Ringers: Lord of the Fans
April 2nd, 2008 by NicoleSo I thought that the screening on Tuesday was really interesting. It struck me as very different from Trekkies, although that might be because I’ve never been a Star Trek fan. The film blurred the boundaries between the fans and the producers in a much more obvious way, where you had interviews with people who were almost professional fans, who were also producers of books about Tolkien and about the LOTR movies. Having Dominic Monaghan (who played Merry in the films) do the narration also created a really strong link in my mind between the officially sanctioned movie and the fan produced Ringers. Many of the interviews with the actors strongly reminded me of the interview extras on the DVDs to the extent that I almost felt during the movie that I *was* watching an extra. Also, if I remember correctly the company that distributed Ringers is also somehow linked to one of the companies involved in LOTR?
However, the film clearly also had roots in online fandoms and places outside the official domain of the film. It was produced by the TORN people, and had a detailed section on The Very Secret Diaries, which was a huge internet phenomenon. There was talk about Lord of the Peeps (also in the reading), and many of the fans interviewed mentioned the importance of the internet to their fannish activity. I personally spent a lot of the film looking at the watercolor art work, being sure that I recognized it from somewhere, and tracked it down to Anke Katrin Eissmann. The mild, though surprising, criticism of the materialism surrounding the LOTR films is not something that I think would have appeared in the actual films.
I wonder if part of the differences between the two movies can be traced to the emergence of the large internet fandoms between Trekkies (1997) and Ringers (2005). Do we think that the two movies would have looked more alike if they were made closer together? Or is it simply that they were investigating different fan bases? Is there even a significant difference between the two fandoms (remember that one guy dressed up in Trek costume, and I’m pretty sure one costume was supposed to be Obi-Wan Kenobi)? Does anyone else feel like there’s an important differences between the two films? Random other things about Ringers that I should have talked about but didn’t?
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Trekkies and Ringers do seem to come from different eras, but they have many similarities, so just quickly:
1. Both have narrators who are actors from the fan text. BUT: Though Dominic Monghan does the narration in Ringers, he does not personally go around interviewing subjects: that is done through some sort of “confessional” at fan conventions. Denise Crosby introduces herself in the opening of Trekkies as the actress who plays Tasha Yar and does these interviews herself. I’m not sure which one, between the somewhat ironic Voice of God that Monahan assumes in Ringers and the earnest documentary style of Denise Crosby, has more producer-sanctioned authority. However, I do know that each narrator sets the tone for the entire film. While I seem to remember Trekkies taking a sort of very earnest approach to its subjects, Ringers makes fun of them openly while all the time being affectionate.
2. Both spend a reasonable amount of time talking about the fan text itself. BUT: While Trekkies supported Star Trek wholeheartedly, almost to the point of absurdity (remember how they said Star Trek was the cure to all world evils?), Ringers presents its fan text through a series of Terry Gilliam-like animations representing critics of the Rings series, its supporters, and even Tolkien himself, in a somewhat less-than-serious light.
3. And here’s where I’m going to support Nicole. They’re both “fannish.” How? Their format replicates some aspect of fan experience.
BUT: Trekkies is fannish in that it relies heavily on interviews with actors from the original series and TNG, having them tell personal stories about fans (DeForest Kelley getting a joint in the mail, ex.). The excitement of seeing these actors and hearing them speak so often associated with Star Trek conventions is thus replicated in Trekkies itself. Second, it takes viewers through actual Star Trek conventions with the narrator, offering the viewer an even more convention-like experience.
The fan experience that Ringers replicates is *not* a convention experience, however. It is an internet fandom experience. The “confessionals” imitate the speaking-into-the-camera format of YouTube video blogs, the use of action figures to act out the Very Secret Diaries is similar to Lord of the Peeps, and the indictment of some animated versions of Rings seems to suggest a fan unanimity (or at least joking unanimity) common to easy-access Internet fandoms.
4. Overall, I think they also follow the different *fan studies* ideas of their time. Trekkies falls easily into a Textual Poachers-era view of fans changing the world for the better through their radical sense of community and acceptance. Ringers, as Nicole points out, is much more rooted in multiplatform interaction: the Rings action figures, animated films, live-action films, and even (ironic?) fan covers of songs from the animated films exist together on the same level. The “confessionals” reveal a greater level of diversity in investment level of fans in the sense that not all of those interviewed were uberknowledgeable about the series. One woman even calls Viggo Mortensen’s character “Slider,” for example. I somehow do not think that Trekkies would have included such a slip-up, since the film is so concerned with portraying its “fans” as knowledgeable, earnest, etc.: not subjects to be made fun of.
