Review: The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter
| | Reality Films has produced a new DVD entitled The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter, and UK distributor Wienerworld kindly sent us some free copies to review and give away to you visitors as competition prizes.
Here is the official synopsis of the film:
The Seekers Guide to Harry Potter takes you on a journey and exploration into the underlying themes of J.K Rowling’s fantastically successful Harry Potter series. Drawing from her unique background and personal experiences, the author provides original insights into the mysticism, magic and symbolism within the world of Harry Potter. Dr. Geo Trevarthen is an academic who has painstakingly researched the Harry Potter craze. She goes far beyond the normal criteria and steps into a world of real magic and its shamanic past. In doing so she reveals the origins of many of the elements found within the novels and films. |
HPSupporters ReviewA Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter is an interesting exploration of the underlying symbolism, themes and messages in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. A small scale, intimate production, it is shot in the appropriate location of Edinburgh (where JK penned much of the series) and is presented to us by Dr Geo Trevarthen who comes from a background of Shamanism. The film, therefore, may not sit comfortably with everybody. Its author's ideas and beliefs as well as the style, imagery and music used throughout strongly convey this spritual Celtic discipline.Nevertheless, there were some fascinating elements examined in depth by this avid reader of our favourite story. She probes some real world magical and alchemic history and how they inspired JK's writing. For example I learnt about the ancient origins of characters' names, the symbolic nature and history of the golden snitch, the influences behind the four school houses, and the layers of meaning beneath these. Dr Trevarthen also makes intriguing parallels between different parts of the novels and gives her thoughts on how some of Rowling's messages can connect with our own real world lives. One of the interesting issues she raised is that of love, a key feature in Harry's life, and something that she says is hugely important in the early stages of real-life childhood, bringing her in line with today's psychological and socialogical theories. Further themes she explores include the moral neutrality of magic, following true will over whim, and Death and the triangle of the three Hallows.With future re-reads of the HP books I'm sure I shall now view many components of the canon in much more depth than I previously have. The film reinforces for me what a triumph of storytelling J.K. Rowling has created and the incredible expanse of meaning behind her stories. For those Harry Potter fans with spiritual inclinations like those of this film's author and want to look at the novels from that perspective, or for those merely with an interest in getting beneath the surface of the books, this is a film you'll very much appreciate. For me, the DVD shall fit nicely in my collection of all things Harry Potter.If you like the sound of this DVD then tomorrow evening on
Twitter we will be giving away a copy to a lucky follower. Unfortunately, for postal reasons, the competition will only be open to people from the UK.
Apr
08
March 27th was a wonderful day. The Harry Potter e-books were finally for sale! After some trepidation about whether or not people would be able to calculate the revenue that the e-books were bringing in, Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne had released some amazing news. The e-book sales were worth “over $1M” in the first three days following the March 27 publication. Redmayne said that “sales were ahead of the firm’s expectations prior to launch date”.
Courtesy of TheBookSeller, Redmayne calculated some total figures surrounding the e-book sales:
The number means that the digital versions of the Harry Potter titles may have out-sold their print equivalents during that launch week. According to Nielsen BookScan, the seven Harry Potter print books brought in £36,000 in sales across bookshops that week, with total spending on the books so far this year at £588,000, but the worldwide figure would be much bigger. In the UK in 2011 the backlist titles brought in sales of £4m, from sales of 530,000 individual books sold. In the US Nielsen BookScan measured 1.6m units of the Potter books sold in 2011. Redmayne said: “We had budgeted for a much lower figure, I had looked at the physical sales of the books, and tried to anticipate what proportion of sales would be digital, and that there was a certain amount of pent-up demand, but it surpassed anything we anticipated.” He said post-launch the figure had “settled down” but continued to exceed predictions. “It is still running at a much higher rate than I was anticipating, even for the launch. It is still surpassing anything I’ve ever seen for e-book sales.”
Redmayne did not reveal the most popular selling single story, but rather the top selling feature was the “bundle” package, which includes the entire HP set at a discounted price. If you have not already purchased your Harry Potter e-books, you can do so here. We will continue to bring updates as we receive them regarding the e-books. I already purchased mine, have you? Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and if you don’t then Happy Sunday!
Apr
04
Over the last week or so, during publicity events for the WB Studio Tour, Harry Potter cast and crew have been giving all sorts of interviews, and many of these have sprung up around the web. We’ve picked out a selection of interesting ones for you to read, watch or listen to below.
Firstly Dan Dark, Managing Director of Leavesden Studios, was at a roundtable interview attended by Hypable.com, who of course discussed the Tour, including when they began planning it and protecting the old sets in anticipation of it, the quality of the staff, and return value for fans. Get the whole story »
Apr
03
Harry Potter star Jessie Cave, who played Lavender Brown, is in the DogOrange theatre company’s production of Mary Rose. New promotional stills, courtesy of Snitchseeker.com, and a trailer can be seen below.
The play, which is adapted from the novel written by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, is a supernatural story of love, lost innocence and the parallel world of the dead. Time Out had this to say about the play.
A scrupulously detailed, gripping, genuinely goose-bump inducing vision of this high Victorian ghost story … director Matthew Parker’s sterling cast, and his sure, hugely inventive dramatic touch generate an impressive, lingering impression of real loss and longing.
The play runs from now until April 28, 2012 at Riverside Studios in the UK. If you reside in London or will be there during this time, you can purchase tickets for the show here.
Get the whole story »
