when I heard that comment in the podcast was when George Lucas talked about how Star Wars was almost a complete disaster. The studio pulled the plug, but George was tipped off about it in advance of the meeting, so he frantically shot the remainder of the film knowing he was dead broke. I guess the shots he got were mostly pretty bad. I can't remember exactly how they got the funding turned back on, but Star Wars was almost never made, or at least it would've been pretty shoddy in that form.
Likewise, although Peter Jackson didn't have much of a funding problem, he did run into a number of time constraints with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and rushed through some things to get the movie out on his deadline. I wonder what he would've done differently if he still had the sense of urgency, but didn't have to compromise on his vision for the film due to a set-in-stone schedule.
Time and money constraints aside, there were nuances with the way Lord of the Rings was done that I was concerned about, although I absolutely loved the movies. One of these issues was the way Theoden, the King of Rohan was portrayed. In the books, he was brave and steadfast in the face of a hopeless situation, whereas in the movie I think they made him look a bit like a leader taking his people out on a last chance for glory. There were other things too, but for now I hope this kickstarts some discussion.
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