So basically I agree with you, Nicole, in saying that these two films are representative of different time periods in fandom.
I agree with you, Diana, about the differences and similarities between the two documentaries. I especially appreciate your point about siturating Trekkies with Jenkins model. On the other hand, it is interesting how both can showcase a broad spectrum of fan engagement, including practices that some might consider disturbing. I am thinking not of Gabriel (who was annoying) or of the woman in Ringers who sold her house, but rather of the Spiner Fem who gazes at Brent Spiner’s home. That said, I think that both films presented a positive view of the fans, with Ringers focusing more perhaps on the economic and franchise components than the purer examination of fan practices of Trekkies.
The conversation today about how LOTR may be considered a higher culture than Star Trek really struck me as interesting. As I mentioned in class I have really limited knowledge of both texts, however, the term Trekkie is common to be but the first time I heard Ringers was when I read the syllabus. In both documentaries extreme behavior is being depicted such as the guy riding around in the black box in Trekkies and the woman selling her house to go to the premiere of Return of the Kings in Ringers. However, I wasn’t in as much I guess shock after watching Ringers as I was after watching Trekkies. Perhaps being in this class for a longer period of time has made extreme fan activity seem normal. For example, the woman who wrote a letter to Tolkien and then had her friend have a Gandalf action figure hold it on his grave and take a picture didn’t seem all that appalling. Certainly not to the degree of that woman with all the pictures of, I think it was Q, in Trekkies. Both behaviors are certainly abnormal, for some reason I wasn’t as put off by the woman in Ringers. Not having much background information on either before this class, I’m not sure if I’d be able to notice the differences in high culture vs. low culture. But, even still, in my head, LOTR seems more mainstream and acceptable than does Star Trek fandom. A large part of this has to deal with the fact that LOTR popularity may have peaked recently with movies while Star Trek fandom peaked some other time in the past, so LOTR just seems more acceptable to me. But since I have no knowledge of either world, I don’t think the difference in high vs. low culture can be responsible for my perception and I was hoping to spark conversation on perhaps on some other aspects that could lead to differing perspectives of Trekkies and Ringers, the fans not the movies.
I think one reason that it is easier to say LOTR is higher culture than Trek is solely because LOTR is originally literature and Trek is TV. I am sure there are many purists out there who would say that TV shows, no matter how insightful or prophetic, could be considered high culture. I dont happen to be one of those people, but I cant imagine anyone that would say that about fiction on the whole. There are many more aspects to this argument, but I feel this is one of the nice quick and easy reference points.
The variety of costumes worn by the interviewees in Ringers can (I think) be attributed to the fact that the filming booth was set up at Comic-Con, an expansive convention that attracts fans of all stripes–one of the interviewee’s necklace/badges said “comic-con.”
I’m just going to come out and say that the movie was one that I enjoyed. It was silly and very much a fan’s movie. It was less a movie for the outside about fans than it was a movie for fans by fans. I mean, one thing that stuck out with me was the between “pong and Final Fantasy 7″ line which really was a geek-shout out. The movie was full of them.
I have really enjoyed this conversation comparing Ringers with Trekkies. I find myself agreeing with most of the points so far, but I wanted to bring attention to the argument Diana made about Trekkies seeming to be slightly more serious than Ringers was. While it may have seemed that Trekkies spent more time talking to actors from the series and fans of the show about the ways in which they believed the show advanced world-bettering views about race, gender, etc., Ringers also made a very intentional point to include some of this same discourse.
There was one fan in particular that the producers of the film came back to over and over again in the film who kept reiterating how the characters of Lord of the Rings came from all sorts of races and walks of life to save the world and how we should use the ideas Tolkien writes about in his books as examples of the way people, regardless of race, gender, etc. should act in order to make the world a better place. Granted, she seemed to be a little more hippie and idealistic than the average fan in this documentary, but I think the fact that she appeared over and over again in the film says something about what messages the producers were trying to get across to the viewer.
I would also argue that in some ways, Ringers was more serious than Trekkies because it seemed to me that most of the interviews with the actors from the movie discussed the brilliance of Tolkien and the way the movie had impacted their life rather than telling stories about the crazy fans they have encountered at conventions and such. In fact, I may not be remembering this correctly, but I really do not remember the actors talking much at all about their relationship with fans, so I think this is just another distinction to make between the two documentaries.