Cameras In Narnia: How The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe Came To Life

by Ian Brodie, Andrew Adamson (Foreword by)

There are a thousand stories in the land of Narnia -- how Andrew Adamson brought The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to the big screen is one of them.

How do you turn a book into a movie? How did the moviemakers capture the magic of Narnia? How did they bring its mystical beasts and creatures to life? What special skills do you need on a movie set? Ian Brodie, author of The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook, has gone behind the cameras to find the answers.

Using skills from the movie, his own photographs and interviews with key cast and crew, he describes the journey form book to screen, explaining how modern technology enabled director Andrew Adamson and his team to bring this ageless children's classic to breathtaking life.

If you love movies and want to find out more about how thye are made, then come behind the Cameras in Narnia and see for yourself.

Genres: Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Classics, Reference

72 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Both author Ian Brodie and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson are keen vintage aircraft enthusiasts and Jackson gave Brodie unlimited access to photographing all aspects of the filming of all three films.

Reviews

[Janette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing this review about the making of the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, on the day the film had its world and New Zealand premiers meant that in whatever media I listened to, read or saw, the film was mentioned - Narina, it seems, is big!

Cameras in Narnia - How The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Came to Life is written and photographed by Ian Brodie of Wanaka and gives a unique and fascinating insight into virtually everything about the film.

Starting with the director, Andrew Adamson (who wrote the foreword) Brodie systematically describes and illustrates the jobs of everyone involved in making the film: producers, cast, set and locations, props and costumes, make-up, production team, cameras and filming techniques, jobs of the clappers, gaffers, grips and best boys (I expect you will be wondering what they do?), real and imaginary animals, trees and gardens, feeding the cast, what happens on the set, sound recording, stand-ins, photo doubles, stuntmen and extras, backdrop scenery, computer animation, effects and enhancements, voice overs, sound mixing, editing, continuity, special effects, music, publicity and promotion and, finally, making the movie of the movie. I think I’ve got it all!

Despite what you might think after reading that list, this is not a dull book of facts. Brodie has obviously taken the time to get alongside a large number of the cast and has so has given facts and anecdotes about the people doing each job as well as the job itself.

The layout and quality of the photographs is excellent (occasionally some were taken from too far away to be of value) and the style of writing is clear and uncomplicated with technical terms.

Brodie’s declared passion for watching films made has been used to good effect in this book.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this - though honestly I'd have liked it even better if there were more detail on things like costumes and animals/mythic beasts, and more pictures (obviously making it a longer book). Even with the current length, I wish the physical size of the book were larger, with a larger font. I realize it may be aimed at young readers (in my library it's in the children's section, though I wonder how many children would really be interested in all that detail), where reading small print is less of an issue, but the photo captions were especially hard to make out - and photos are an essential part of a book like this. I found it fascinating to learn how many people it takes to make a movie and what they all do - it helps explain why these days it takes so very long for all the credits to roll at the end.

[Kara Kuehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was way more interesting than I had anticipated! I enjoyed reading every single section and learning how a complex movie such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was made!

I did wonder what they do with all the stuff after the move. They mentioned all the armor, props and weapons that had to be custom made for the movie. I just wish Ian would have mentioned what happened to that after the movie.

Honestly, my only complaint is that the headings are not capitalized. This is just something that bothered me personally.

[Zanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

[shaking like a skittish arabian] i am so normal about the making of movies. i swear.

[Simon Yu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a bunch of kid, Lucy, Peter, Susan, and Edmund going to a world called Narnia through a magical wardrobe. Lucy first found out Narnia. She explores and found a faun. He was supposed to kidnap Lucy to the Witch because she is the daughter of Eve. Narnia always turn to winter and ruled by the Witch. Aslan came back to stop the Witch from destroying Narnia. I recommend people this book if you like wars and fighting.

[Danae · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think this book is very interesting. it's only 72 pages and it really lets readers know a lot of what goes into making a movie. we sit down and watch a 2 hour movie and don't think about just how much work was put into it. it's a very insightful book.

[Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A behind-the-scenes view of how the movie evolved from the book. Interesting, if short, picture of all the gruntwork done on a movie. Basically, a written form of the "Extras" section on a movie DVD.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Real rating 2.5

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the insights about the director and actors and green screen technology. The layout and pictures were great. Writing was didactic and repetitive at times, though.