"It never rains but it pours". Yes, despite yesterday's late website of the month post, I'm already posting again. This is the first post in the "film" category - not because I've suddenly decided to start reviewing all of the films I see, but because there is really no other category this post could go in, and it really is worth posting about.

Born of Hope is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Unlike the trilogy, it had a budget of only £25,000, and can be seen for free on the internet (as a fan film, there aren't many other distribution methods available). Personally, I am not a fan of The Lord of the Rings though the trilogy is in my DVD collection. Born of Hope is, in my opinion, well worth seeing - especially considering the price (free), ease (online) and length (just over an hour - nowhere near as long as the trilogy). The budget barely seems to harm the film in any way - a good story, locations, props, costumes and acting combine to make the film enjoyable to an extent that I never thought was possible. The soundtrack is very nice too, although they're still working on getting that into a releasable format. They say that pictures say a thousand words and, at 25 frames per second, this trailer should be able to say far more than I ever can:


The website is here - it has some extra stuff such as video podcasts about how this project happened (it took six years). Feel free to donate too, if you enjoy it.