The Quest Army Hangout: LotR Edition with Mark Ordesky

Saturday, March 28th 2:00pm EDT | 11:00am PDT

Facebook Event Page | Google Event page^[1][2]

Sure, you’ve watched all of The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition material and any interviews with the cast and filmmakers you can get your hands on. But doubtless, you have even more questions you want to get answered! Luckily for you, in a special edition of The Quest army Hangouts, Mark Ordesky, executive producer on both LOTR and The Quest^[3] television show, will be on hand to answer questions from fans like you!

This interview will be hosted by Middle-earth News friend and Twitter follower @TheJoshTime^[4], and he sat down to answer our questions about how this interview came about and what LOTR fans can expect!

Middle-earth News: First off, how did you score this interview?

@TheJoshTime: It’s a bit of a tale, actually.

I was in the middle of watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, because I needed a scene reference for one of my action figure LotR re-creation photos^[5]. This particular shot was going to feature the Ringwraiths, so I was watching scenes with them in it over and over again. When I reached part where the Ringwraiths pursue Arwen, I started to think about Glorfindel, who in the books, helped save Frodo after he was stabbed by a Morgul blade. Though there are all kinds of reasoning behind his omission from the films for film-making sake, I wished that we could’ve seen Glorfindel have his moment. I vented my frustration^[6] for the missing elf on Twitter rather succinctly: “WHY WAS THERE NO #GLORFINDEL IN THE #LOTR FILMS?!”. After a half hour and some replies from other Twitter friends, Mark Ordesky himself responded^[7] with:

Ah, someday Josh we will speak of it. Until then, good night!

I was beaming with excitement over the idea that I might one day get to discuss my favourite books and films with a fellow fan and executive producer for those very films.

I should explain to you that it wasn’t random that he responded to me. Mark and I connected last year over Twitter after I thanked him for the work and passion he put into helping create the LotR trilogy. Our acquaintanceship grew further as I became completely captivated by his fantasy reality television show, The Quest^[8], to the point where I immediately started drawing fan art of the show’s Paladins (contestants), because I was so inspired by the positive themes and production value it brought to the screen.

Mark, his fellow producers, actors from the show, and the Paladins themselves participated in live-tweets for each episode of The Quest, sharing their own passion for creating the show by connecting directly with fans. Fans of The Quest collectively became known as The Quest Army and though the first season (of hopefully many) ended in September, our love for the show continued strong.

In addition to re-watches of the show, my good friend Joff (@miffyWinge^[9]) and his wife, Becca (@Bee_Stew^[10]) started what we now know as The Quest Hangouts^[11], where a panel of fans join together in a Google Hangout with a special guest from the show (producers, actors, creative team, or Paladins) to casually discuss and ask questions about The Quest and other fandom related topics. The first ever hangout featured Mark and fellow producer, Jane Fleming, and I was lucky enough to be one of the participants. It was the first of several The Quest Hangouts I’ve been privileged to be a part of, and so while I further became familiarised with participating in online video talks, I feel like Mark started to become even more familiar with this rather shy Ringer from Canada.

Back to the story.

While I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having a chat with someone directly involved with making the LotR Trilogy, it wasn’t long before Mark tweeted and asked Joff about organising a “The Quest Hangout” to answer questions about the films and discuss all things The Lord of the Rings. Of course, my excitement levels blew skyward! The chance to get a further insight into these wonderful films was becoming a reality. And as if that wasn’t enough to make me faint, Joff suggested the thrilling (yet slightly terrifying) idea of having me host this Special Edition Hangout, (probably due to the fact that it was my Ringer-driven curiosity that started this whole thing). Though I was initially nervous about hosting something so incredibly important, there was no way I’d turn down such an opportunity.

So here we are.

TL;DR I whined about Glorfindel missing from The Lord of the Rings films, executive producer for the trilogy, Mark Ordesky, says we’ll talk about it.

Middle-earth News: Are you hoping to tease out some LOTR secrets that Mark Ordesky has never shared before?

