March update
Day job is still insanely busy, although I’ll be pulling less overtime once daylight savings ends here. I’ve had very positive feedback from a few friends who’ve seen the day-for-night grade, but I’m not ready to upload a preview of the sequence as yet. I’ll include several examples of the grading in the final trailer, which I’ll make once I’ve reached picture lock on the whole movie. I’ve got a way to go yet; the end of the film in particular is still very much up in the air. Updates to the various chapters below.
Vanity plates:
I may want to create a new “Roccondil Rínon” plate in light of ET’s concerns about using an OT.com one.
Prologue:
May need some slight grading touches.
An Unexpected Party:
May need a bit of attention to the sound at transitions.
Misty Mountains song:
Day-for-night grading 95% complete. May yet move around a handful of shots.
Opening titles:
Draft rendered for pacing purposes; music edits done. No point locking until the film’s complete.
Roast Mutton:
Could potentially use some further cutting. Might do some grading experiments as well.
A Short Rest:
Not complete, but in much better shape than before. Need to do some work with sound and narration as well as the editing itself.
Over Hill and Under Hill:
A few small cuts; more may be required for time.
Riddles in the Dark:
Some minor tidying up required towards the end.
Out of the Frying-pan, Into the Fire:
Orcs cut completely, without sacrificing continuity, but the scene now feels less personal as a result, and loses all focus on Bilbo. I may eventually have to cut the whole sequence after all. If so, the edited version will show up as a deleted scene on the blu-ray.
Queer Lodgings:
Cutting the eagles would also make the arrival at Beorn’s more manageable.
Mirkwood:
I may need to trim it down for time, but that will have to come later, when I’ve a better idea of whether I need to lose more time and how much.
The Wood-Elves:
I’d like to at least have the option to use the deleted scene where the dwarves meet Thranduil, but I fear I won’t be able to manage the level of FX required. I would still like to reinstate the Tauriel scene, but as it is it’s not working.
Barrels Out of Bond:
May need some work for pacing and (haha) flow, but I’m cutting almost the entire thing so I’ve got heaps of options.
A Warm Welcome:
It looks like the song I wanted to insert here won’t work, but I’m mostly ok with the sequence itself.
On the Doorstep:
Colour grading a massive success here. Would like to incorporate a CG thrush if I can find one, or for that matter footage of a real one if I can extract it. The only green-screen clip I’ve been able to find is of one sitting and singing, not flying.
Inside Information:
I may yet want to regrade the inside of the mountain to be less green. Pretty happy with the cut itself, though.
Smaug the Magnificent:
The shot of Smaug leaving the mountain ended up being easy to cut.
Intermission:
The entr’acte needs a little work to make the music flow smoothly.
Fire and Water:
I may trim this down a little more, but the only major thing left to do (althoough it’s a doozy) is to paint out Bain in one shot where I can’t crop him out and can’t cut the shot. I also want to add in a few shots at the beginning from the second film. Finally, I haven’t decided how best to deal with the on-screen title: I don’t want to cut the music or the shot short, but I don’t know how to paint it out. I’d hoped that I’d be able to combine elements from foreign-language versions of the film to complete the backdrop, but it looks like they don’t change the title on-screen.
The Gathering of the Clouds:
Needs some editing work for pacing and time, but nothing too technical. I’ve cut the reveal that Bilbo in fact has the Arkenstone, saving it for him giving it to Bard.
The Clouds Burst:
The battle is definitely in first-draft shape, and will almost certainly be cut a bit more. I’d like to reincorporate the deleted scene with Bilbo planting the acorn if I can. I understand why it was cut, but I like it.
King Under the Mountain:
The End of the Beginning, as I’ve said before, works perfectly here. I haven’t yet put together the flashback montage; unlike the rest of the film, this segment will be effectively cut to music (as well as the audiobook narration), and I haven’t yet settled on what music to use. The structure of the scene will also depend significantly on whether I end up having to cut the Eagles’ appearence in act one.
The Return Journey:
The trimming of this part is pretty much done (including an Adywan-style reordering of Gandalf’s farewell scene to restore how it seems to have been originally scripted and shot). However, it ends abruptly, due to my elminination of Old Bilbo; the transition into the epilogue will need to be done after it’s at least in a presentable draft form.
Epilogue:
Similar to the battle flashback montage, this is the other segment that doesn’t exist yet. In addition to cutting it to narration and music, I don’t know what sources I’ll end up using for the footage itself. There’ll be some more from the Team Supertramp Hobbiton shoot, and some more from the AUJ Blu-Ray, and I’ll see what I can squeeze out of the Appendices. I’m still confident it can be done — I knew I’d need to scrape together footage from a range of sources for this bit — and I need to cut together the soundtrack first.
End credits:
I’ve fiddled with the draft credits (in the process making them more closely resemble the credits of the third film) and got them down to about 13 minutes. Dave’s agreed to do the song, and the rest of the music will come once we’ve got that recorded.
After I’ve got picture lock, I’ll need to add in a lot of sound effects during the new sequences (Misty Mountains song, battle flashback) and in a handful of other places. I shouldn’t have trouble sourcing the sounds, but there’s no point trying to put them in yet.