May 30, 2011 | By: TiannaJE

Happy Lately :)

Below are some Narnia-related things that have made me happy recently. Well, more than that. Excited. Giddy. That quivery inside feeling that C.S. Lewis would call Joy. Anyway… sorry this is rather long!!!!!!! :D

The Narnia Exhibition is coming to town!!! Well not really, but closer than it’s ever been. :D I got to write the story on Aslan’s Country that OMSI in Portland has been added to their schedule! I have been wanting to see the exhibition, of course, for a long time. Ever since we went on a trip across America last September and saw lots of things (including numerous museums), I have had a dream of starting the first-ever permanent Narnia Museum! Anyway, even if I never do, this will be super fun to see! I’m hoping to meet up with my friend Hannah (from Aslan’s Country) at the exhibition. Yay!

I hadn’t learned about this song until recently. It’s by Toby Mac, and it’s called “New World." It was included on the "Music Inspired by Narnia" CD, which was released right before LWW came out in theatres. Anyway, it’s not the song that brings me joy so much, it’s this video. Containing clips from both Disney Narnia movies (LWW and PC), it just completely sums up what Narnia is and what you go through when you watch those two films. It’s extremely well-edited and probably my favorite Narnia Music Video of all time. Enjoy!



Font: I just got this font called, “The King and Queen” (demonstration below), which just looks cool. I use it for my username on YouTube.


Costume Chronicles.” Have you heard of that? I found this “webzine” the end of last year when they had a Jane Austen issue. (Jane Austen is my second favorite book/movie series by the way.) One of my friends alerted me to their current issue, which is about C.S. Lewis!! They only have one article on the clothes and costumes of Narnia, which is kind of odd. But I can’t complain because the rest is really good! The editor is a Christian, and the articles are commentaries on the books, movies, and characters of Narnia, often from a Christian viewpoint. I liked what the authors had to say. There is also an article about “Jack,” one about the film, “Shadowlands” (about C.S. Lewis), and one about “Til We Have Faces,” his strangest and most adult work of fiction. You can download and read it here.

A friend lent me his four-disc version of the LWW, so I finally got to see the extended edition of the LWW! It’s basically more traveling shots, and the battle is extended. One thing I really liked is the addition of more sad kids and mothers in the train station scene. It makes you feel for more kids in England, not just the four, and yet it makes the Pevensies more real, because you realize what they’re going through actually happened to a lot of kids. They didn’t put in any of the coronation dance, which I know they shot, since it’s in the trailer and the outtakes! The best thing was the “Complete Production Experience,” which was a full movie commentary with interviews and behind-the-scenes pictures and videos going on during the movie! There’s also a movie about C.S. Lewis, which I liked. :)


I also recently watched the “Prince Caspian” cast & director commentary, which I own, but just never watched! It was very insightful and entertaining. :) I was surprised how many crew members and family members played extras! A couple parts made me laugh out loud! For example, the scene entitled, “Edmund Saves the Day” is the one where Edmund stabs the ice wall with the White Witch in it. At the end Georgie (Lucy) quoted part of the script, “Two boys. Two kings. Two failures.” Skandar (Edmund) responded, “And on the other hand, Edmund saves the day!!” Hahaha… One part I thought was interesting was that Anna (Susan) and Ben (Caspian) were glad the archery scene where Susan and Caspian are flirting was cut out. They said that, besides it being a happy scene in the middle of this intense preparing-for-battle section, it played up the romance too much; It added yet another scene developing this relationship that wasn’t even in the book. Anna said that! I was so proud. I totally agree! :)

I’ve been having fun being on YouTube and connecting with other Narniacs who make Narnia Music Videos. I wanted to get a cooler background, so I found one I liked that someone else made, then used it as a template and imported my own pictures, cropped them, and colorized them, using Photoshop. It was really fun! The sides I made fade from green to purple and on them I typed lines from the Chronicles. On the left side is the first couple sentences of each book, and on the right side are all of the last lines of each book! It was very fun to make. :D Click here to see it on YouTube. :)


I’m pretty sure It’s legal to make a digital copy of a DVD you own to put on your ipod. Well I downloaded the “Magic DVD Ripper,” which someone mentioned on YouTube, and ripped the three Narnia films!! This makes it a lot easier to make music videos (because before I had all of these trailers and film clips and stuff I’d taken from online). So this opens up wide possibilities. :D The “I’m Reading a Book” video was the first one I put online that I edited from the digital copy.