@TheJoshTime: I’m very much looking forward to getting some new insight into the making of the Lord of the Rings films. In addition to the question that initiated all of this (which I might reword to get a fuller, more detailed answer), my mind is absolutely flooding with different things to ask Mark. Some are obscure, some are silly, some are very in-depth, but ALL of them are ones I want answers to, so I am unfortunately nowhere near narrowing down which ones I’d like to ask. The only way to know what I eventually pick is to watch the hangout!

Middle-earth News: Why should LOTR fans tune into the live show?

@TheJoshTime: I call upon any fan of The Lord of the Rings to give this hangout a watch to see the fandom explored on several different levels. Not only was Mark the executive producer for the films, but he is genuinely and wholeheartedly a fan of Tolkien himself. It’s inspiring to see a fellow fan be a part of an undertaking as big as this trilogy of films based on books that are so special to many of us. If anyone has watched the LotR Appendices (and I’m sure many of you have), you can consider this a live and interactive version of Mark’s contribution to the behind-the-scenes interviews. In addition to talking about bringing the books to life on screen and perhaps new insights into the making of the films, we’ll also be exploring the topic of Mark using his experiences from producing the trilogy and his passion for fantasy worlds as influence and motivation to take on exciting new projects like The Quest.

Middle-earth News: Will fans be able to submit questions before or during the show?

@TheJoshTime: There are actually a couple of open spots for additional TheQuestHangout participants, so we’re holding a lottery for a chance to join us and chat with Mark. Some prerequisites are that you are free on Saturday, March 28th from 1pm – 3pm EDT | 10am – 12pm PDT, own a working mic, earbuds/headphones, webcam, and have a quiet/private place to participate. If you have nodded ‘yes’ to all of these so far, please have a look at our online form for more details and to sign up: http://goo.gl/forms/mp7Hn0bih8^[12]

For those of you who are not able to participate and/or only have questions, the hangout will last 1 hour, which is about enough time to give each participant around 2 questions each. Despite my own numerous questions floating about my head, I invite anyone to tweet a question for Mark to me @TheJoshTime^[13] with the hashtag #TheQuestHangout^[14]. In addition to my own, I’ll only be able to ask one more, so I’ll pick the most interesting question to ask on air.

Don’t miss out! Tune into The Quest Army Hangout: LotR Edition with Mark Ordesky^[15] at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, March 28!

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Author: Lily Milos^[16] Lily’s first experience with Tolkien was when the eccentric Mrs. H performed all of the characters from The Hobbit in her seventh grade class. In high school, she felt obliged to decline a second date with a boy who said he had no interest in reading The Lord of the Rings. In college, she unwisely decided to reread her beloved copy of The Hobbit during finals week, with only semi-disastrous results. When not writing for Middle-earth News, Lily tries not to unnerve her coworkers and family with her extreme geekery, but somehow, Star Wars, Star Trek, Sherlock, Merlin, Doctor Who, The Princess Bride, Back to the Future, superheroes, Disney movies, and of course, Tolkien, seem to have relevance in EVERY conversation.

References

1. ^{^} Facebook Event Page (www.facebook.com)
2. ^{^} Google Event page (plus.google.com)
3. ^{^} The Quest (abc.go.com)
4. ^{^} @TheJoshTime (twitter.com)
5. ^{^} action figure LotR re-creation photos (instagram.com)
6. ^{^} vented my frustration (twitter.com)
7. ^{^} Mark Ordesky himself responded (twitter.com)
8. ^{^} The Quest (abc.go.com)
9. ^{^} @miffyWhinge (twitter.com)
10. ^{^} @Bee_Stew (twitter.com)
11. ^{^} The Quest Hangouts (www.youtube.com)
12. ^{^} http://goo.gl/forms/mp7Hn0bih8 (goo.gl)
13. ^{^} @TheJoshTime (twitter.com)
14. ^{^} #TheQuestHangout (twitter.com)
15. ^{^} The Quest Army Hangout: LotR Edition with Mark Ordesky (plus.google.com)
16. ^{^} Posts by Lily Milos (middleearthnews.com)