Well, I haven’t played it recently, but I really enjoy playing this tetris game on “Spareoom.net”. You use the arrow keys to direct the pieces. There’s a lot of other Narnia games online. Maybe I’ll do a blog post on “The Games of Narnia” someday. :)


Have you ever seen the movie, “Swan Princess”? It’s loosely based on the ballet “Swan Lake,” and it has animation and songs like an old Disney film. Anyway, there’s this cute song called “This is My Idea,” where Prince Derek and Princess Odette are lamenting having to marry each other when they grow up, and all of the sudden they realize they love each other. Someone on YouTube edited a video to this song using Edmund and Lucy as they grow up in LWW and PC. It’s really cute!



And here’s a couple of pictures that I like. They're all from different places and made by different people. This first one is by my friend Nicky. It's awesome. :)






















(look at the necklace!)



Wow, those pictures were random. Yep! But they are joyful!!! :)
That’s all. Have a nice day! :)
May 18, 2011 | By: Anonymous

My Narnia Music Videos

I don't know if you've noticed the YouTube widget I added on my sidebar. :) Well those are Narnia Music Videos that I have made. I really enjoy editing footage from the movies to songs that fit! It's my favorite "hobby," you could say. Anyway, for a time I was all of the sudden getting all of these ideas for music videos, and I made a lot of them! Some of them are still on my list-to-edit. :)

I have mentioned a couple of my videos in my post about Kelley's birthday. Also you can see my list of official music videos here: Music Videos of Narnia.

My sister's birthday was yesterday, and I wanted to make her a music video that she would love. I used the song, "I'm Reading a Book" by Julian Smith. LOL! If you haven't seen the original, you can see it here. Here's my Dawn Treader version. When I started editing, I didn't know how it would turn out, but I kept finding perfect clips to use!



I was also inspired to do a number of Christian music videos. Go to YT to read the descriptions. I'll just embed the videos below. :)







And I entered two Narnia YouTube contests with these two videos below. The first one I had lots of fun using effects on my Adobe Premiere Pro. The second one I had fun using clips from all three movies. :)





I also did two fun videos. One about Edmund to a song by David Archuleta, and one about all of the Boys to a "High School Musical" song. Hahaha...





Last but not least, I had fun making two short "search-stories" using a YouTube program. One is for Aslan's Country, the other is called "Thank You for Narnia." :)





I've done a couple more, but they were blocked temporarily. I'm going to try to fix them. :) And there will probably be lots more coming! :) So if you're on YouTube, keep an eye on my channel! NarniaMusicVids

Thanks for watching!
May 13, 2011 | By: Anonymous

New Headers!

I'd like to thank RJ for making me some new headers!! I really like her work, so I asked her if she would make a blog header for me, and she made several! I'm going to use them for my next couple of headers. To see an archive of all the blog headers I have had, click here. :)

RJ makes Narnia graphics (don't ask me how) using pictures from the Narnia movies and lyrics from songs that fit perfectly! You can see them all in her album on Facebook. Here are some of my favorites:


Lucy and Aslan from VDT. Lyrics from "Invisible" by Disciple


Edmund and Aslan from LWW. Lyrics from "At Your Feet" by Casting Crowns


Tumnus and Lucy from LWW. Lyrics from "You Decide" by Fireflight

Dragon Eustace and Aslan from VDT.  Lyrics from "Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus)" by Chris Rice


Picture from PC, in VDT film. Lyrics from "All The Memories" by The Classic Crime


Lucy and Edmund from VDT. Lyrics from "May It Be" by Enya


Caspian/EdmundLucy/Drinian/Narrowhaven townspeople - VDT. Lyrics from "Do You Hear The People Sing" from Les Miserables: The Musical


 Liliandil from VDT. 


Drinian and Edmund from VDT. hahaha....

And last but not least....


Eustace from VDT. 
May 9, 2011 | By: Anonymous

Aslan's Meditations: This is the Title Page

This post was written by Matthew Reynolds, the head administrator from Aslan's Country. It is a wonderful, challenging post about living in light of eternity. You can see the original post here.


Like a lot of you, I’ve been insanely busy this past school year… AP courses, chemistry, the list goes on… and that doesn’t even include the whole month-and-a-half of my life I (almost) entirely dedicated to promoting Voyage of the Dawn Treader and travelling to London for the premiere. Nor does that include the long laundry list of church and family events. No wonder it’s already May.

I love to think about eternity… how one day very soon those who choose to follow Christ will all live in eternity with God in Heaven. And when I think about eternity, it makes life on earth seem so trivial and relatively unimportant. I ask myself, “Why am I living for today? Why am I doing (or not doing) things because of the effect they will have right now? Shouldn’t I be living for something more?”

Yes.

You see, the mentality I think many of us have is that we live a good life on earth; then one day we die and eternity begins. But this is so far from the truth! Eternity starts now.

Think of it this way. Why would you live one day homeless if you had a Father who had a beautiful mansion and wanted you to live in it? In the same way, why would you live your earthly life pursuing worldly things when you have such a larger life to live?

I love how C.S. Lewis puts it in The Last Battle (scan from my first edition copy):


You see, our life on earth is only the title page of the great story of eternity. When you pick up a book, don’t you expect its title page to reflect the contents of its chapters? You wouldn’t expect a book about candy and delicious foods to have a title page that says “Poison,” would you? Just so, shouldn’t the title pages of our eternal lives reflect the greater purpose we live for?

This is a concept I love to think about, yet rarely carry through in my life. Just this morning, I was at a high school in town (I’m homeschooled) with eleven other students, anxiously awaiting the beginning of the AP U.S. History Exam. Believe me, that’s no easy exam. So there we were in the lobby, waiting for the doors to the exam room to open. The students were gathered around one of the teachers, who was attempting to go over a quick review of U.S. history with them. He began it like this.: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Suffice it to say that this was a very liberal school, and most people there were not interested in God, at least not in glorifying Him. Several times the students interjected “and Jesus” into a very warped retelling of U.S. history. I glanced away, shocked at their blindness. “How can you not see that you’re making fun of the Jesus who died to save you?!” I wanted to ask.

I’m not sure why I didn’t.

In truth, these students and teacher were exactly like the dwarfs in The Last Battle. They didn’t believe in Aslan, and they didn’t believe in Tash. “The dwarfs are for the dwarfs,” I could only imagine them saying next. There I was, in my Narnian armor, and yet I didn’t have the courage to speak up. “Oh,” I told myself, “that would only make me more nervous before the exam.” Perhaps it would have. But what’s an exam score in light of eternity? There were the students who were destined for hell, and here I was, worried about the details of the Vietnam War.

This is the title page.

Will the title page of my life be like this morning? Will I continue to live as a Christian who doesn’t speak up for my God, who did so much more than speak up for me when he died for me? Will I continue to create a title page that says “poison,” or will the title page of my life truly reflect the contents of my “Great Story”?

We should become more like Reepicheep—longing for Aslan’s Country, longing to see our Master’s face, living every second of our lives for one purpose alone: to make our title pages match the story of eternity.

What does your title page look like?

Images: Scans from my first edition of The Last Battle (except for the image of Reepicheep)
May 5, 2011 | By: Anonymous

The Costumes of Narnia

"When she had had her bath, and brushed her hair, (Jill) put on the clothes that had been laid out for her-- they were the kind that not only felt nice, but looked nice and smelt nice and made nice sounds when you moved as well." 

-The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis


I don't know about you, but the costumes in the Narnia films have always interested me. Maybe it's because I'm a girl and I have loved dress-up clothes since I was little! I also love sewing costumes (though I haven't finished many).


I love the clip of Anna Popplewell (Susan) spinning around in her coronation gown when she first tried it on! I know that's what I would do! :) My favorite costumes in the films are the Pevensies' costumes. Especially their Narnia clothes, and especially Susan's dresses: the Green Archery dress and Coronation dress from LWW, and her Farewell dress from PC. :)


The Costume Designer for the past three movies was Isis Mussenden, an American designer. She has done such a wonderful job on the films. I've heard complaints from Narnia fans about the directors, script, lighting, cameras, set, acting, etc. but never about the costumes! :) I love how much work she puts into making the English clothes accurate, and the Narnia clothes beautiful and comfortable. I know it was a lot of work to outfit all of the soldiers in LWW and PC (Thank goodness it was less in VDT), and to fit those kids who kept growing during LWW! :)


I also love looking at the original sketches and the pictures of what inspired those costumes. Did you know the White Witch's dress was inspired by frozen waterfalls? And that her crown is made to look like ice, and it melts slowly throughout the movie? Next time you watch one of the Narnia films, take notice of the costumes. Below is the featurette about Isis which is included on the LWW DVD.



Here are some great resources for studying the costumes of the Narnia films:
The Wardrobe Door (from Narnia Web)


I am working on sewing a replica (as close as I can get) of Susan's Green Archery Dress from LWW. :) I found a dark green wool blend, which is the perfect fabric! I am stopped on the sleeves right now, which I am researching to figure out how to do the slits. After the dress is done, I will do embroidery on the neckline and sleeves, and put lacing up the back. Then I'm hoping to make the underdress (yes, I'm convinced it is a full-length blue satiny dress underneath). If I have even more motivation, I would love to make the cape too. :) But all that is a lot of fabric.... :p

If you're interested, here are a couple of pages I've looked at to make this dress: